Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
Parallel translations
- WEB Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army!
- BSB Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!
- NKJV Against her let the archer bend his bow, And lift himself up against her in his armor. Do not spare her young men; Utterly destroy all her army.
- NASB “Let not him who bends his bow bend it, Nor let him rise up in his coat of armor. Do not spare her young men; Devote all her army to destruction.
- NLT Don’t let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. Don’t spare even her best soldiers! Let her army be completely destroyed.
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
The Lord commands the attackers to spare neither Babylon's archers nor her armored soldiers but to utterly destroy her whole army. Babylon's military strength offers no escape from judgment.
Overview
The call to 'utterly destroy' (the language of devoted destruction) marks Babylon's army as set apart for total judgment. Her finest defenses, archers and mail-clad warriors, will not save her. This underscores that human armor is no defense against God's verdict, and only refuge in the Lord, fully revealed in Christ, brings true safety.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 50:14Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.
- Jer 46:4Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
- Jer 50:21Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.
- Isa 13:10–18For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
- Jer 50:27Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
- Jer 50:41–42Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
- Jer 9:21For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
- Jer 50:29–30Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.
- Deut 32:25The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
- Jas 2:13For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
- Ps 137:9Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
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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 51:3 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
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.