Jeremiah 51
51
Babylon Will Be Destroyed
1I, the Lord, am sending
a wind#51.1 wind: Or “spirit.” to destroy
the people of Babylonia#51.1 Babylonia: The Hebrew text has “Leb-Qamai,” a secret way of writing “Babylonia.”
and Babylon, its capital.
2Foreign soldiers will come
from every direction,
and when the disaster is over,
Babylonia will be empty
and worthless.
3I will tell these soldiers,
“Attack quickly,
before the Babylonians
can string their bows
or put on their armor.#51.3 I will tell … armor: Or “Attack quickly! String your bows and put on your armor.”
Kill their best soldiers
and destroy their army!”
4Their troops will fall wounded
in the streets of Babylon.
5Everyone in Israel and Judah
is guilty.
But I, the Lord All-Powerful,
their holy God,
have not abandoned them.
6Get out of Babylon!
Run for your lives!
If you stay, you will be killed
when I take revenge on the city
and punish it for its sins.
7 #
Rev 17.2-4; 18.3. Babylon was my golden cup,
filled with the wine
of my anger.
The nations of the world
got drunk on this wine
and went insane.
8But suddenly, Babylon will fall
and be destroyed.
I, the Lord, told the foreigners#51.8 the foreigners: Or “my people.”
who lived there,
“Weep for the city!
Get medicine for its wounds;
maybe they will heal.”
9The foreigners answered,
“We have already tried
to treat Babylon's wounds,
but they would not heal.
Come on, let's all go home
to our own countries.
Nothing is left in Babylonia;
everything is destroyed.”
10The people of Israel said,
“Tell everyone in Zion!
The Lord has taken revenge
for what Babylon did to us.”
The Lord Wants Babylon Destroyed
11I, the Lord,
want Babylon destroyed,
because its army
destroyed my temple.
So, you kings of Media,#51.11 kings of Media: Probably kings of smaller kingdoms that were part of the Median Empire (see also verse 27 and the note there).
sharpen your arrows
and pick up your shields.
12Raise the signal flag
and attack the city walls.
Post more guards.
Have soldiers watch the city
and set up ambushes.
I have made plans
to destroy Babylon,
and nothing will stop me.
13 #
Rev 17.1. People of Babylon, you live
along the Euphrates River
and are surrounded by canals.
You are rich,
but now the time has come
for you to die.#51.13 for you to die: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
14I, the Lord All-Powerful,
swear by my own life
that enemy soldiers
will fill your streets
like a swarm of locusts.#51.14 locusts: See the note at 46.22.
They will shout
and celebrate their victory.
A Hymn of Praise
(Jeremiah 10.12-16)
15God used his wisdom and power
to create the earth
and spread out the heavens.
16The waters in the heavens roar
at his command.
He makes clouds appear;
he sends the wind
from his storehouse
and makes lightning flash
in the rain.
17People who make idols
are stupid!
They will be disappointed,
because their false gods
cannot breathe.
18Idols are merely a joke,
and when the time is right,
they will be destroyed.
19But the Lord, Israel's God,
is all-powerful.
He created everything,
and he chose Israel
to be his very own.
God's Hammer
The Lord said:
20Babylonia, you were my hammer;
I used you to pound nations
and break kingdoms,
21to shatter cavalry and chariots,
22as well as men and women,
young and old,
23shepherds and their flocks,
farmers and their oxen,
and governors and leaders.
24But now, my people will watch,
while I repay you
for what you did to Zion.
25You destroyed the nations
and seem strong as a mountain,
but I am your enemy.
I might even grab you
and roll you off a cliff.
When I am finished,
you'll only be a pile
of scorched bricks.
26Your stone blocks won't be reused
for cornerstones
or foundations,
and I promise that forever
you will be a desert.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
The Nations Will Attack Babylon
The Lord said:
27Signal the nations
to get ready to attack.
Raise a flag and blow a trumpet.
Send for the armies of Ararat,
Minni, and Ashkenaz.#51.27 Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: Kingdoms to the north of Babylonia that were part of the Median Empire (see also verse 28).
Choose a commander;
let the cavalry attack
like a swarm of locusts.
28Tell the kings and governors,
the leaders and the people
of the kingdoms of the Medes
to prepare for war!
29The earth twists and turns
in torment,
because I have decided
to make Babylonia a desert
where no one can live,
and I won't change my mind.
30The Babylonian soldiers
have lost their strength
and courage.#51.30 have lost their strength and courage: Hebrew “have lost their strength and have become like women.”
They stay in their fortresses,
unable to fight,
while the enemy breaks through
the city gates,
then sets their homes on fire.
31One messenger after another
announces to the king,
“Babylon has been captured!
