Jeremiah 51:9
◄  Jeremiah 51:9  ►
New International Version (©2011)
"'We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens.'

New Living Translation (©2007)
We would have helped her if we could, but nothing can save her now. Let her go; abandon her. Return now to your own land. For her punishment reaches to the heavens; it is so great it cannot be measured.

English Standard Version (©2001)
We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, For her judgment has reached to heaven And towers up to the very skies.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches as far as the clouds.

International Standard Version (©2012)
We tried to heal Babylon, but she wouldn't be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and is lifted up to the sky.

NET Bible (©2006)
Foreigners living there will say, 'We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let's leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.'

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
We wanted to heal Babylon, but it couldn't be healed. Let's abandon it and go to our own land. God has judged Babylon. Its judgment is complete.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

American King James Version
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

American Standard Version
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Douay-Rheims Bible
We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed: let us forsake her, and let us go every man to his own land: because her judgment hath reached even to the heavens, and is lifted up to the clouds.

Darby Bible Translation
We have treated Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto the heavens, and is lifted up to the skies.

English Revised Version
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Webster's Bible Translation
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth to heaven, and is lifted even to the skies.

World English Bible
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Young's Literal Translation
We healed Babylon, and she was not healed, Forsake her, and we go, each to his land, For come unto the heavens hath its judgment, And it hath been lifted up unto the clouds.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - We would have healed Babylon. Experience shows that it is useless to attempt to correct such inveterate evils. Everyone into his own country (as Jeremiah 50:16). Her judgment; i.e. her punishment. Perhaps there is an allusion to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, burned by fire from heaven. But we might also render "her crime" (comp. Deuteronomy 19:6, where "worthy of death" is more strictly "a capital crime").

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed,.... These are either the words of the friends of Babylon of her auxiliaries and allies, who did all they could to defend her against the Persians, but to no purpose; it was not in their power to help her; the time of her destruction was come, and there was no avoiding it; or of the prophets and good people of the Jews that were in Babylon, that took pains to convince, the inhabitants of Babylon of their idolatries and other sins, and reform them, that so they might not be their ruin; but all instructions and admonitions were in vain; in like manner many worthy reformers have laboured much to reclaim mystical Babylon, or the church of Rome, from her errors and idolatries; but still she retains them; wherefore it follows:

forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; so said the auxiliary troops that were in the service of the king of Babylon; since we can do him no good, and are ourselves posed to danger, let us desert him, and provide for our safety by hastening to our own country as fast as we can; this was really the case after the first battle of Cyrus with the Babylonians, in which their king Neriglissar was slain: Croesus and the rest of the allies, seeing their case so distressed and helpless, left them to shift for themselves, and fled by night (h): or so might the Jews say when the city was taken, and they were delivered out of the hands of their oppressors; and so will the people of God say, who shall be called out of mystical Babylon just before its ruin, Revelation 18:4;

for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies: that is, her sins were so many, that they reached even to heaven; and were taken notice of by God that dwelleth there; and were the cause of judgment or punishment being from thence inflicted on her, which was unavoidable, being the decree of heaven, and the just demerit of her sin; and therefore no help could be afforded her; nor was there any safety by being in her; see Revelation 18:5.

(h) Xenophon, Cyropaedia l. 4. c. 2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. We would have healed—We attempted to heal.

her judgment—her crimes provoking God's "judgments" [Grotius].

reacheth unto heaven—(Ge 18:21; Jon 1:2; Re 18:5). Even the heathen nations perceive that her awful fall must be God's judgment for her crying sins (Ps 9:16; 64:9).

Jeremiah 51:9 Parallel Commentaries

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Severe Judgment against Babylon
…8Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. 9We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. 10The LORD has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. …

Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "'Come out of her, my people,' so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
Revelation 18:5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
Ezra 9:6 and prayed: "I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
Isaiah 13:14 Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land.
Jeremiah 46:16 They will stumble repeatedly; they will fall over each other. They will say, 'Get up, let us go back to our own people and our native lands, away from the sword of the oppressor.'
Jeremiah 50:16 Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the reaper with his sickle at harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor let everyone return to their own people, let everyone flee to their own land.
Hosea 7:13 Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak about me falsely.