Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army!
Parallel Translations
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Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army!
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Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
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Let the archer bend his bow against her, and let him lift himself up against her in his coat of mail; and spare ye not her young men, destroy ye utterly all her host.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 51:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 50:14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her. Spare no arrows; for she has sinned against Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 46:4 Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand up with your helmets. Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail.
- Jeremiah 50:21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill and utterly destroy after them,” says Yahweh, “and do according to all that I have commanded you.
- Deuteronomy 32:25 Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
- Isaiah 13:10-18 For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the arrogance of the terrible. I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger. It will happen that like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land. Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it. Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
- Jeremiah 9:21 For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
- Jeremiah 50:27 Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.
- Jeremiah 50:29-30 “Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Pay her back according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel. Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. All her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 50:41-42 “Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. They take up bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea. They ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.
- James 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Psalms 137:9 Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Interpreters give various expositions of this verse. Some understand…
Interpreters give various expositions of this verse. Some understand a soldier of light armor by him who bends the bow; and by him who elevates himself in his coat of mail, they understand a heavy-armed, soldier, There is also another difference; some take אל, al, for לא, la, when it is said ואל יתעל, veal itol, because a copulative follows; and the words seem not to be well connected, if we read thus, “As to him who raises himself up in his coat of mail, and spare ye not,” etc.; and hence they take negatively the particle אל, al, instead of לא la, “and he may not raise up himself in his coat of mail.” But it is probable that the copulative in the second place is redundant The simple meaning would therefore be, As to him who bends the bow, and who raises himself up in his coat of mall
I do not, indeed, give such a refined interpretation as some do, respecting the light and heavy armed soldiers. I doubt not, then, but that he points out the archers, and those clad in mail. If, however, any one prefers the other explanation, let him enjoy his own opinion. As to the main point, it is evident that the Prophet exhorts the Persians and the Medes not to spare the young men among the Chaldeans, but to destroy their whole army, so that no part of it should be left remaining.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 51:3 Against [him that] bendeth let the archer…
Jer 51:3 Against [him that] bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against [him that] lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
Ver. 3. Against him that bendeth.] Periphrasis Babylonii, omnibus gentibus infesti.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Whatever arms the Babylonians shall be armed with, they…
Whatever arms the Babylonians shall be armed with, they shall meet with their matches; those that are archers shall meet with archers to bend the bow against them, and those who are otherwise armed shall meet with persons prepared to encounter them at their own weapons. Their whole host shall be destroyed, both young and old men.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his…
Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow,.... These are either the words of the Lord to the Medes and Persians, to the archers among them, to bend their bows and level their arrows against the Chaldeans, who had bent their bows and shot their arrows against others; or of the Medes and Persians stirring up one another to draw their bows, and fight manfully against the enemy:
and against him that lifteth up himself in his brigandine; or coat of mail; that swaggers about in it, proud of it, and putting his confidence in it, as if out of all danger. The sense is, that they should direct their arrows both against those that were more lightly or more heavily armed; since by them they might do execution among the one and the other:
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and spare ye not her young men; because of their youth, beauty, and strength:
destroy ye utterly all her host; her whole army, whether officers or common soldiers; or let them be accoutred in what manner they will. The Targum is,
"consume all her substance.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 51:3-5. Against him that bendeth let the archer…
Jer 51:3-5. Against him that bendeth let the archer bend — See Jer 50:14; and against him, that lifteth up himself in his brigandine — Or, coat of mail: suffer not them who are skilful in using the bow, or armed in coats of mail, to avail themselves any thing of their skill or their armour, but oppose them with superior skill and force. Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans — There seems to be a transposition of words in this sentence, the sense certainly being, Thus the Chaldeans shall fall down slain to the earth. For Israel hath not been (or rather, shall not be) forsaken, nor Judah of his God — “Though God was justly displeased with his people, yet he would not cast them off utterly, or deprive them of his protection, though he would do so to those that were the rod in his hand, to chastise and scourge his people.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The man who bends the bow, and the heavy-armed…
The man who bends the bow, and the heavy-armed soldier who vaunts himself in his coat of mail (Jer 46:4 note), represent the Babylonians who defend the city.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Mail. There will be little or no resistance made,…
Mail. There will be little or no resistance made, chap. l. 3. (Haydock) --- The Persians denounce destruction to all taken in arms; or, according to Septuagint and Syriac they exhort each other to fight. (Calmet) --- "Let him," &c. (Haydock) --- Hebrew of the Masorets, "you who bend....spare not." (Calmet) --- Protestants, "against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow," &c. (Haydock) --- Hebrew is printed ne tendat tendat tendans. The second word is properly omitted in some manuscripts. Thus (1 Chronicles xxiv. 6.) we read taken taken, achuz having been put erroneously for achad, one. (Kennicott)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Against him that bendeth--namely, the bow; that is, the…
Against him that bendeth--namely, the bow; that is, the Babylonian archer.
