Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 51:37

And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

37. heaps ] “Vast ‘heaps’ or mounds, shapeless and unsightly, are scattered at intervals over the entire region where it is certain that Babylon anciently stood.” (Rawl. Anc. Mon. II. 521.)

hissing ] See on Jer 18:16.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Heaps – Of rubbish, formed in this case by the decay of the unburned bricks of which Babylon was built. It is these heaps which have yielded such a large wealth of historical documents in our own days.

Dragons – Jackals Jer 10:22.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 37. Without an inhabitant.] See Jer 50:39.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Babylon shall become heaps; heaps of rubbish.

A dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. See Poole “Jer 50:39“, See Poole “Jer 50:40“, where the same thing was before said.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

37. (Jer 50:26;Jer 50:39; Rev 18:2).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Babylon shall become heaps,…. The houses should be demolished, and the stones lie in heaps one upon another, and become mere rubbish:

a dwelling place for dragons; and other wild and savage creatures. Dragons, as Aelianus a observes, love to live in desert places, and such now Babylon is; it lies in ruins; and even its palace is so full of scorpions and serpents, as Benjamin of Tudela b says it was in his time, that men durst not enter into it; see Jer 50:39;

an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant; an astonishment to neighbouring nations, and to all that pass by; who shall hiss at the destruction of it, and rejoice, there being not so much as a single inhabitant in it; which is its case to this day; see Jer 50:13.

a De Animal. l. 6. c. 63. b Itinerarium, p. 76.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He confirms what he had said, that when God raised his hand against Babylon, such would be its destruction, that the splendor, which before astonished all nations, would be reduced to nothing. Perish, he says, shall all the wealth of Babylon — its towers and its walls shall fall, and its people shall disappear; in short, it shall become heaps of stones, as he said before, that it would become a mountain of burning. It is then for the same purpose that he now says that it would become heaps. But we must bear in mind what we observed yesterday, that it would become such heaps that they would not be fit for corners, that they could not be set in foundations; for the ruins would be wholly useless as to any new building.

He says that it would become an astonishment and a hissing Moses also used these words, when he threatened the people with punishment, in case they transgressed the law of God. (Deu 28:37.) But these threatenings extend to all the ungodly, and the despisers of God. Then God fulfilled as to the Babylonians what he had denounced by Moses on all the despisers of his law. It then follows, —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(37) Babylon shall become heaps . . .It is significant, as emphasising the law of retribution, that the terms are the same as those used of Jerusalem in Jer. 9:11; Jer. 19:8; Jer. 25:9; Jer. 25:18. Nothing is more characteristic of the present aspect of Babylon than the heaps or mounds of brickwork, fragments of pottery and earth, that are now scattered over the plain, and are slowly yielding up their records of the past to explorers. The dragons here (not the same word as in Jer. 51:34) are the jackals that howl in the ruins. (See Note on Jer. 10:22.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

37. Heaps Namely, of rubbish. How literally this has been fulfilled is shown by Rawlinson. ( Ancient Monarchies, 2: 521.)

Dragons Not the word used in Jer 51:34, but one meaning jackals.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments