Jeremiah 51
51
Apocalyptic Vengeance
1Thus says Adonai: “Look! Stirring up against Babylon and those living in Leb-kamai, a spirit of destruction.
2I will send strangers to Babylon to scatter her and empty her land. For in the day of trouble they will be against her all around.
3Let the archer bend his bow at her. Let him rise up at her in his armor. Do not spare her young men. Destroy her whole army.
4They will fall down slain in the land of Chaldea, thrust through in her streets.
5For neither Israel nor Judah will be widowed by his God, Adonai-Tzva’ot, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from within Babylon! Each one, escape with his soul! Be not silenced in her iniquity! For it is a time of vengeance for Adonai. He will repay her recompense.
7Babylon has been a golden cup in Adonai’s hand, intoxicating the whole earth. The nations drunk her wine— so the nations are going crazy.
8Suddenly Babylon is fallen! Shattered! Howl over her! Bring balm for her wound. Perhaps she may be healed?
9We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed. Abandon her! Let’s go, each one to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to the heavens and has risen beyond the skies.
10Adonai has brought forth our vindication! Come, let us declare in Zion the work of Adonai Eloheinu!
11Sharpen the arrows. Fill the quivers! Adonai has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it. For it is Adonai’s vengeance, vengeance for His Temple.
12Raise a banner at Babylon’s walls! Strengthen the guard. Station watchmen. Prepare ambushes. For Adonai has both planned and accomplished what He spoke about the Babylonians.
13You dwelling by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.
14Adonai-Tzva’ot has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you with men like a locust swarm, and they will shout cheers over you.”
Creator of All, Judge of All
15One made the earth by His power, set up the world by His wisdom, and spread out the heavens by His knowledge.
16At His giving voice— tumult of waters in the skies! He causes clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings forth wind from His storehouses.
17All mankind is stupid, ignorant. Every goldsmith is disgraced by an idol, for his molten image is a lie— there is no breath in them.
18They are futile, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
19Jacob’s Portion is not like these, for He is the former of all things, including the tribe of His heritage —Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name.
20“You are My club, a war weapon— with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.
21With you I wreck horse and rider, with you I wreck chariot and rider,
22with you I break man and woman, with you I break elder and youth, with you I break young man and maid,
23with you I scatter shepherd and flock, with you I scatter plowman and ox-team, with you I scatter governors and officials.
24I will repay Babylon and all living in Chaldea for all their evil that they did in Zion, before your eyes.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
25“Beware! I am against you, destroyer of the Mount!” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “Destroyer of all the land— I will stretch out My hand at you, roll you down from the cliffs, and make you a burning hill.
26They will not even take from you a cornerstone or foundation stone, for you will be desolate forever.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
27Raise a banner in the land! Blow a shofar among the nations! Consecrate the nations against her. Summon against her the kingdoms— Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her. Bring horses up like rough locusts.
28Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, its governors and all its deputies, and all the land of his dominion.
29Now the land shakes and writhes, for Adonai’s plans against Babylon arise— to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30Babylon’s warriors ceased fighting. They stay in their strongholds. Their might is exhausted. They have become like women. Her dwellings are set ablaze, her gate-bars are broken.
31One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell Babylon’s king that his city has been taken from end to end.
32The fords have also been seized and the marshes burned with fire, so the warriors are in panic.
33For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at treading time. A little longer, and the time of harvest for her will come.”
34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, crushed me, set me aside like an empty dish, swallowed me up like a dragon, filled his belly with my delicacies, rinsed me away.”
35The one dwelling in Zion says: “Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon!” Jerusalem says: “My blood be on the Chaldeans!”
36Therefore thus says Adonai: “Yes, I will uphold your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
37Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling for jackals, a horror and a hissing, uninhabited.
38They roar together like young lions, growl like lions cubs.
39When they become hot, I will set out a banquet for them and will make them so drunk that they become merry— and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never awake.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
40“I will drag them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41How has Sheshach been taken, the praise of the whole earth seized? How has Babylon become a horror among the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon— she is covered with its roaring waves.
