Jeremiah 51:42

42 The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its turbulent waves.

Jeremiah 51:42 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:42

The sea is come up upon Babylon
A vast army, comparable to the great sea for the multitude thereof, even the army of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus; so the Targum,

``a king with his armies, which are numerous like the waters of the sea, is come up against Babylon:''

she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof;
being surrounded, besieged, surprised, and seized upon by the multitude of soldiers in that army, which poured in upon it unawares. Some think here is a beautiful antithesis, between the inundation of Cyrus's army and the draining of the river Euphrates, by which means he poured in his forces into Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:42 In-Context

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with male goats.

41 How Sheshach has been captured, the praise of the whole earth seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

42 The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its turbulent waves.

43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no human being passes through.

44 I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him vomit what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even Babylon's wall will fall.