32The enemy now controls
the river crossings!
The marshes#51.32 marshes: The tall grass in the marshes could have provided hiding places for people trying to escape from Babylon. are on fire!
Your army has panicked!”
33I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the God of Israel,
and I make this promise—
“Soon Babylon will be leveled
and packed down
like a threshing place
at harvest time.”#51.33 leveled … harvest time: A threshing place with a dirt surface had to be leveled and packed down before it could be used.
Babylonia Will Pay!
34The people of Jerusalem say,
“King Nebuchadnezzar#51.34 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2.
made us panic.
That monster stuffed himself
with us and our treasures,
leaving us empty—
he gobbled up
what he wanted
and spit out the rest.
35The people of Babylonia
harmed some of us#51.35 harmed some of us: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
and killed others.
Now, Lord, make them pay!”
The Lord Will Take Revenge on Babylon
36My people, I am on your side,
and I will take revenge
on Babylon.
I will cut off its water supply,
and its stream#51.36 stream: Probably the Euphrates River. will dry up.
37Babylon will be a pile of rubble
where only jackals#51.37 jackals: See the note at 9.11. live,
and everyone will be afraid
to walk among the ruins.
38The Babylonians roar and growl
like young lions.
39And since they are hungry,
I will give them a banquet.
They will celebrate, get drunk,
then fall asleep,
never to wake up!
40I will lead them away to die,
like sheep, lambs, and goats
being led to the butcher.
41All nations now praise Babylon,#51.41 Babylon: The Hebrew text has “Sheshach,” a secret way of writing the name “Babylon.”
but when it is captured,
those same nations
will be horrified.
42Babylon's enemies will rise
like ocean waves
and flood the city.
43Horrible destruction will strike
the nearby towns.
The land will become
a barren desert,
where no one can live
or even travel.
44I will punish Marduk,#51.44 Marduk: Hebrew “Bel” (see the note at 50.2).
the god of Babylon,
and make him vomit out
everything he gobbled up.
Then nations will no longer
bring him gifts,
and Babylon's walls will crumble.
The Lord Offers Hope to His People
45Get out of Babylon, my people,
and run for your lives,
before I strike the city
in my anger!
46Don't be afraid or lose hope,
though year after year
there are rumors
of leaders fighting for control
in the city of Babylon.
47The time will come
when I will punish
Babylon's false gods.
Everyone there will die,
and the whole nation
will be disgraced,
48 #
Rev 18.20. when an army attacks
from the north
and brings destruction.
Then the earth and the heavens
and everything in them
will celebrate.
49 #
Rev 18.24. Babylon must be overthrown,
because it slaughtered
the people of Israel
and of many other nations.
50My people, you escaped death
when Jerusalem fell.
Now you live far from home,
but you should trust me
and think about Jerusalem.
Leave Babylon! Don't stay!
51You feel ashamed and disgraced,
because foreigners have entered
my sacred temple.
52Soon I will send a war
to punish Babylon's idols
and leave its wounded people
moaning everywhere.
53Although Babylon's walls
reach to the sky,
the army I send
will destroy that city.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
Babylon Will Be Destroyed
The Lord said:
54Listen to the cries for help
coming from Babylon.
Everywhere in the country
the sounds of destruction
can be heard.
55The shouts of the enemy,
like crashing ocean waves,
will drown out Babylon's cries
as I level the city.
56An enemy will attack
and destroy Babylon.
Its soldiers will be captured
and their weapons broken,
because I am a God
who takes revenge against nations
for what they do.
57I, the Lord All-Powerful,
the true King, promise
that the officials and advisors,
the governors and leaders,
and the soldiers of Babylon
will get drunk, fall asleep,
and never wake up.
58The thick walls of that city
will be torn down,
and its huge gates burned.
Everything that nation
worked so hard to gain
will go up in smoke.
Jeremiah Gives Seraiah a Scroll
59During Zedekiah's#51.59 Zedekiah's: See the note at 1.3. fourth year as king of Judah, he went to Babylon. And Baruch's brother Seraiah#51.59 Baruch's brother Seraiah: Hebrew “Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah”; Baruch helped Jeremiah write down his messages (see 32.12; 36.4-10). went along as the officer in charge of arranging for places to stay overnight.#51.59 arranging for places to stay overnight: Hebrew and one ancient translation; two ancient translations, “the tax money.”
60Before they left, I wrote on a scroll#51.60 scroll: See the note at 30.1,2. all the terrible things that would happen to Babylon. 61I gave the scroll to Seraiah and said:
When you get to Babylon, read this scroll aloud, 62then pray, “Our Lord, you promised to destroy this place and make it into a desert where no people or animals will ever live.”
