The interpretation timeline

Jer 51:49

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Jewish · 2 Reformed

Jer 51:49 · Douay-Rheims
“And as Babylon caused that there should fall slain in Israel: so of Babylon there shall fall slain in all the earth.”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“As Babylon was [a cause] for the slain of Israel to fall therein. so in Babylon shall fall the slain of all her land.”
666 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1771
A.D.
John Gill Reformed
1697–1771
“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach,.... These are the words of the Jews, either objecting to their return to their land; or lamenting the desolation of it; and complaining of the reproach it lay under, being destitute of inhabitants; the land in general lying waste and uncultivated; the city of Jerusalem and temple in ruins; and the worship of God ceased; and the enemy insulting and reproaching; suggesting, that their God could not protect and save them; and, under these discouragements, they could not bear the thoughts of returning to it: shame hath covered our faces; they knew not which way to look when they heard the report of the state of their country, and the reproach of the enemy, and through shame covered their faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house; the oracle, or the holy of holies; the temple, or the holy place, and the porch or court; so Kimchi and Abarbinel; into which the Chaldeans, strangers to God and the commonwealth of Israel, had entered, to the profanation of them, and had destroyed them.”
Source
1871
A.D.
1871
“caused . . . to fall--literally, "has been for the falling," that is, as Babylon made this its one aim to fill all places with the slain of Israel, so at Babylon shall all the slain of that whole land (not as English Version, "of all the earth") [MAURER]. HENDERSON translates, "Babylon also shall fall, ye slain of Israel. Those also of Babylon shall fall, O ye slain of all the earth." But, "in the midst of her," Jer 51:47, plainly answers to "at Babylon," Jer 51:49, English Version.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.