“I set a trap for you and you were also caught, Babylon, While you yourself were not aware; You have been found and also seized Because you have engaged in conflict with the Lord.”
Parallel translations
- WEB I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware. You are found, and also caught, because you have fought against Yahweh.
- KJV I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.
- BSB I laid a snare for you, O Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it. You were found and captured because you challenged the LORD.
- NKJV I have laid a snare for you; You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon, And you were not aware; You have been found and also caught, Because you have contended against the Lord.
- NLT Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you. You are caught, for you have fought against the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God set a snare and caught Babylon unawares because she fought against Him. Her downfall comes from opposing the LORD Himself.
Overview
Babylon is trapped before she realizes it, exposing the false security of her pride. The decisive charge is that 'you have fought against Yahweh.' Ultimately every act of cruelty against God's people is resistance to God, and such defiance can only end in capture and ruin (Acts 9:4-5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Dan 5:30–31In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
- Job 9:4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
- Job 40:2“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
- Job 40:9Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
- Eccl 9:12For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
- 2 Th 2:4he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
- Isa 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker — a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
- Jer 51:8Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed.
- Exod 10:3Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, “This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
- Isa 21:3–5Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am dismayed that I can’t see.
- Rev 18:7–8However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’
- Isa 13:11I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.
- Jer 51:31–39One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 50:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.