New English Translation
Jeremiah 50:38
38A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear.
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
36Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools! Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror! 37Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder! A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear. 39Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches will dwell in it too. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. 40I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.
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 50:12But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.
- Jeremiah 51:32They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified.
- Isaiah 44:27who says to the deep sea, ‘Be dry! I will dry up your sea currents,’
- Revelation 16:12Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and dried up its water to prepare the way for the kings from the east.
- Revelation 17:15Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw (where the prostitute is seated) are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.
- Jeremiah 50:2“Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed.
- Jeremiah 51:44I will punish the god Bel in Babylon. I will make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not come streaming to him any longer. Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall.”
- Isaiah 46:1Bel kneels down, Nebo bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beasts. Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals.
- Daniel 3:1King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made. It was ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
- Daniel 5:4As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
- Habakkuk 2:18What good is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? Why would its creator place his trust in it and make such mute, worthless things?
- Revelation 17:5On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”
- Jeremiah 51:7Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. So they have all gone mad.
- Isaiah 44:25who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers and humiliates the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men and makes their advice seem foolish,
- Acts 17:16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was greatly upset because he saw 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
New English Translation — © 1996-2016 Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C.
Commentaries