Jeremiah 50:22-24
New English Translation
22 The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia.[a]
There is the sound of great destruction.
23 Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces.
But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered![b]
See what an object of horror
Babylon has become among the nations!
24 I set a trap for you, Babylon;
you were caught before you knew it.
You fought against me;
so you were found and captured.[c]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 50:22 tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.sn The verbs in vv. 22-25 are all descriptive of the present, but all of this is really to take place in the future. Hebrew poetry has a way of rendering future actions as though they were already accomplished. The poetry of this section makes it difficult, however, to render the verbs as future, as has been done regularly in the present translation.
- Jeremiah 50:23 tn Heb “How broken and shattered is the hammer of all the earth!” The “hammer” is a metaphor for Babylon, which was God’s war club to shatter the nations and destroy kingdoms, just like Assyria is represented in Isa 10:5 as a rod and a war club. Some readers, however, might not pick up on the metaphor or identify the referent, so the translation has incorporated an identification of the metaphor and the referent within it. “See how” and “See what” are an attempt to capture the nuance of the Hebrew particle אֵיךְ (ʾekh), which here expresses an exclamation of satisfaction in a taunt song (cf. BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2 and compare usage in Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 50:23).
- Jeremiah 50:24 tn Heb “You were found [or found out] and captured because you fought against the Lord.” The same causal connection is maintained by the order of the translation, which, however, puts more emphasis on the cause and connects it also more closely with the first half of the verse. The first person is used because the Lord is speaking of himself first in the first person (“I set”) and then in the third. The first person has been maintained throughout. Though it would be awkward, perhaps one could retain the reference to the Lord by translating, “I, the Lord.”
Jeremiah 50:22-24
New International Version
22 The noise(A) of battle is in the land,
the noise of great destruction!
23 How broken and shattered
is the hammer(B) of the whole earth!(C)
How desolate(D) is Babylon
among the nations!
24 I set a trap(E) for you, Babylon,
and you were caught before you knew it;
you were found and captured(F)
because you opposed(G) the Lord.
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