Jeremiah 51:38

Jer 51:38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.

Ver. 38. They shall roar together like lions.] When hunger bitten. The Babylonians terrified, and the Persians tumultuating together. The old Latin version hath it, They shake their shaggy hair.

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.

PICTURE OF BABYLON’S RUIN, Jer_51:38-49.

38, 39. They… roar — Not shall roar. The scene is that of a carousal, in the midst of which the blow falls. Whether the language here is a prophecy of the way in which Babylon was taken by Cyrus or not, it is certainly evident that it is quite suitable to it.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The inhabitants of Babylon fall; the city perishes with its idols, to the joy of the whole world. - Jer 51:38. "Together they roar like young lions, they growl like the whelps of lionesses. Jer 51:39. When they are heated, I will prepare their banquets, and will make them drunk, that they may exult and sleep an eternal sleep, and not awake, saith Jahveh. Jer 51:40. I will bring them down like lambs to be slaughtered, like rams with he-goats. Jer 51:41. How is Sheshach taken, and the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon is become an astonishment among the nations! Jer 51:42. The sea has gone up over Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves. Jer 51:43. Her cities have become a desolation, a land of drought, and a steppe, a land wherein no man dwells, and through which no son of man passes. Jer 51:44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed, and no longer shall nations go in streams to him: the wall of Babylon also shall fall. Jer 51:45. Go ye out from the midst of her, my people! and save ye each one his life from the burning of the wrath of Jahveh. Jer 51:46. And lest your heart be weak, and ye be afraid because of the report which is heard in the land, and there comes the [= this] report in the [= this] year, and afterwards in the [= that] year the [= that] report, and violence, in the land, ruler against ruler. Jer 51:47. Therefore, behold, days are coming when I will punish the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall dry up,

(Note: Rather, "shall be ashamed;" see note at foot of p. 311. - Tr.)

and all her slain ones shall fall in her midst. Jer 51:48. And heaven and earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon: for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, saith Jahveh. Jer 51:49. As Babylon sought that slain ones of Israel should fall, so there fall, in behalf of Babylon, slain ones of the whole earth."

This avenging judgment shall come on the inhabitants of Babylon in the midst of their revelry. Jer 51:38. They roar and growl like young lions over their prey; cf. Jer 2:15; Amo 3:4. When, in their revelries, they will be heated over their prey, the Lord will prepare for them a banquet by which they shall become intoxicated, so that they sink down, exulting (i.e., staggering while they shout), into an eternal sleep of death. חמּם, "their heat," or heating, is the glow felt in gluttony and revelry, cf. Hos 7:4., not specially the result or effect of a drinking-bout; and the idea is not that, when they become heated through a banquet, then the Lord will prepare another one for them, but merely this, that in the midst of their revelry the Lord will prepare for them the meal they deserve, viz., give them the cup of wrath to drink, so that they may fall down intoxicated into eternal sleep, from which they no more awake. These words are certainly not a special prediction of the fact mentioned by Herodotus (i. 191) and Xenophon (Cyrop. vii. 23), that Cyrus took Babylon while the Babylonians were celebrating a feast and holding a banquet; they are merely a figurative dress given to the thought that the inhabitants of Babylon will be surprised by the judgment of death in the midst of their riotous enjoyment of the riches and treasure taken as spoil from the nations. In that fact, however, this utterance has received a fulfilment which manifestly confirms the infallibility of the word of God. In Jer 51:40, what has been said is confirmed by another figure; cf. Jer 48:5 and Jer 50:27. Lambs, rams, goats, are emblems of all the classes of the people of Israel; cf. Isa 34:6; Eze 39:18.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

51:38-40 The Lord proclaimed that he would use wine to turn the lion that once terrorized and destroyed nations (5:6; 25:38; 49:19) into an easily subdued lamb. Wine as an instrument of wrath was usually figurative (25:15-29), but here it was literal (see Dan 5).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The capture of Babylon was effected on the night of a festival in honor of its idols.

roar . . . yell--The Babylonians were shouting in drunken revelry (compare Dan 5:4).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Here, by another figure, Jeremiah expresses what he had said of the destruction of Babylon, even that in the middle of the slaughter, they would have no strength to resist: they would, at the same time, perish amidst great confusion; and thus he anticipates what might have been advanced against his prophecy. For the Babylonians had been superior to all other nations; how then could it be, that a power so invincible should perish? Though they were as lions, says the Prophet, yet that would avail nothing; they will indeed roar, but roaring will be of no service to them; they will roar as the whelps of lions, but still they will perish.

We now, then, understand the object of this comparison, even that the superior power by which the Babylonians had terrified all men would avail them nothing, for nothing would remain for them in their calamity except roaring. It follows, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(38) They shall roar together like lions . . .—The words are not a continuation of the picture of the preceding verse, but carry us to the scene of revelry that preceded the capture of the city. The princes of Babylon were as “young lions” (Amo_3:4) roaring over their prey. The first clause as well as the second conveys this meaning, and there is probably a reference to the youth of rulers like Belshazzar.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,.... To the place of slaughter; who shall be able to make no more resistance than lambs. This explains what is meant by being made drunk, and sleeping a perpetual sleep, even destruction and death:

like rams with he goats; denoting the promiscuous destruction of the prince and common people together.

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

Yell - Or, growl.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Roar. They shall retain their haughty air and threaten others, when they themselves shall fall (Calmet) in the midst of their feasting, Daniel v. 30. (Xenophon vii.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It is uncertain whether this be to be understood of the Medes, making horrible roarings and noises when they took Babylon; or of the Babylonians, who upon the taking of their city (as is usual) made horrid outcries, as being a people quite undone: some think it referreth to the drunken noises of the Babylonians at their festival, during the celebration of which we are told their city was taken; but to this one would think the comparison of

lions’ whelps (which ordinarily yell for want of victuals, or for some mischief done them, not when their bellies are full) should not so well agree.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 38-49. Fall of Babylon; joy of the whole world.

Vers. 38, 39. They shall roar .... In their heat; rather, They may roar... (yet) when they wax warm (with lust) I will prepare. The banquet which Jehovah will prepare is the "cup of bewilderment" spoken of in Psa_60:3; comp. Isa_51:17 (i.e. a calamitous judgment).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They - The Babylonians, upon the taking of their city.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

roar

loud sound made by a lion

growl

a sound animals make to frighten other animals

become happy

As a soldier is happy when he defeats a strong enemy. Another possible meaning is "are very drunk" .

sleep an unending sleep and not wake up

They will be dead. (See: Euphemism)

this is Yahweh's declaration

Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

like lambs ... male goats

Lambs and goats do not know before it happens that people are going to slaughter them, and the Babylonians will not know before it happens that Yahweh is going to destroy them. (See: Simile)

translationWords

lions

feast

drunk

asleep

send

lamb

slaughter

ewe

goat

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

they growl Heb. נערו, an expression of a braying (נוֹעֵר) donkey.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.