Jeremiah 50:43

My Notes

What Does Jeremiah 50:43 Mean?

"The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail." Babylon's king hears about his own approaching destruction and his hands go limp. The most powerful ruler on earth is reduced to labor-pain agony by a report. The same imagery used for Babylon's victims (cities melting at the news) is now applied to Babylon itself. The terrorizer becomes the terrified. The empire that made other nations tremble now trembles at the news of its own end.

The irony is intentional: the king whose name was used to terrify the world now experiences the same terror. The report that undid his enemies' courage now undoes his. Power doesn't exempt you from fear. It just determines what you're afraid of.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What 'report' would make the most powerful person you know tremble — and what does that reveal about the limits of power?
• 2.How does the irony of the terrorizer being terrorized reflect the principle that what you inflict returns to you?
• 3.Where have you seen power that seemed absolute suddenly become feeble?
• 4.What does the chain of fear (each power fearing a higher power) teach about where ultimate security must rest?

Devotional

The king of Babylon heard the report. And his hands went limp. The most powerful man in the world, reduced to childbirth agony by news he can't handle.

The irony is Jeremiah at his sharpest. Babylon — the empire that made every nation tremble at the sound of its name — is trembling. The king whose armies produced anguish in every city from Egypt to Jerusalem is now experiencing anguish himself. His hands are feeble. His body is gripped with contractions of fear. The terrorizer has been terrorized.

Pangs as of a woman in travail. The same metaphor Jeremiah used for nations hearing about Babylon's approach is now applied to Babylon hearing about its own doom. The suffering that Babylon inflicted on the world circles back. The fear it exported returns to its origin. What goes around comes around — with labor-pain intensity.

His hands waxed feeble. The hands that signed execution orders. The hands that directed siege operations. The hands that held the most powerful military instrument on earth. Feeble. Limp. Unable to grip. Because the report has done to his nervous system what his armies did to everyone else's: turned strength to weakness in a single moment.

Power doesn't protect you from fear. It just changes what you're afraid of. The peasant fears the king. The king fears the empire that's coming to replace him. The empire fears the God who raises and removes empires at will. Fear flows upward through the power structure until it reaches the one who has no superior — and that one is God, who fears nothing.

The king of Babylon, at the peak of his power, hears a report and becomes a woman in labor. Because somewhere above every earthly throne is the throne that determines when every earthly throne falls. And when that decree comes, no amount of power prevents the trembling.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture