Jeremiah 51
51
1This is what the Lord says:
“I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon
and the people of Babylonia.#51:1 Hebrew of Leb-kamai, a code name for Babylonia.
2Foreigners will come and winnow her,
blowing her away as chaff.
They will come from every side
to rise against her in her day of trouble.
3Don’t let the archers put on their armor
or draw their bows.
Don’t spare even her best soldiers!
Let her army be completely destroyed.#51:3 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
4They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians,#51:4 Or Chaldeans; also in 51:54.
slashed to death in her streets.
5For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
has not abandoned Israel and Judah.
He is still their God,
even though their land was filled with sin
against the Holy One of Israel.”
6Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves!
Don’t get trapped in her punishment!
It is the Lord’s time for vengeance;
he will repay her in full.
7Babylon has been a gold cup in the Lord’s hands,
a cup that made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank Babylon’s wine,
and it drove them all mad.
8But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen.
Weep for her.
Give her medicine.
Perhaps she can yet be healed.
9We would have helped her if we could,
but nothing can save her now.
Let her go; abandon her.
Return now to your own land.
For her punishment reaches to the heavens;
it is so great it cannot be measured.
10The Lord has vindicated us.
Come, let us announce in Jerusalem#51:10 Hebrew Zion; also in 51:24.
everything the Lord our God has done.
11Sharpen the arrows!
Lift up the shields!#51:11 Greek version reads Fill up the quivers.
For the Lord has inspired the kings of the Medes
to march against Babylon and destroy her.
This is his vengeance against those
who desecrated his Temple.
12Raise the battle flag against Babylon!
Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen.
Prepare an ambush,
for the Lord will fulfill all his plans against Babylon.
13You are a city by a great river,
a great center of commerce,
but your end has come.
The thread of your life is cut.
14The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has taken this vow
and has sworn to it by his own name:
“Your cities will be filled with enemies,
like fields swarming with locusts,
and they will shout in triumph over you.”
A Hymn of Praise to the Lord
15The Lord made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
he stretched out the heavens.
16When he speaks in the thunder,
the heavens roar with rain.
He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.
He sends the lightning with the rain
and releases the wind from his storehouses.
17The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge!
The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
These idols have no breath or power.
18Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!
On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.
19But the God of Israel#51:19 Hebrew the Portion of Jacob. See note on 5:20. is no idol!
He is the Creator of everything that exists,
including his people, his own special possession.
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
Babylon’s Great Punishment
20“You#51:20 Possibly Cyrus, whom God used to conquer Babylon. Compare Isa 44:28; 45:1. are my battle-ax and sword,”
says the Lord.
“With you I will shatter nations
and destroy many kingdoms.
21With you I will shatter armies—
destroying the horse and rider,
the chariot and charioteer.
22With you I will shatter men and women,
old people and children,
young men and young women.
23With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks,
farmers and oxen,
captains and officers.
24“I will repay Babylon
and the people of Babylonia#51:24 Or Chaldea; also in 51:35.
for all the wrong they have done
to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.
25“Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth!
I am your enemy,” says the Lord.
“I will raise my fist against you,
to knock you down from the heights.
When I am finished,
you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble.
26You will be desolate forever.
Even your stones will never again be used for building.
You will be completely wiped out,”
says the Lord.
27Raise a signal flag to the nations.
Sound the battle cry!
Mobilize them all against Babylon.
Prepare them to fight against her!
Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander,
and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!
28Bring against her the armies of the nations—
led by the kings of the Medes
and all their captains and officers.
29The earth trembles and writhes in pain,
for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged.
Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.
30Her mightiest warriors no longer fight.
They stay in their barracks, their courage gone.
They have become like women.
The invaders have burned the houses
and broken down the city gates.
31The news is passed from one runner to the next
as the messengers hurry to tell the king
that his city has been captured.
32All the escape routes are blocked.
The marshes have been set aflame,
and the army is in a panic.
33This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says:
“Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor,
about to be trampled.
In just a little while
her harvest will begin.”
34“King Nebuchadnezzar#51:34 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar. of Babylon has eaten and crushed us
and drained us of strength.
He has swallowed us like a great monster
and filled his belly with our riches.
He has thrown us out of our own country.
35Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,”
say the people of Zion.
“Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,”
says Jerusalem.
The Lord’s Vengeance on Babylon
36This is what the Lord says to Jerusalem:
“I will be your lawyer to plead your case,
and I will avenge you.
I will dry up her river,
as well as her springs,
37and Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
haunted by jackals.
She will be an object of horror and contempt,
a place where no one lives.
38Her people will roar together like strong lions.
They will growl like lion cubs.
39And while they lie inflamed with all their wine,
I will prepare a different kind of feast for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
and they will never wake up again,”
says the Lord.
40“I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats to be sacrificed.
41“How Babylon#51:41 Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon. is fallen—
great Babylon, praised throughout the earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
among the nations.
42The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered by its crashing waves.
43Her cities now lie in ruins;
she is a dry wasteland
where no one lives or even passes by.
44And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon,
and make him vomit up all he has eaten.
The nations will no longer come and worship him.
The wall of Babylon has fallen!
A Message for the Exiles
45“Come out, my people, flee from Babylon.
Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger.
46But do not panic; don’t be afraid
when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces.
For rumors will keep coming year by year.
Violence will erupt in the land
as the leaders fight against each other.
47For the time is surely coming
when I will punish this great city and all her idols.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
and her dead will lie in the streets.
48Then the heavens and earth will rejoice,
for out of the north will come destroying armies
against Babylon,” says the Lord.
49“Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel
and others throughout the world,
so must her people be killed.
50Get out, all you who have escaped the sword!
Do not stand and watch—flee while you can!
Remember the Lord, though you are in a far-off land,
and think about your home in Jerusalem.”
51“We are ashamed,” the people say.
“We are insulted and disgraced
because the Lord’s Temple
has been defiled by foreigners.”
52“Yes,” says the Lord, “but the time is coming
when I will destroy Babylon’s idols.
The groans of her wounded people
will be heard throughout the land.
53Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens
and makes her fortifications incredibly strong,
I will still send enemies to plunder her.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
Babylon’s Complete Destruction
54“Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon,
the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.
55For the Lord is destroying Babylon.
He will silence her loud voice.
Waves of enemies pound against her;
the noise of battle rings through the city.
56Destroying armies come against Babylon.
Her mighty men are captured,
and their weapons break in their hands.
For the Lord is a God who gives just punishment;
he always repays in full.
57I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
along with her captains, officers, and warriors.
They will fall asleep
and never wake up again!”
says the King, whose name is
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
58This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:
“The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground,
and her massive gates will be burned.
The builders from many lands have worked in vain,
for their work will be destroyed by fire!”
Jeremiah’s Message Sent to Babylon
59The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, a staff officer, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.#51:59 The fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign was 593 b.c. 60Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon—all the words written here. 61He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll. 62Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.’ 63When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River. 64Then say, ‘In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.’”
This is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.
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Jeremiah 51: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Jeremiah 51
51
1This is what the Lord says:
“I will cause a destroying wind to blow.
It will blow against Babylon and the Babylonian people.
2I will send foreign people to destroy Babylon
like a wind that blows chaff away.
Those people will make Babylon empty.
Armies will surround the city
when disaster comes upon her.
3The Babylonian soldiers will not use their bows and arrows.
Those soldiers will not even put on their armor.
Don’t feel sorry for the young men of Babylon.
Completely destroy her army.
4Babylon’s soldiers will be killed in Babylon.
They will be badly injured in Babylon’s streets.
5The Lord God of heaven’s armies
did not leave Israel and Judah alone.
They are fully guilty of leaving the Holy One of Israel.
But he has not left them.
6“Run away from Babylon!
Run to save your lives!
Don’t stay and be killed because of Babylon’s sins.
It is time for the Lord to punish Babylon.
Babylon will get the punishment it deserves.
