Jeremiah 50:38

Contemporary English Version

Your rivers and canals will dry up. All of this will happen, because your land is full of idols, and they have made fools of you.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
A drought will come on her waters,and they will be dried up.For it is a land of carved images,and they go mad because of terrifying things.

Hebrew Names Version
A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

King James Version
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.

English Standard Version
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 American Standard Bible
"A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, And they go insane at frightful images.

New Century Version
Let a sword attack her waters so they will be dried up. She is a land of idols, and the people go crazy with fear over them.

Amplified Bible
"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].

World English Bible
A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

Geneva Bible (1587)
A drought is vpon her waters, and they shall be dried vp: for it is the lande of grauen images, and they dote vpon their idoles.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, And they are mad over fearsome idols.

Legacy Standard Bible
A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!For it is a land of graven images,And they are mad over terrifying idols.

Berean Standard Bible
A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols.

Complete Jewish Bible
A drought hangs over her waters; they will be dried up. For this is a land of idols; they go mad over these horrors of theirs.

Darby Translation
a drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad after frightful idols.

Easy-to-Read Version
Sword, strike the waters of Babylon. Those waters will be dried up. Babylon has many, many idols. These idols show that the people of Babylon are foolish. So bad things will happen to them.

George Lamsa Translation
A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for she is the land of the makers of images, who boast in their idols.

Good News Translation
Bring a drought on its land and dry up its rivers. Babylonia is a land of terrifying idols that have made fools of the people.

Lexham English Bible
A drought will come against her waters, and they will dry up, for it is a land of images, and because of the frightful objects, they act like madmen.

Literal Translation
A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up. For it is the land of idols, and they boast themselves in idols.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The swearde vpon their waters, so that they shalbe dried vp: For the londe worshippeth ymages, & delyteth in straunge wondrefull thinges.

American Standard Version
A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad over idols.

Bible in Basic English
A sword is on her waters, drying them up; for it is a land of images, and their minds are fixed on false gods.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad upon things of horror.

King James Version (1611)
A drought is vpon her waters, and they shalbe dried vp: for it is the land of grauen images, and they are madde vpon their idoles.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
A drought vpon their waters, so that they shalbe dryed vp: for the lande worshippeth images, and delighteth wonderfully in idols.

English Revised Version
A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad upon idols.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Drynesse schal be on the watris therof, and tho schulen be drye; for it is the lond of grauun ymagis, and hath glorie in false feynyngis.

Update Bible Version
A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad over idols.

Webster's Bible Translation
A drouth [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 English Translation
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.

New King James Version
A drought [fn] 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.

New Living Translation
A drought will strike her water supply, causing it to dry up. And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them.

New Life Bible
A time of no rain and her waters will be dried up! For it is a land of false gods. They are wild over false gods.

New Revised Standard
A drought against her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they go mad over idols.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A drought, is against her waters, And they shall be dried up, - For a land of images, it is, And with their shocking things, they act as men who are mad:

Douay-Rheims Bible
A drought upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: because it is a land of idols, and they glory in monstrous things.

Revised Standard Version
A drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols.

Young's Literal Translation
A sword [is] on her waters, and they have been dried up, For it [is] a land of graven images, And in idols they do boast themselves.

Contextual Overview

³³ You Babylonians were cruel to Israel and Judah. You took them captive, and now you refuse to let them go. ³⁴ But I, the Lord All-Powerful, will rescue and protect them. I will bring peace to their land and trouble to yours. ³⁵ I have declared war on you, your officials, and advisors. ³⁶ This war will prove that your prophets are liars and fools. And it will frighten your warriors. ³⁷ Then your chariot horses and the foreigners in your army will refuse to go into battle, and the enemy will carry away everything you treasure. ³⁸ Your rivers and canals will dry up. All of this will happen, because your land is full of idols, and they have made fools of you. ³⁹ Never again will people live in your land— only desert animals, jackals, and unclean birds. ⁴⁰ I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby towns, and I will destroy Babylon just as completely. No one will live there again. ⁴¹ The Lord said: Far to the north, a nation and its allies have been awakened. They are powerful and ready for war. ⁴² Bows and arrows and swords are in their hands. The soldiers are cruel and show no pity. The hoofbeats of their horses echo like ocean waves crashing against the shore. The army has lined up for battle and is coming to attack you, people of Babylonia!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

A drought: Jeremiah 50:12, Jeremiah 51:32-36, Isaiah 44:27, Revelation 16:12, Revelation 17:15, Revelation 17:16

the land: Jeremiah 50:2, Jeremiah 51:44, Jeremiah 51:47, Jeremiah 51:52, Isaiah 46:1-7, Daniel 3:1-30, Daniel 5:4, Habakkuk 2:18, Habakkuk 2:19, Revelation 17:5

mad: Jeremiah 51:7, Isaiah 44:25, Acts 17:16

Reciprocal: Judges 6:30 - Bring Judges 18:24 - what have Isaiah 21:9 - all Isaiah 57:5 - Enflaming Jeremiah 51:36 - and I will Jeremiah 51:37 - become Ezekiel 23:5 - doted Ezekiel 30:12 - I will make Hosea 5:4 - for Acts 17:22 - I perceive Acts 19:28 - and cried

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A drought [is] upon her waters, and they shall be dried up,.... Either on the waters of the land of Chaldea in general, from whence should follow barrenness, and so a want of the necessaries of life; hence Kimchi interprets it of a consumption of riches, and all good things; or on the waters of Babylon, the river Euphrates, which ran through it; the channel of which was diverted by Cyrus, and drained and made so dry, that he marched his army up it into the city. Some say Babylon was taken three times, by this stratagem of turning the river Euphrates another way; first by Semiramis; and after Cyrus by Alexander: this may well be applied to the drying up of the river Euphrates, upon the pouring out of the sixth vial, and to the destruction of the antichristian states, signified by the many waters on which the great whore of Babylon or Rome sitteth, Revelation 16:12;

for it [is] the land of graven images; much given to idolatry; had idols of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone, Daniel 5:2;

and they are mad upon [their] idols; greatly affected, and much devoted to them; superstitiously mad upon them: or, "they gloried in them"; as the Targum, Vulgate Latin version, and others p; they praised and extolled them as true deities; as Belshazzar and his nobles did the very night Babylon was taken, Daniel 5:4; and this their idolatry was one cause of their ruin. The word q for "idols" signifies "terrors", or terrible things; because their worshippers stood in fear of them, as Kimchi observes.

p יתהללו "gloriantur", Vulg. Lat. Schmidt, Munster, Tigurine version. q באימים "horrendis" vel "terriculamentis", Schmidt, Munster, Calvin; "terricula", Junius & Tremellius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A drought - Rather, “a sword,” i. e., military skill and forethought.

They are mad upon their idols - Omit their. The word for idols, literally terrors Psalms 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 50:38. A 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. 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.