A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols.
Parallel translations
- WEB A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.
- KJV A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
- NKJV A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, And they are insane with their idols.
- NASB “A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, And they go insane at frightful images.
- NLT A drought will strike her water supply, causing it to dry up. And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them.
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
A drought dries up Babylon's waters because it is a land mad with idols. Her false gods bring desolation, not deliverance.
Overview
Babylon, dependent on the Euphrates and its canals, faces drought as God dries up her waters. The cause is her obsession with idols, 'engraved images' over which the people are mad. The verse exposes the folly of idolatry, which can save no one, and contrasts it with the living God who alone gives life and water (Jeremiah 2:13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Isa 44:27who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Jer 50:2“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
- Rev 16:12And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.
- Jer 51:47Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
- Jer 51:52“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.
- Jer 51:44I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.
- Jer 50:12your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
- Rev 17:5And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
- Isa 44:25who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
- Isa 46:1–7Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.
- Rev 17:15–16Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
- Acts 17:16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.
- Jer 51:32–36The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.”
- Hab 2:18–19What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
- Jer 51:7Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.
- Dan 3:1–30King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
- Dan 5:4As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
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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 50:38 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.