7Babylon was like a gold cup in the Lord’s hand.
It made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank Babylon’s wine.
So they went crazy.
8Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
Cry for her!
Get balm for her pain.
Maybe she can be healed.
9“Foreigners in Babylon say, ‘We tried to heal Babylon.
But she cannot be healed.
So let us leave her and each go to his own country.
Babylon’s guilt is as high as the clouds.
Babylon’s guilt reaches to the sky.’
10“The people of Judah say, ‘The Lord has shown us to be right.
Come, let us tell about it in Jerusalem.
Let us tell about what the Lord our God has done.’
11“Sharpen the arrows.
Pick up your shields!
The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes.
He has stirred them up because he wants to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will give the people of Babylon the punishment they deserve.
This is because Babylon destroyed his Temple in Jerusalem.
12Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon!
Bring more guards.
Put the watchmen in their places.
Get ready for a secret attack!
The Lord will do what he has planned.
He will do what he said he would do against the people of Babylon.
13People of Babylon, you live near much water.
You are rich with treasures.
But your end as a nation has come.
It is time for you to be destroyed.
14The Lord of heaven’s armies has promised in his own name:
‘Babylon, I will surely fill you with so many enemy soldiers they will be like a swarm of locusts.
They will stand over you and shout their victory.’
15“The Lord made the earth by his power.
He used his wisdom to build the world.
He used his understanding to stretch out the skies.
16When he thunders, the waters in the skies roar.
He makes clouds rise in the sky all over the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain.
He brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17“People are so stupid and know so little.
Goldsmiths are made ashamed by their idols.
Those statues are only false gods.
They have no breath in them.
18They are worth nothing.
People make fun of them.
When they are judged, they will be destroyed.
19But God, who is Jacob’s Portion, is not like the idols.
God made everything.
And he made Israel to be his special people.
The Lord of heaven’s armies is his name.
20“You are my war club.
You are my battle weapon.
I use you to smash nations.
I use you to destroy kingdoms.
21I use you to smash horse and rider.
I use you to smash chariot and driver.
22I use you to smash men and women.
I use you to smash old men and young men.
I use you to smash young men and young women.
23I use you to smash shepherds and flocks.
I use you to smash farmers and oxen.
I use you to smash governors and officers.
24“But I will pay Babylon back, and I will pay back all the Babylonians for all the evil things they did to Jerusalem,” says the Lord.
25The Lord says,
“Babylon, you are a destroying mountain.
And I am against you.
You have destroyed the whole land.
I will put my hand out against you.
I will roll you off the cliffs.
I will make you a burned-out mountain.
26People will not find any rocks in Babylon big enough for cornerstones.
People will not take any rocks from Babylon to use for the foundation of a building.
This is because your city will be just a pile of ruins forever,” says the Lord.
27“Lift up the banner in the land!
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Get the nations ready for battle against Babylon.
Call these kingdoms to come fight against Babylon:
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Choose a commander to lead the army against Babylon.
Send so many horses that they are like a swarm of locusts.
28Get the nations ready for battle against Babylon.
Get the kings of the Medes ready.
Get their governors and all their officers ready.
Get all the countries they rule ready for battle against Babylon.
29The land shakes and moves like it is in pain.
It will shake when the Lord does what he planned to Babylon.
His plan is to make Babylon into an empty desert.
No one will live there.
30Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting.
They stay in their protected cities.
Their strength is gone.
They have become like frightened women.
Babylon’s houses are burning.
The bars of her gates are broken.
31One messenger follows another.
Messenger follows messenger.
They announce to the king of Babylon
that his whole city has been captured.
32The river crossings have been captured.
The swamplands are burning.
All of Babylon’s soldiers are terribly afraid.”
33This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says:
“The city of Babylon is like a threshing floor,
where people crush the grain at harvest time.
The time to harvest Babylon is coming soon.”
34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has destroyed us.
In the past he took our people away.
And we became like an empty jar.
He was like a giant snake that swallowed us.
He ate everything until he was full of our best things.
