The words in Jeremiah 50:23 are in the form of an ironic lament.1 How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations.
Babylon had been like a hammer destroying and crushing nations. But now the hammer has been cut down and broken.
The once feared Babylon has become a horror among the nations. Those who see what has happened to her are filled with horror at her destruction. The irony is deep. Babylon had indeed been the Lord’s hammer, used by him to bring judgment to the nations, including Judah. But now the tables have turned. Judgment has come to Babylon because of her excessive cruelty, wickedness and arrogance.
23 Eh quoi! il est rompu, brisé, le marteau de toute la terre! Babylone est détruite au milieu des nations!