For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Parallel translations
- WEB For a nation comes up out of the north against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein. They have fled. They are gone, both man and animal.
- BSB For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land a desolation. No one will live in it; both man and beast will flee.”
- NKJV For out of the north a nation comes up against her, Which shall make her land desolate, And no one shall dwell therein. They shall move, they shall depart, Both man and beast.
- NASB For a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Whether people or animals, they have wandered off, they have gone!
- NLT For a nation will attack her from the north and bring such destruction that no one will live there again. Everything will be gone; both people and animals will flee.
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 nation from the north will make Babylon a desolate, uninhabited land. The conqueror becomes the conquered.
Overview
Just as Babylon came against Judah from the north, judgment now comes upon Babylon from the north, historically through the Medes and Persians. Its land will be emptied of man and beast. The reversal demonstrates that no empire is permanent and that God repays nations according to their deeds (Galatians 6:7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Zeph 1:3I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.
- Jer 51:11Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
- Jer 50:9For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
- Jer 51:62Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
- Jer 7:20Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
- Jer 50:35–41A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.
- Jer 50:12–13Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
- Gen 6:7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
- Exod 12:12For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
- Jer 51:37–44And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
- Jer 51:25–27Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
- Isa 14:22–24For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
- Jer 21:6And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.
- Jer 51:48Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.
- Rev 18:21–23And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
- Jer 51:8–9Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
- Isa 13:5–10They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
- Isa 13:17–22Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
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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 50:3 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
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