Then he spit us out.
35Babylon did terrible things to hurt us.
Now let those things happen to Babylon,”
say the people of Jerusalem.
“The people of Babylon are guilty of killing our people.
Now let them be punished for the evil they did,” says Jerusalem.
36So this is what the Lord says:
“I will defend you, Judah.
I will make sure that Babylon is punished.
I will dry up Babylon’s sea.
And I will make her springs become dry.
37Babylon will become a pile of ruins.
Wild dogs will live there.
People will be shocked by what happened there.
No one lives there anymore.
38Babylon’s people are like roaring young lions.
They growl like baby lions.
39While they are stirred up,
I will give a feast for them.
I will make them drunk.
They will shout and laugh.
And they will sleep forever and never wake up!” says the Lord.
40“I will take the people of Babylon to be killed.
They will be like lambs,
like male sheep and goats waiting to be killed.
41“How Babylon will be defeated!
The pride of the whole earth will be taken captive.
People from other nations will be shocked at what happened to Babylon.
And the things they see will make them afraid.
42The sea will rise over Babylon.
Its roaring waves will cover her.
43Babylon’s towns will be ruined and empty.
Babylon will become a dry, desert land.
It will become a land where no one lives.
People will not even travel through Babylon.
44I will punish the god Bel in Babylon.
I will make him spit out what he has swallowed.
Nations will no longer come to Babylon.
And the wall around the city will fall.
45“Come out of Babylon, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the Lord’s great anger.
46Don’t lose courage.
Rumors will spread, but don’t be afraid.
One rumor comes this year, and another comes the next year.
There will be rumors of terrible fighting in the country.
There will be rumors of rulers fighting against rulers.
47The time will surely come
when I will punish the idols of Babylon.
And the whole land will be disgraced.
There will be many dead people lying all around.
48Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy about Babylon.
They will shout because the army came from the north
and fought against Babylon,” says the Lord.
49“Babylon killed people from Israel.
Babylon killed people from everywhere on earth.
So Babylon must fall.
50You people escaped being killed with swords.
You must hurry and leave Babylon.
Don’t wait!
Remember the Lord in the faraway land where you are.
And think about Jerusalem.”
51“We people of Judah are disgraced.
We have been insulted.
We have been shamed.
This is because strangers have gone into
the holy places of the Lord’s Temple!”
52The Lord says, “The time is coming
when I will punish the idols of Babylon.
Wounded people will cry with pain
all over that land.
53Babylon might grow until she touches the sky.
She might make her cities strong.
But I will send people to destroy that city,” says the Lord.
54“We can hear people crying in Babylon.
We hear the sound of people destroying things
in the land of the Babylonians.
55The Lord will destroy Babylon.
He will make the loud sounds of the city become silent.
Enemies will come roaring in like ocean waves.
People all around will hear that roar.
56The army will come and destroy Babylon.
Babylon’s soldiers will be taken captive.
Their bows will be broken.
This is because the Lord is a God who punishes people for the evil they do.
He gives them the full punishment they deserve.
57I will make Babylon’s rulers and wise men drunk.
I will make her governors, officers and soldiers drunk, too.
Then they will sleep forever and never wake up,” says the King.
His name is the Lord of heaven’s armies.
58This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:
“Babylon’s thick wall will be pulled down.
Her high gates will be burned.
The people will work hard, but it won’t help.
Their work will only become fuel for the flames!”
A Message to Babylon
59This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the officer Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Neriah, who was the son of Mahseiah. Seraiah went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah. This happened in the fourth year Zedekiah was king of Judah. 60Jeremiah had written on a scroll all the terrible things that would happen to Babylon. He had written all these words about Babylon. 61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “Go to Babylon. Be sure to read this message so all the people can hear you. 62Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy this place. You will destroy it so that no people or animals will live in it. It will be an empty ruin forever.’ 63After you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it. And throw it into the Euphrates River. 64Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink. It will not rise again. It will sink because of the terrible things I will make happen here. Her people will fall.’”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
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