On the advance of this mighty host against Babylon, to execute the judgment determined by the Lord, the earth quakes. The mighty men of Babylon cease to offer resistance, and withdraw dispirited, like women, into inaccessible places, while the enemy sets fire to the houses, breaks the bars, and captures the city. The prophet views all this in spirit as already present, and depicts in lively colours the attack on the city and its capture. Hence the historic tenses, ותּרעשׁ, ותּחל, חדלוּ, etc. קמה is used of the permanence, i.e., of the realization of the divine counsels, as in Jeremiah 44:23. On the singular, see Ewald, 317, a. "To make the land," etc., as in Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 18:16, etc. "They sit (have taken up their position) in the strongholds" (Mountain fastnesses), i.e., in inaccessible places; cf. 1 Samuel 13:16; 2 Samuel 23:14. נשׁתה is but to be regarded as a Kal form from נשׁת; on its derivation from שׁתת, see on Isaiah 41:17. "They have become women;" cf. Jeremiah 50:37. The subject of the verb הצּיעתוּ is the enemy, who set fire to the dwellings in Babylon. "Runner runs against runner," i.e., from opposite sides of the city there come messengers, who meet each other running to tell the king in his castle that the city is taken. The king is therefore (as Graf correctly remarks against Hitzig) not to be thought of as living outside of the city, for "in this case לקראת would have no meaning," but as living in the royal castle, which was situated in the middle of the city, on the Euphrates. Inasmuch as the city is taken "from the end" (מקּצה), i.e., on all sides, the messengers who bring the news to the king's fortress must meet each other.

Jeremiah 51:35 Parallel Commentaries

The violence [heb] My violence

Jeremiah 50:29 Call together the archers against Babylon: all you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape...

Judges 9:20,24,56,57 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo...

Psalm 9:12 When he makes inquisition for blood, he remembers them: he forgets not the cry of the humble.

Psalm 12:5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, said the LORD...

Psalm 137:8,9 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewards you as you have served us...

Isaiah 26:20,21 Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment...

Zechariah 1:15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased...

Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.

James 2:13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has showed no mercy; and mercy rejoices against judgment.

Revelation 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true...

Revelation 16:6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

Revelation 18:6,20 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double to her double according to her works...

flesh. or, remainder,
inhabitant. [heb] inhabitress