Jeremias 51:34

34 say thou to him, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I pull down those whom I have built up, and I pluck up those whom I have planted.

Jeremias 51:34 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:34

Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me
Or "us" ^F23; everyone of us: these are the words of Zion and Jerusalem, as appears from ( Jeremiah 51:35 ) ; complaining of the injuries done them by the king of Babylon, who had eaten them up; spoiled their substance, as the Targum; took their cities, plundered them of their riches, and carried them away captive: he hath crushed me;
to the earth; or "bruised" or "broken", even all her bones; see ( Jeremiah 50:17 ) ; he hath made me an empty vessel;
emptied the land of its inhabitants and riches, and left nothing valuable in it: he hath swallowed me up like a dragon;
or "whale", or any large fish, which swallow the lesser ones whole. The allusion is to the large swallow of dragons, which is sometimes represented as almost beyond all belief; for not only Pliny ^F24 from Megasthenes reports, that, in India, serpents, that is, dragons, grow to such a bulk, that they will swallow whole deer, and even bulls; but Posidonius ^F25 relates, that in Coelesyria was one, whose gaping jaws would admit of a horse and his rider: and Onesicritus ^F26 speaks of two dragons in the country of Abisarus in India; the one was fourscore and the other a hundred and forty cubits long; he hath filled his belly with my delicates;
with the treasures of the king and his nobles; with the vessels of the temple, and the riches of the people, which he loaded himself with to his full satisfaction. So the Targum,

``he filled his treasury with the good of my land;''

he hath cast me out;
out of my land, and carried me captive; so the Targum.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 The "Cetib", or textual reading, is "us"; but the "Keri", or marginal reading, is "me", which our version follows, and so the same in the four following words, in the text.
F24 Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 14. col. 436.
F25 Apud Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 14. col. 436.
F26 Apud Strabo. Geograph. l. 15. p. 480.

Jeremias 51:34 In-Context

32 Thus has the Lord said to thee, O Baruch.

33 Whereas thou hast said, Alas! alas! for the Lord has laid a grievous trouble upon me; I lay down in groaning, I found no rest;

34 say thou to him, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I pull down those whom I have built up, and I pluck up those whom I have planted.

35 And wilt thou seek great things for thyself? seek not: for, behold, I bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but I will give thy life for a spoil in every place whither thou shalt go.