One post shall run to meet another— As Babylon was taken by surprise, this occasioned many messengers to run one after another, to acquaint the king with this sudden and unexpected event. Herodotus says, that the extreme parts of the city were taken before those who lived in the centre were sensible of the danger. The beauty and sublimity of this passage, which describes this event as immediately before our eyes, is lost by our translation. Houbigant renders the 30th and these verses in the present tense, which gives the passage its due force; and he omits the connecting particles, which greatly augments its energy, Jeremiah 51:31. Courier comes to meet courier,—messenger meets messenger,—to inform the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one side, Jeremiah 51:32. That the passages are stopped [or surprised; see Jeremiah 51:41.]—That fires are burning among the reeds—that the men of war are terrified.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 51:31
Jeremiah 51:31-32
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.