Amplified Bible
Jeremiah 50:38
38A drought on her waters, and they will dry up! For it is a land of [worthless] idols, And they are mad over fearsome idols [those objects of terror in which they foolishly trust].
Jeremiah 50:38 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
- New International Version (NIV)A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror.
- English Standard Version (ESV)A drought against her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols.
- New King James Version (NKJV)A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, And they are insane with their idols.
Context of Jeremiah 50:38
36A sword against the oracle priests (the babbling liars), and they will become fools! A sword against her mighty warriors, and they will be shattered and destroyed! 37A sword against their horses and against their chariots And against all the foreign troops that are in her midst, And they will become [as weak and defenseless as] women! A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered! A drought on her waters, and they will dry up! For it is a land of [worthless] idols, And they are mad over fearsome idols [those objects of terror in which they foolishly trust]. 39“Therefore wild beasts of the desert will live there [in Babylon] with the jackals; The ostriches also will live there, And it will never again be inhabited [with people] Or lived in from generation to generation. 40As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah and their neighboring cities,” says the Lord, “So no man will live there; Nor shall any son of man live there.”
Read all of Jeremiah 50Jeremiah 50:38 word by word
חֹ֥רֶב אֶל־מֵימֶ֖יהָ וְיָבֵ֑שׁוּ כִּ֣י אֶ֤רֶץ פְּסִלִים֙ הִ֔יא וּבָאֵימִ֖ים יִתְהֹלָֽלוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Jeremiah 50:38
- Jeremiah 50:12Your mother [Babylon] shall be greatly shamed; She who gave you birth will be ashamed. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, A wilderness, a parched land and a desert.
- Jeremiah 51:32And that the fords [across the Euphrates] have been blocked and [the ferries] seized, And they have set the [great] marshes on fire, And the men of war are terrified.
- Isaiah 44:27It is I who says to the deep, ‘Be dried up!’ And I will make your rivers dry.
- Revelation 16:12Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for [the coming of] the kings from the east.
- Revelation 17:15Then the angel said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.
- Jeremiah 50:2“Declare among the nations. Lift up a signal [to spread the news]—publish and proclaim it, Do not conceal it; say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel [the patron god] has been shamed, Marduk (Bel) has been shattered. Babylon’s images have been shamed, her [worthless] idols have been thrown down.’
- Jeremiah 51:44I will punish and judge Bel [the handmade god] in Babylon And take out of his mouth what he has swallowed up [the stolen sacred articles and the captives of Judah and elsewhere]. The nations will no longer flow to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon has fallen down!
- Isaiah 46:1Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their idols are on the beasts [of burden] and on the cattle. Your burdens [of idols] are loaded [on them], Burdens on the weary animals.
- Daniel 3:1Nebuchadnezzar the king made a gold [-plated] image, whose height [including the pedestal] was sixty cubits (ninety feet) and its width six cubits (nine feet). He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
- Daniel 5:4They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
- Habakkuk 2:18“What profit is the carved image when its maker has formed it? It is only a cast image, and a teacher of lies. For its maker trusts in his own creation [as his god] When he makes speechless idols.
- Revelation 17:5And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery: “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES (false religions, heresies) AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
- Jeremiah 51:7Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, Intoxicating all the earth. The nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations have gone mad.
- Isaiah 44:25Frustrating the signs and confounding the omens of boasters (false prophets), Making fools out of fortune-tellers, Counteracting the wise And making their knowledge ridiculous,
- Acts 17:16Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was greatly angered when he saw that the city was full of idols.
Commentaries on Jeremiah 50:38
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 38A drought is upon her waters - May not this refer to the draining of the channel of the Euphrates, by which the army of Cyrus entered the city. See on Jeremiah 50:24; (note). The original is, however, חרב chereb, a sword, as in the preceding verses, which signifies war, or any calamity by which the thing on which it falls is ruined.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 38A drought - Rather, “a sword,” i. e., military skill and forethought. They are mad upon their idols - Omit their. The word for idols, literally terrors Psalm 88:16 is used in this one place only of objects of worship. Probably it refers to those montrous forms invented as representations of their deities.Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 33-46Verses 33-46 It is Israel's comfort in distress, that, though they are weak, their Redeemer is strong. This may be applied to believers, who complain of the dominion of sin and corruption, and of their own weakness and manifold infirmities. Their Redeemer is able to keep what they commit to him; and sin shall not have dominion over them. He will give them that rest which remains for the people of God. Also here is Babylon's sin, and their punishment. The…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 38The Euphrates River flowed through Babylon, supplying water to the city. The Persians reportedly diverted the river during a siege. They dug a canal around the city walls and attacked through the dry riverbed.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 3838. drought--Altering the pointing, this verse will begin as the three previous verses, "A sword." However, all the pointed manuscripts read, "A drought," as English Version. Cyrus turned off the waters of the Euphrates into a new channel and so marched through the dried-up bed into the city (Jr 51:32). Babylonia once was famed for its corn, which often yielded from one to two hundredfold [Herodotus]. This was due to its network of water-courses from the…Read the comment
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Jeremiah 50
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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