let the archer bend--that is, the Persian archer (Jer 50:4). The Chaldean version and JEROME, by changing the vowel points, read, "Let not him (the Babylonian) who bendeth his bow bend it." But the close of the verse is addressed to the Median invaders; therefore it is more likely that the first part of the verse is addressed to them, as in English Version, not to the Babylonians, to warn them against resistance as vain, as in the Chaldean version. The word "bend" is thrice repeated: "Against him that bendeth let him that bendeth bend," to imply the utmost straining of the bow.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Archer — Literally, bender. The Masoretes have stumbled…
3. Archer — Literally, bender. The Masoretes have stumbled over the text of this verse, and there has been some variety of opinion among the critical expositors of recent times. But there is no serious difficulty in the text as it now stands, and it is by all means to be accepted.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Let not the archer bend his bow, and…
3. Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not lift himself up, etc.] As the mg., when compared with the text, suggests, the Heb. is difficult. It is in fact ungrammatical and probably corrupt. It seems best to omit the negatives, and make the whole v. (as the latter part must be in any case) an address to the assailants of Babylon. If we retain the negatives, the sense will be that it will be useless for Babylon’s warriors to attempt her defence.
destroy ye utterly all] For mg. devote ye all, etc., See on Jer_25:9 and cp. Jer_50:21.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Let the archer bend his bow.—The words represent…
(3) Let the archer bend his bow.—The words represent the sense of the original, but the Hebrew word for “archer” is literally bender, and so the iteration of the verb gains its full rhetorical force. On “brigandine,” as meaning the “coat of mail” of heavy-armed troops, see Note on Jer_46:4. The two classes of soldiers describe collectively the garrison that defended Babylon.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Against him that bendeth, etc. There are two readings…
Against him that bendeth, etc. There are two readings in the Hebrew Bible one that given by the Authorized Version; the other, "Against him that bendeth (let) him that bendeth his bow (come)." The difficulty, however, is in the first two words of the clause, which are the same in either reading. It would be much simpler to alter a single point, and render, "Let not the archer bend his bow; and let him not lift himself up in his coat of mail"; (for the old word "brigandine," see on Jer_46:4) which might be explained of the Babylonians, on the analogy of Jer_46:6, "Let him not bend his bow, for it will be useless;" but then the second half of the verse hardly suits the first the prohibitions seem clearly intended to run on in a connected order. On the other hand, the descriptions, "him that bendeth," and "him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine," seem hardly a natural way of putting "the Chaldean army."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Do not let ... do not let
Do not let ... do not let
Yahweh wants the attack to be so sudden that the archers have no time to prepare for battle.
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those who are killed
This can be translated in active form. AT: "those whom the attackers kill" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
archer
bow and arrow
armor
Chaldea
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 51:3-4 God took the role of commander and ordered…
51:3-4 God took the role of commander and ordered the destroyer to wipe out the Babylonians. • completely destroyed: See Lev 27:28-29; 1 Sam 15:3.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.