Jeremiah 50:23
 Jeremiah 50:23 
New International Version (©2011)
How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations!

New Living Translation (©2007)
Babylon, the mightiest hammer in all the earth, lies broken and shattered. Babylon is desolate among the nations!

English Standard Version (©2001)
How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"How the hammer of the whole earth Has been cut off and broken! How Babylon has become An object of horror among the nations!

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

International Standard Version (©2012)
How the hammer of all the earth is cut off and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

NET Bible (©2006)
Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that 'hammer' has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The hammer of the whole earth is broken and shattered. See how desolate Babylon is of all the nations!

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how has Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

American King James Version
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

American Standard Version
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

Douay-Rheims Bible
How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed! how is Babylon turned into a desert among the nations!

Darby Bible Translation
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

English Revised Version
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

Webster's Bible Translation
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

World English Bible
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

Young's Literal Translation
How hath it been cut and broken, The hammer of the whole earth! How hath Babylon been for a desolation among nations!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

50:21-32 The forces are mustered and empowered to destroy Babylon. Let them do what God demands, and they shall bring to pass what he threatens. The pride of men's hearts sets God against them, and ripens them apace for ruin. Babylon's pride must be her ruin; she has been proud against the Holy One of Israel; who can keep those up whom God will throw down?


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - The hammer of the whole earth. So in Isaiah (Isaiah 14:5), "Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers; which smote peoples in passion with an unceasing stroke." In the next chapter a similar title is conferred upon Israel, with the right to retaliate upon Babylon all the evil which Babylon had done to Zion (Jeremiah 51:20-24). Compare the epithet Martel, "The Hammer," given to Charles, Duke of the Franks, on account of his great victory over the Saraoens at Tours; it is tempting to add "Makkabi," the epithet of Judas (Maccabaeus), but the k is not the same letter as that in maqqab, hammer.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken!.... The Targum is,

"how is the king cut down and broken that moved the whole earth!''

The king of Babylon, or the kingdom of Babylon, which was like a hammer for its hardness and strength; and being an instrument, in the hand of God, of beating to pieces and destroying the kingdoms and nations around it; but is now destroyed itself. These are the words either of the prophet, or rather of the people of other nations, wondering how this destruction came about, and rejoicing at it;

how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! this explains who and what is meant by the hammer of the earth, and by its being cut asunder and broken; even the utter destruction of the city and kingdom of Babylon.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. hammer—that is, Babylon, so called because of its ponderous destructive power; just as "Martel," that is, "a little hammer," was the surname of a king of the Franks (Isa 14:6).


Jeremiah 50:23 Parallel Commentaries

Jeremiah 50:23 NIV
Jeremiah 50:23 NLT
Jeremiah 50:23 ESV
Jeremiah 50:23 NASB
Jeremiah 50:23 KJV

Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


The Destruction of Babylon
21Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, said the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded you. 22A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. 23How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

Jeremiah 51:20 "You are my war club, my weapon for battle-- with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms,
Ezekiel 26:17 Then they will take up a lament concerning you and say to you: "'How you are destroyed, city of renown, peopled by men of the sea! You were a power on the seas, you and your citizens; you put your terror on all who lived there.