Lectionary Calendar
Monday, November 10th, 2025
the Week of Proper 27 / Ordinary 32
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Jeremiah 51:32

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Persia;   Reed;   War;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Babylon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ford;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Bridge;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ford;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Greek Versions of Ot;   Persia, Persians;   Reed;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Passage;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Babylon;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Judah;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Ford;   Reed;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The fords have been seized,the marshes set on fire,and the fighting men are terrified.
Hebrew Names Version
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
King James Version
And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
English Standard Version
the fords have been seized, the marshes are burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic.
New American Standard Bible
The river crossing places have been seized, And they have burned the marshes with fire, And the men of war are terrified.
New Century Version
The river crossings have been captured, and the swamplands are burning. All of Babylon's soldiers are terribly afraid."
Amplified Bible
And 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.
World English Bible
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And that the passages are stopped, and the reedes burnt with fire, & the me of war troubled.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The fords also have been seized, And they have burned the marshes with fire, And the men of war are terrified.
Legacy Standard Bible
The fords also have been seized,And they have burned the marshes with fire,And the men of war are terrified.
Berean Standard Bible
The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified."
Contemporary English Version
The enemy now controls the river crossings! The marshes are on fire! Your army has panicked!"
Complete Jewish Bible
the fords have been occupied, and the swamp thickets set on fire, while the warriors are seized with panic.
Darby Translation
and the passages are seized, and the reedy places are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
Easy-to-Read Version
The places where people cross the rivers have been captured. The swamplands are burning. All of Babylon's soldiers are afraid."
George Lamsa Translation
And that the crossings are seized and the bastions are burned with fire and all the men of war are in confusion.
Good News Translation
The enemy have captured the river crossing and have set the fortresses on fire. The Babylonian soldiers have panicked.
Lexham English Bible
And the fords have been seized, and the reed marshes have been burned with fire, and the soldiers are horrified.
Literal Translation
and that the fords are captured. And they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war are terrified.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
the foordes occupyde, the fennes brent vp, and the souldyers sore afrayed.
American Standard Version
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
Bible in Basic English
And the ways across the river have been taken, and the water-holes ••• Three dots are used where it is no longer possible to be certain of the true sense of the Hebrew words, and for this reason no attempt has been made to put them into Basic English. burned with fire, and the men of war are in the grip of fear.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the fords are seized, and the castles they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
King James Version (1611)
And that the passages are stopped, and the reedes they haue burnt with fire, and the men of warre are afrighted.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The foordes occupied, the fennes burnt vp, and the souldiers sore afrayde.
English Revised Version
and the passages are surprised, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and the forthis ben bifore ocupied, and the mareisis ben brent with fier, and the men werryours ben disturblid.
Update Bible Version
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
Webster's Bible Translation
And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
New English Translation
They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified.
New King James Version
The passages are blocked, The reeds they have burned with fire, And the men of war are terrified.
New Living Translation
All the escape routes are blocked. The marshes have been set aflame, and the army is in a panic.
New Life Bible
The ways to cross the river have been stopped. The water grass has been burned with fire. And the soldiers are filled with fear.
New Revised Standard
the fords have been seized, the marshes have been burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and The fords, have been seized, and The reeds, have they burned with fire; and The men of war, are dismayed!
Douay-Rheims Bible
And that the fords are taken, and the marshes are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
Revised Standard Version
the fords have been seized, the bulwarks are burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic.
Young's Literal Translation
And the passages have been captured, And the reeds they have burnt with fire, And the men of war have been troubled.

Contextual Overview

1There's more. God says more: "Watch this: I'm whipping up A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia'— against all who live in that perverse land. I'm sending a cleanup crew into Babylon. They'll clean the place out from top to bottom. When they get through there'll be nothing left of her worth taking or talking about. They won't miss a thing. A total and final Doomsday! Fighters will fight with everything they've got. It's no-holds-barred. They will spare nothing and no one. It's final and wholesale destruction—the end! Babylon littered with the wounded, streets piled with corpses. It turns out that Israel and Judah are not widowed after all. As their God, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well, committed to them even though They filled their land with sin against Israel's most Holy God. 6"Get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Run for your lives! Save your necks! Don't linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her as I pay her back for her sins. Babylon was a fancy gold chalice held in my hand, Filled with the wine of my anger to make the whole world drunk. The nations drank the wine and they've all gone crazy. Babylon herself will stagger and crash, senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic! Get anointing balm for her wound. Maybe she can be cured." 9 "We did our best, but she can't be helped. Babylon is past fixing. Give her up to her fate. Go home. The judgment on her will be vast, a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance. 10 " God has set everything right for us. Come! Let's tell the good news Back home in Zion. Let's tell what our God did to set things right. 11"Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! God has stirred up the kings of the Medes, infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!' God 's on the warpath. He's out to avenge his Temple. Give the signal to attack Babylon's walls. Station guards around the clock. Bring in reinforcements. Set men in ambush. God will do what he planned, what he said he'd do to the people of Babylon. You have more water than you need, you have more money than you need— But your life is over, your lifeline cut." 14 God -of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn: "I'll fill this place with soldiers. They'll swarm through here like locusts chanting victory songs over you." 15By his power he made earth. His wisdom gave shape to the world. He crafted the cosmos. He thunders and rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring. He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches the wind from his warehouse. Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish! god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods! Their gods are frauds, dead sticks— deadwood gods, tasteless jokes. They're nothing but stale smoke. When the smoke clears, they're gone. But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing; he put the whole universe together, With special attention to Israel. His name? God -of-the-Angel-Armies! 20God says, "You, Babylon, are my hammer, my weapon of war. I'll use you to smash godless nations, use you to knock kingdoms to bits. I'll use you to smash horse and rider, use you to smash chariot and driver. I'll use you to smash man and woman, use you to smash the old man and the boy. I'll use you to smash the young man and young woman, use you to smash shepherd and sheep. I'll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen, use you to smash governors and senators. 24 "Judeans, you'll see it with your own eyes. I'll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion." God 's Decree. 25"I'm your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer, you ravager of the whole earth. I'll reach out, I'll take you in my hand, and I'll crush you till there's no mountain left. I'll turn you into a gravel pit— no more cornerstones cut from you, No more foundation stones quarried from you! Nothing left of you but gravel." God 's Decree.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the passages: Jeremiah 50:38, Isaiah 44:27

the men: Jeremiah 51:30, Jeremiah 50:37

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 19:26 - of small power Psalms 68:30 - company of spearmen Psalms 102:20 - to loose Jeremiah 50:36 - her mighty Jeremiah 52:7 - all the men

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And that the passages are stopped,.... Or "taken", or "seized" o; where Cyrus placed soldiers to keep them; these were the passages leading from the river Euphrates to the city, the keys of it; the little gates, that Herodotus p speaks of, leading to the river, which were left open that night. Kimchi thinks the towers built by the river side, to keep the enemy out, that should attempt to enter, are meant; these were now in his hands;

and the reeds they have burnt with fire; which grew upon the banks of the river, and in the marshes adjoining to it. Some render it, "the marshes" q; that is, the reeds and bulrushes in them, which usually grow in such places. And Herodotus r makes mention of a marsh Cyrus came to; the reeds in it he burnt, having many torches, with which he might set fire to them; as he proposed with them to burn the houses, doors, and porches s; either to make way for his army, which might hinder the march of it; or to give light, that they might see their way into the city the better: though some think it was to terrify the inhabitants; which seems not so likely, since he marched up to the royal palace with great secrecy. This circumstance is mentioned, to show the certainty of the enemy's entrance, and the taking of part of the city. R. Jonah, from the Arabic language, in which the word t here used signifies "fortresses", so renders it here;

and the men of war are affrighted; and so fled, and left the passes, towers, and fortresses, which fell into the hands of Cyrus, as soon as they perceived his army was come up the channel and was landed, and the reeds were burnt.

o נתפשו "praeoccupata", V. L. "comprehensa", Montanus; "occupati", Tigurine version, Schmidt. p L. 1. sive Clio, c. 191. q את אגמים "paludes", V. L. Syr. Grotius; "stagna", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. r L. 1. sive Clio, c. 191. s Xenophon, Cyropaedia, l. 7. c. 22. t "arundinetum feris et hinc munimentum, castellum", Camus apud Golium, col. 33. "castellum, munimentum viarum, arces", Castel. Lex. col. 29.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The passages are stopped - The ferries are seized, occupied. The historians state that when Cyrus captured the city his troops moved down the bed of the river and occupied all these ferries, finding at each of them the gates negligently left open. See the Daniel 5:1 note.

The reeds - literally, the marshes or pools, which formed an important part of the defenses of Babylon, were dried up as completely as a piece of wood would be consumed by fire.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 51:32. That the passages are stopped — Either the bridges or slips for boats, by which the inhabitants passed from one side to the other, and may mean the principal gates or passes in the city, which the victorious army would immediately seize, that they might prevent all communication between the inhabitants.

The reeds they have burned with fire — What this means I cannot tell, unless it refer to something done after the taking of the city. Setting fire to the reeds in the marshy ground, in order the better to clear the places, and give a freer passage to the water, that it may neither stagnate nor turn the solid ground into a marsh. Dr. Blayney thinks it refers to the firing of the houses, in order to throw the inhabitants into the greater confusion; but no historian makes any mention of burning the city, except what is said Jeremiah 51:30, "They have burned her dwelling places;" and this may be a poetical expression. That they burnt nothing before they took the city must be evident from the circumstance of their taking the city by surprise, in the night time, with the greatest secrecy. Still there might have been some gates, barricadoes, or wooden works, serving for barracks or such like, which obstructed some of the great passages, which, when they had entered, they were obliged to burn, in order to get themselves a ready passage through the city. This is the more likely because this burning of reeds is connected with the stopping of the passages, burning the dwelling places, and breaking the bars.


 
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