Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
Parallel translations
- WEB Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by it.
- BSB Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through.
- NKJV Her cities are a desolation, A dry land and a wilderness, A land where no one dwells, Through which no son of man passes.
- NASB “Her cities have become an object of horror, A dry land and a desert, A land in which no one lives And through which no one of mankind passes.
- NLT Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wasteland where no one lives or even passes by.
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
Babylon's cities become a desolation, a dry and barren desert where no one lives or passes by. The land is left utterly empty and abandoned.
Overview
From the imagery of overwhelming waters the picture shifts to a parched, lifeless desert, both conveying total desolation. No inhabitant remains and no traveler ventures through. The completeness of this judgment fulfills God's word against Babylon and stands as a perpetual witness that rebellion against God ends in barrenness, while life is found only in Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Isa 13:20It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
- Jer 2:6Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
- Jer 51:29And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
- Jer 50:39–40Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
- Jer 50:12Your 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.
- Jer 51:37And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
- Ezek 29:10–11Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
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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 51:43 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.