Jeremiah 51:4

Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Translate it: "And they," i. e., the young men who form her host Jeremiah 51:3, "shall fall slain in the land of the Chaldaeans, and pierced through in her streets," i. e., the streets of Babylon.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. (See on [999]Jer 49:26; [1000]Jer 50:30; [1001]Jer 50:37).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thus all of them shall be destroyed, some in the fields, some in the streets of their cities.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,.... By the sword, or by the arrows and darts of the Medes and Persians:

and they that are thrust through in her streets; either by the one or by the other, especially the latter, since they only are mentioned; See Gill on Jeremiah 50:30.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - In her streets; i.e. in the streets of Babylon. Jeremiah 51:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

These strangers shall kill, without sparing, every warrior of Babylon, and annihilate its whole military forces. In the first half of the verse the reading is doubtful, since the Masoretes would have the second ידרד (Qeri) expunged, probably because (as Bttcher, N. Aehrenl. ii. S. 166, supposes) they considered it merely a repetition. The meaning is not thereby changed. According to the Qeri, we would require to translate, "against him who bends the bow, may there be, or come, one who bends his bow;" according to the Kethib, "against him who bends the bow, may he who bends his bow bend it." As to אל־ידרך with אשׁר omitted, cf. 1 Chronicles 15:12; 2 Chronicles 1:4, and Ewald, 333, b. יתעל בּס' stands in apposition to אל־ידרך ; יתעל is the Hithpael from עלה, and means to raise oneself: it is to be taken as the shortened form of the imperfect passive; cf. Gesenius, 128, Rem. 2. Certainly, the Hithpael of עלה occurs nowhere else, but it is quite appropriate here; so that it is unnecessary, with Hitzig, to adduce, for explanation, the Arabic tl', to stretch the head out of anything, or, with Ewald, to derive the form from the Aramaic עלל, Arabic gl, to thrust in. Neither is there any foundation for the remark, that the abbreviated form of the imperfect would be admissible only if אל were found instead of אל. Indeed, the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate have actually read and rendered from אל, which several codices also present, "Let him not bend his bow, nor stretch himself in his coat of mail." But by this reading the first half of the verse is put in contradiction to the second; and this contradiction is not removed by the supposition of J. D. Michaelis and Hitzig, who refer these clauses to the Chaldeans, and find the thought expressed in them, that the Chaldeans, through loss of courage, cannot set themselves for defence. For, in that case, we would be obliged, with Hitzig, to explain as spurious the words that follow, "and spare ye not her young men;" but for this there is no valid reason. As to החרימוּ, cf. Jeremiah 50:21, Jeremiah 50:26. On Jeremiah 51:4, cf. Jeremiah 50:30 and Jeremiah 49:26. The suffix in "her streets" refers to Babylon.