Jeremiah 51:49

North. See on ch. 1:14. Although Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, actually came originally from western Iran, he approached Babylon commanding the armies of the former vast Median Empire, to the north of Mesopotamia. Many of the various peoples who composed his army (see v. 27) were from northern nations.

The slain of Israel. The Hebrew of this verse allows of several different translations, depending upon how the clauses are understood to be related to each other. Besides the KJV rendering, the ASV marginal reading is possible: “Both Babylon is to fall, O ye slain of Israel, and at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.” The translation of the RSV, “Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth,” depends upon the conjectural insertion of the preposition “for” in front of the word translated “slain.”