Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 51:38
They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
Yell – Or, growl.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
It is uncertain whether this be to be understood of the Medes, making horrible roarings and noises when they took Babylon; or of the Babylonians, who upon the taking of their city (as is usual) made horrid outcries, as being a people quite undone: some think it referreth to the drunken noises of the Babylonians at their festival, during the celebration of which we are told their city was taken; but to this one would think the comparison of
lions whelps (which ordinarily yell for want of victuals, or for some mischief done them, not when their bellies are full) should not so well agree.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
38, 39. The capture of Babylonwas effected on the night of a festival in honor of its idols.
roar . . . yellTheBabylonians were shouting in drunken revelry (compare Da5:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They shall roar together like lions,…. Some understand this of the Medes and Persians, and the shouts they made at the attacking and taking of Babylon; but this does not so well agree with that, which seems to have been done in a secret and silent manner; rather according to the context the Chaldeans are meant, who are represented as roaring, not through fear of the enemy, and distress by him; for such a roaring would not be fitly compared to the roaring of a lion; but either this is expressive of their roaring and revelling at their feast afterwards mentioned, and at which time their city was taken; or else of the high spirits and rage they were in, and the fierceness and readiness they showed to give battle to Cyrus, when he first came with his army against them; and they did unite together, and met him, and roared like lions at him, and fought with him; but being overcome, their courage cooled; they retired to their city, and dared not appear more;
[See comments on Jer 51:30];
they shall yell as lions’ whelps. Jarchi and other Rabbins interpret the word of the braying of an ass; it signifies to “shake”; and the Vulgate Latin version renders it, “they shall shake [their] hair”; as lions do their manes; and young lions their shaggy hair; and as blustering bravadoes shake theirs; and so might the Babylonians behave in such a swaggering way when the Medes and Persians first attacked them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The inhabitants of Babylon fall; the city perishes with its idols, to the joy of the whole world. – Jer 51:38. “Together they roar like young lions, they growl like the whelps of lionesses. Jer 51:39. When they are heated, I will prepare their banquets, and will make them drunk, that they may exult and sleep an eternal sleep, and not awake, saith Jahveh. Jer 51:40. I will bring them down like lambs to be slaughtered, like rams with he-goats. Jer 51:41. How is Sheshach taken, and the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon is become an astonishment among the nations! Jer 51:42. The sea has gone up over Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves. Jer 51:43. Her cities have become a desolation, a land of drought, and a steppe, a land wherein no man dwells, and through which no son of man passes. Jer 51:44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed, and no longer shall nations go in streams to him: the wall of Babylon also shall fall. Jer 51:45. Go ye out from the midst of her, my people! and save ye each one his life from the burning of the wrath of Jahveh. Jer 51:46. And lest your heart be weak, and ye be afraid because of the report which is heard in the land, and there comes the [= this] report in the [= this] year, and afterwards in the [= that] year the [= that] report, and violence, in the land, ruler against ruler. Jer 51:47. Therefore, behold, days are coming when I will punish the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall dry up,
(Note: Rather, “shall be ashamed;” see note at foot of p. 311. – Tr.)
