complete verse (Jeremiah 51:30)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Jeremiah 51:30:

  • Kupsabiny: “The soldiers of Babylon are afraid and they are staying in the guarded place in the city. They have no courage at all left. Look, they have simply become women! The gates of the city are being torn down and houses have been set on fire.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The soldiers of Babilonia will-stop to fight and they will- just -remain in their forts/barracks. Their strength will-be-lost and as-if they are just women who are weak. The houses in Babilonia will-be- -burned and the bars of her gates will-be-ruined.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When their enemies attack, the strongest warriors in Babylon will not fight.
    They will remain in their barracks, without any strength.
    They will be as timid/weak as women.
    The enemy soldiers will burn the buildings in the city
    and pull down the bars of the city gates.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 51:30

The remainder of this section (verses 30-35) pictures the fall and destruction of Babylonia.

Strongholds is better rendered “forts” (Good News Translation) or “fortresses” (New Jerusalem Bible). See 48.41.

Their strength has failed can also be expressed as “They have no courage any more.”

They have become women: See 50.37.

Her bars are broken: The city gates have been broken through. The bars are bars placed across the gates to lock them (see 49.31). To reflect the order in which things happen, Good News Translation reverses the last two lines of this verse: “The city gates are broken down, and the houses are on fire.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .