What Does Jeremiah 51:56 Mean?
For the ravager comes upon her, upon Babylon, and her mighty men are seized, and every one of their bows is shattered. For the LORD, God of recompense, shall surely repay.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.THE KEY
The verse uses two words for repayment to show that Babylon’s violence does not escape its full account.
THE MEANING
When destruction appears to have the last word, this verse holds the account open: the devastator is overtaken, its fighters seized, and its bows broken. The LORD answers the violence with requital; what is done is met with its return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that overwhelming power can devastate without being answerable is undone here.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּם
yeshallēm
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole; to make good or pay what is due.
“repay” in this verse is yeshallēm. The Hebrew intensifies the line with יְשַׁלֵּם (yeshallēm), carrying the sense of paying or making good in full. Its root also gives שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), holding completeness and settled repayment together without softening the violence of Babylon’s reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: A state made whole.
שָׁלוֹם
It shares the root’s sense of something brought to completion, giving depth to the idea of an account fully settled.
shillem: To render what is due.
שִׁלֵּם
This verbal branch makes the verse’s requital concrete: what is owed is paid.
גְּמֻלוֹת
gemulōt
GROWS FROM
גמל
g-m-l
To deal with someone or render what is due.
“recompences” in this verse is gemulōt. גְּמֻלוֹת (gemulōt) names the returns due for what has been done. Beside יְשַׁלֵּם (yeshallēm), it doubles the language of repayment: this is an account discharged, not an unexplained blow.
ALSO GROWS
gamal: To act toward someone or render a due response.
גָּמַל
It shows the active side of recompense: what is done receives an answering act.
gemul: An action and its return.
גְּמוּל
It makes visible the link between what Babylon has done and what comes back upon it.
THE PATTERN
What a person or power sends into the world returns in its due measure.
Raise a call against Babylon, all who tread the bow. Camp against her all around, and let none of her slip free. Repay her according to her work, and according to all she has done, do to her, for she has boiled over against the LORD, against the Set-Apart One of Israel.For near is the day of the LORD upon all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you. Your repayment turns back upon your own head.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
And yours, O Lord, is faithful love, for you repay each man according to his deed.The Psalm’s תְשַׁלֵּם (teshallem, “you repay”) comes from the same root שׁלם (sh-l-m, “complete, pay”) as Jeremiah’s “requite.” The Psalm places that completed accounting beside חֶסֶד (chesed, “faithful love”), holding repayment within the character of God.
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