They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
aThey became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
bThe bars of her gate are broken.
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
“The daughter of Babylon is alike a threshing floor
When bit is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
cAnd the time of her harvest will come.”
Has adevoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an bempty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.
“Behold, aI will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
bI will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
| << Jeremiah 51:31 | Jeremiah 51:33 >> |
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.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Jeremiah 51:32:
| << Jeremiah 51:31 | Jeremiah 51:33 >> |
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