63 #
Rev 18.21. When you finish praying, tie the scroll to a rock and throw it in the Euphrates River. Then say, 64“This is how Babylon will sink when the Lord destroys it. Everyone in the city will die, and it won't have the strength to rise again.”
The End of Jeremiah's Writing
Jeremiah's writing ends here.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 51
51
The Destruction of Babylon
1#Jer 4:11–12; Hos 13:15Thus says the Lord:
I will raise up against Babylon,
and against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,
the spirit of a destroyer.
2#Jer 15:7; Mt 3:12 And I will send foreigners to Babylon
that they may winnow her and empty her land.
For in the day of trouble
they will be against her all around.
3#Jer 46:4; 50:14 Let not him who bends his bow bend it,
and let him not rise up in his scale-armor,
and do not spare her young men;
utterly destroy all her host.
4#Jer 49:26; Isa 13:15 Thus the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
and those who are thrust through in her streets.
5#Hos 4:1; Jer 33:24–26 For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah,
by his God, the Lord of Hosts,
though their land was filled with sin
against the Holy One of Israel.
6#Jer 50:8; 50:15; 50:28 Flee out of the midst of Babylon,
and each of you deliver his soul!
Do not be cut off in her punishment,
for this is the time of the vengeance of the Lord;
He will render to her a recompense.
7#Rev 14:8; 17:4; 17:2 Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord,
that made all the earth drunk.
The nations have drunk of her wine;
therefore the nations are mad.
8#Isa 21:9; Jer 46:11 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed.
Howl for her.
Take balm for her pain;
perhaps she may be healed.
9#Isa 13:14; Jer 50:16 We applied healing to Babylon,
but she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us each go into his own country;
for her judgment reaches to heaven
and is lifted up even to the skies.
10#Jer 50:28; Ps 37:6 The Lord has brought forth our righteousness.
Come, and let us declare in Zion
the work of the Lord our God.
11#Jer 46:4; 50:45 Sharpen the arrows.
Gather the shields.
The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His device is against Babylon, to destroy it;
because it is the vengeance of the Lord,
the vengeance of His temple.
12#Isa 13:2; Jer 51:11 Set up the standard against the walls of Babylon,
make the watch strong,
set up the watchmen,
prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13#Rev 17:1; Isa 45:3 O you who dwell by many waters,
abundant in treasures,
your end has come,
and the measure of your end.
14#Jer 49:13; 50:15 The Lord of Hosts has sworn by Himself,
saying: Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,
and they will lift up shouts of victory against you.
15#Job 9:8; Jer 10:12–16 He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16#Ps 135:7; 18:13; Jnh 1:4 When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens,
and He causes the clouds to ascend from the remote parts of the earth;
He makes lightning with rain,
and brings out the wind from His storehouses.
17#Jer 10:14; Hab 2:18–19 Every man is ignorant by His knowledge;
every founder is humiliated by the graven image,
for his molded image is falsehood,
and there is no breath in them.
18They are vanity, the work of errors;
in the time of their punishment they will perish.
19#Jer 10:16; Ps 73:26 The portion of Jacob is not like them,
for He is the former of all things,
and Israel is the rod of His inheritance.
The Lord of Hosts is His name.
20#Isa 10:5; 41:15–16 He says: You are My battle-ax
and weapon of war:
for with you I will break in pieces the nations,
and with you I will destroy kingdoms;
21#Ex 15:1 and with you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider;
and with you I will break in pieces the chariot and his rider.
22#2Ch 36:17; Isa 13:18 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
and with you I will break in pieces old and young;
and with you I will break in pieces the young man and the young woman.
23I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock;
and with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
and with you I will break in pieces captains and rulers.
24#Jer 50:15I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the Lord.
25#Rev 8:8; Zec 4:7; Isa 13:2 I am against you, O destroying mountain,
says the Lord,
who destroys all the earth.
And I will stretch out My hand against you,
and roll you down from the rocks,
and will make you a burned mountain.
26#Isa 13:19–22; Jer 50:12–13 They will not take of you a stone for a corner,
or a stone for foundations,
but you will be desolate forever,
says the Lord.
27#Ge 8:4; 10:3 Set up a standard in the land,
blow the trumpet among the nations,
prepare the nations against her,
call together against her the kingdoms
of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a captain against her.
Cause the horses to come up as the rough locusts.
28#Jer 51:11 Prepare against her the nations,
the kings of the Medes,
the captains, and all the rulers,
and every land of their dominion.
29#Jer 8:16; 51:43 So the land trembles and sorrows,
for the purposes of the Lord will be performed against Babylon,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation
without an inhabitant.
30#Na 3:13; La 2:9; Isa 13:7–8 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting;
they have remained in their strongholds.
