Jeremiah 51:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י

nâphats

H5310

“and · to shatter”

Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular

Appears 22× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 9:19

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1394

to shatter, break, dash, beat in pieces - (Qal) - to shatter - shattering (infinitive) - (Piel) to dash to pieces - (Pual) to pulverise - to scatter, disperse, overspread, be scattered - (Qal) - to be scattered - dispersed (participle)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
4: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י to shatter H5310 — appearing just 22 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י to shatter H5310 occurs in 17 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
2 nouns
2 prepositions

Verb forms

וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י Piel · Sequential Perfect
וְרֹֽכְב֑וֹ Qal · Participle Active
וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י Piel · Sequential Perfect
וְרֹכְבֽוֹ Qal · Participle Active

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י to shatter H5310 ×2
וְרֹֽכְב֑וֹ to ride H7392 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Jeremiah 51:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, "I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
Zechariah 10:5 They shall be as mighty men, Treading down muddy streets in the battle; And they shall fight, because Yahweh is with them; And the riders on horses will be confounded.
Micah 5:10 "It will happen in that day," says Yahweh, "That I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, And will destroy your chariots.
Nahum 2:13 "Behold, I am against you," says Yahweh of Hosts, "and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard."
Haggai 2:22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots, and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.
Zechariah 12:4 In that day," says Yahweh, "I will strike every horse with terror, and his rider with madness; and I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
Psalms 46:9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
Revelation 19:18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, and small and great."

Exodus 15:21 Miriam answered them, "Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea."
Psalms 76:6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob, Both chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep.
Jeremiah 50:37 A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed.
Ezekiel 39:20 You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Jeremiah 51:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י בְךָ֔ ס֖וּס וְרֹֽכְב֑וֹ וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י בְךָ֔ רֶ֖כֶב וְרֹכְבֽוֹ

and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

In the Septuagint, Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently — the Oracles Against the Nations (Hebrew chapters 46–51) appear in the middle of the Greek book, after 25:13. Because the chapter and verse boundaries do not line up, a verse-for-verse comparison with the Hebrew is not shown.

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַאֲבַדַד בָּךְ סוּסְוָן וּרְתִיכֵיהוֹן וַאֲבַדַר בָּךְ רְתִיכִין וְרִכְבֵיהוֹן:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Jeremiah 51:21 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jer 51:21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;

Ver. 21. And with thee.] O Babylonian king.

Will I break in pieces.] Or rather, Have I broken in pieces. And hence thy perdition.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock,.... Or, have broken; which Abarbinel thinks respects the Arabians particularly, who were shepherds, and dwelt in tents; but it rather signifies shepherds and their flocks in general; who were killed or scattered wherever his armies came, which spared none, even the most innocent and useful, and though unarmed:

and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; with which he ploughed his ground: signifying by this, as well as the former, that those were not spared, by which kingdoms were supported and maintained, as shepherds and husbandmen:

and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers; by whom kingdoms and states are governed and protected.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Jeremiah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 8 words (4 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nâphats (“to shatter”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word nâphats carries the sense “to shatter.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 9:19 shares the word «to shatter» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to shatter” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וְנִפַּצְתִּ֣י» is Piel Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
“to shatter” occurs 2× in this single verse.
4 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.