and all her slain ones shall fall in her midst. Jer 51:48. And heaven and earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon: for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, saith Jahveh. Jer 51:49. As Babylon sought that slain ones of Israel should fall, so there fall, in behalf of Babylon, slain ones of the whole earth.” This avenging judgment shall come on the inhabitants of Babylon in the midst of their revelry. Jer 51:38. They roar and growl like young lions over their prey; cf. Jer 2:15; Amo 3:4. When, in their revelries, they will be heated over their prey, the Lord will prepare for them a banquet by which they shall become intoxicated, so that they sink down, exulting (i.e., staggering while they shout), into an eternal sleep of death. , “their heat,” or heating, is the glow felt in gluttony and revelry, cf. Hos 7:4., not specially the result or effect of a drinking-bout; and the idea is not that, when they become heated through a banquet, then the Lord will prepare another one for them, but merely this, that in the midst of their revelry the Lord will prepare for them the meal they deserve, viz., give them the cup of wrath to drink, so that they may fall down intoxicated into eternal sleep, from which they no more awake. These words are certainly not a special prediction of the fact mentioned by Herodotus (i. 191) and Xenophon ( Cyrop. vii. 23), that Cyrus took Babylon while the Babylonians were celebrating a feast and holding a banquet; they are merely a figurative dress given to the thought that the inhabitants of Babylon will be surprised by the judgment of death in the midst of their riotous enjoyment of the riches and treasure taken as spoil from the nations. In that fact, however, this utterance has received a fulfilment which manifestly confirms the infallibility of the word of God. In Jer 51:40, what has been said is confirmed by another figure; cf. Jer 48:5 and Jer 50:27. Lambs, rams, goats, are emblems of all the classes of the people of Israel; cf. Isa 34:6; Eze 39:18.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Here, by another figure, Jeremiah expresses what he had said of the destruction of Babylon, even that in the middle of the slaughter, they would have no strength to resist: they would, at the same time, perish amidst great confusion; and thus he anticipates what might have been advanced against his prophecy. For the Babylonians had been superior to all other nations; how then could it be, that a power so invincible should perish? Though they were as lions, says the Prophet, yet that would avail nothing; they will indeed roar, but roaring will be of no service to them; they will roar as the whelps of lions, but still they will perish.
We now, then, understand the object of this comparison, even that the superior power by which the Babylonians had terrified all men would avail them nothing, for nothing would remain for them in their calamity except roaring. (100) It follows, —
(100) Taking this verse is connection with the following, Gataker and Lowth give somewhat another view, — that the Babylonians roared like lions and shouted with exultation before the city was taken. It is said by Herodotus, that “they ascended the walls, and capered, and loaded Darius and his army with reproaches.” They roared with rage at their enemies, and excited themselves as whelps when beginning to hunt for themselves, full of life and animation, —
Together as young lions shall they roar. And rouse themselves as whelps of lionesses.
There is a ו wanting before the last verb, which is supplied by the Vulg. , Syr. , and the Targ. ; and it is rendered necessary by the tense of the verb. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(38) They shall roar together like lions . . .The words are not a continuation of the picture of the preceding verse, but carry us to the scene of revelry that preceded the capture of the city. The princes of Babylon were as young lions (Amo. 3:4) roaring over their prey. The first clause as well as the second conveys this meaning, and there is probably a reference to the youth of rulers like Belshazzar.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
PICTURE OF BABYLON’S RUIN, Jer 51:38-49.
38, 39. They roar Not shall roar. The scene is that of a carousal, in the midst of which the blow falls. Whether the language here is a prophecy of the way in which Babylon was taken by Cyrus or not, it is certainly evident that it is quite suitable to it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 51:38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
Ver. 38. They shall roar together like lions. ] When hunger bitten. The Babylonians terrified, and the Persians tumultuating together. The old Latin version hath it, They shake their shaggy hair.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
yell: or, shake themselves.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
roar: Jer 2:15, Job 4:10, Job 4:11, Psa 34:10, Psa 58:6, Isa 35:9, Nah 2:11-13, Zec 11:3
yell: or, shake themselves, Jdg 16:20
Reciprocal: Isa 25:5 – shalt bring Jer 12:8 – crieth out Jer 50:17 – the lions Jer 50:39 – General Jer 51:55 – destroyed Eze 38:13 – with 1Pe 5:8 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 51:38-40. I have purposely combined these verses into one paragraph because of the direct relation of all the items to each other. The passage is a prediction of the scenes in Babylon on that last night of Belshazzar, The student will do well to read again very carefully the fifth chapter of Daniel. Then read again the historical quota-tion given at Isa 13:1 in volume 3 of this COMMENTARY.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Babylonians would growl in anticipation of their conquest, like young lion cubs did before they eat. When the Babylonians got worked up, the Lord would serve them a banquet that would finish them off. His cup of wrath would stupefy them. This was fulfilled many years later: King Belshazzar of Babylon was getting himself all liquored up at a banquet, when Daniel announced to him that Babylon would fall that very night-and it did (Daniel 5).