Their might has failed;
they became as women.
They have burned her dwelling places;
the bars of her gates are broken.
31#2Sa 18:19–31; 2Ch 30:6 One courier will run to meet another,
and one messenger to meet another,
to show the king of Babylon
that his city has been captured from end to end,
32and the passages have been seized,
and they have burned the reeds with fire,
and the men of war are terrified.
33#Isa 21:10; Hos 6:11For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel:
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor,
it is time to thresh her;
yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come.
34#Jer 50:17; 51:44 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
has devoured me and crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel.
He has swallowed me up like a dragon;
he has filled his belly with my delicacies,
he has cast me out.
35May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”
the inhabitant of Zion will say;
and, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say.
36#Jer 50:38; Ps 140:12Therefore thus says the Lord:
I will plead your cause,
and take vengeance for you.
And I will dry up her sea,
and make her springs dry.
37#Rev 18:2; Jer 18:16 Babylon will become heaps,
a dwelling place for jackals,
an astonishment, and a hissing,
without an inhabitant.
38#Jer 2:15 They will roar together like young lions;
they will growl as lions’ whelps.
39#Jer 51:57; 25:27 When they become heated up,
I will make their feasts,
and I will make them drunk,
that they may rejoice,
and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake,
says the Lord.
40#Jer 50:27 I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams with male goats.
41#Jer 25:26; Isa 13:19 How Sheshak has been captured!
And how the praise of the whole earth has been seized!
How Babylon has become an astonishment
among the nations!
42#Isa 8:7–8; Da 9:26 The sea has come up over Babylon;
she has been covered with the multitude of the waves.
43#Isa 13:20; Jer 2:6 Her cities have become a desolation,
a dry land and a wilderness,
a land in which no man dwells,
through which no son of man passes.
44#Jer 51:34; 51:58 I will punish Bel in Babylon,
and I will bring forth from his mouth what he has swallowed up;
and the nations will not flow together any more to him.
Indeed, the wall of Babylon will fall.
45#Jer 51:6; Isa 48:20 My people, go out of her midst,
and deliver every man his soul
from the fierce anger of the Lord,
46#2Ki 19:7; Isa 13:3–5 lest your heart grows faint, and you are afraid
for the report that will be heard in the land—
for the report will come one year, and after that in another year will come another report,
and violence will be in the land,
ruler against ruler—
47#Jer 50:2; Isa 46:1–2 therefore the days are coming
when I will punish the graven images of Babylon;
and her whole land will be humiliated,
and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48#Isa 44:23; Rev 18:20 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is in it,
shall sing for joy over Babylon;
for the destroyers will come to her
from the north,
says the Lord.
49#Jer 50:29; 51:24 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
so at Babylon the slain of all the earth will fall.
50#Jer 44:28; Dt 4:29–31 You who have escaped the sword,
go away, do not stand still.
Remember the Lord afar off,
and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51#La 1:10; Ps 44:13–16 We are humiliated
because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
for strangers have come into
the holy places of the house of the Lord.
52#Jer 51:47; 50:38 Therefore, surely the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will punish her graven images,
and the mortally wounded shall groan
through all her land.
53#Jer 49:16; Ge 11:4 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
and though she should fortify the height of her strength,
yet from Me will destroyers come to her,
says the Lord.
54#Jer 50:22; 48:3–5 A sound of an outcry comes from Babylon,
and great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans,
55because the Lord has devastated Babylon,
and destroyed the great voice out of her.
When her waves roar like great waters,
a noise of their voice is uttered.
56#Ps 46:9; 94:1–2 Because the destroyer is coming against her, even upon Babylon,
and her mighty men will be captured,
every one of their bows are broken.
For the Lord is a God of recompense;
He will completely repay.
57#Jer 46:18; 25:27 I will make her officials drunk, and her wise men,
her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men;
and they will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake,
says the King whose name is the Lord of Hosts.
58#Jer 51:64; Hab 2:13Thus says the Lord of Hosts:
The broad wall of Babylon will be utterly broken,
and her high gates will be burned with fire;
and the peoples will labor in vain,
and the nations become exhausted only for fire.
Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah
59#Jer 32:12; 36:4The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was a quartermaster. 60#Isa 30:8; Jer 30:2–3So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. 61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, then see that you read aloud all these words, 62#Jer 50:3; 50:13and say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, that no one will remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever.’ 63#Jer 19:10–11; Rev 18:21It will be that when you have made an end of reading this scroll that you will bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, 64#Jer 51:58; Job 31:40and say, ‘Thus Babylon will sink and not rise from the disaster that I will bring upon her, and they will become weary.’ ”
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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