43Her cities became desolation, a dry land, desert, uninhabited land, through which no son of man passes.
44I will punish Bel in Babylon— What he swallowed I will make him disgorge out of his mouth. Nations will no longer stream to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon has fallen!
45Come out of her, My people! Each of you, save your soul from the fierce anger of Adonai.
46Do not be faint-hearted, or be intimidated by the rumor heard in the land— one year one rumor comes, next year, another rumor. Yet violence will be in the land, with ruler against ruler.
47Therefore behold, days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s idols. Her entire land will be disgraced and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48Then heaven and the earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers from the north will come to her.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
49Yes, Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel, even as the slain of all the earth fell to Babylon.
50Escapees from the sword, go! Do not stand still! Remember Adonai from afar— and make aliyah to Jerusalem in your heart.
51“We were shamed when we heard reproach. Disgrace has covered our faces, for foreigners entered the holy places of Adonai’s House.”
52“Therefore behold, days are coming” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “when I will punish her idols, and the wounded will groan throughout all her land.
53Even if Babylon went up to heaven and even if she fortified the height of her stronghold, from Me destroyers will come to her.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
54The sound of an outcry from Babylon! Great ruin from the land of Chaldea!
55For Adonai is devastating Babylon, and will silence her loud voice. Their waves will roar like many waters. The noise of their voices will resound.
56For a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, and her warriors will be captured, their bows broken. For Adonai is a God of restitution, He will fully repay.
57“I will intoxicate her officials and sages, her governors, deputies, and warriors, and they will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake.” It is a declaration of the King, whose Name is Adonai-Tzva’ot.
58Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Babylon’s thick wall will be totally razed and her high gates burned with fire. So the peoples are toiling for nothing, and nations weary themselves for fire.”
59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was quartermaster.
60And Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the evil that would come upon Babylon, including all these words that were written about Babylon.
61Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you arrive in Babylon, then see that you read all these words,
62and say: ‘Adonai, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that nothing will dwell there, neither man nor beast, but that it will be desolate forever.’
63“Now when you have finished reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.
64Then you will say: ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and not rise again, because of the calamity that I will bring on her. So they will weary themselves.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
Jeremiah 51
51
Hurricane Persia
1-5There’s more. God says more:
“Watch this:
I’m whipping up
A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia’—
against all who live in that perverse land.
I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon.
They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom.
When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her
worth taking or talking about.
They won’t miss a thing.
A total and final Doomsday!
Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got.
It’s no-holds-barred.
They will spare nothing and no one.
It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end!
Babylon littered with the wounded,
streets piled with corpses.
It turns out that Israel and Judah
are not widowed after all.
As their God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well,
committed to them even though
They filled their land with sin
against Israel’s most Holy God.
6-8“Get out of Babylon as fast as you can.
Run for your lives! Save your necks!
Don’t linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her
as I pay her back for her sins.
Babylon was a fancy gold chalice
held in my hand,
Filled with the wine of my anger
to make the whole world drunk.
The nations drank the wine
and they’ve all gone crazy.
Babylon herself will stagger and crash,
senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic!
Get anointing balm for her wound.
Maybe she can be cured.”
* * *
9“We did our best, but she can’t be helped.
Babylon is past fixing.
Give her up to her fate.
Go home.
The judgment on her will be vast,
a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance.
Your Lifeline Is Cut
10“God has set everything right for us.
Come! Let’s tell the good news
Back home in Zion.
Let’s tell what our God did to set things right.
11-13“Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers!
God has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!’
God’s on the warpath.
He’s out to avenge his Temple.
Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls.
Station guards around the clock.
Bring in reinforcements.
Set men in ambush.
God will do what he planned,
what he said he’d do to the people of Babylon.
You have more water than you need,
you have more money than you need—
But your life is over,
your lifeline cut.”
* * *
14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn:
“I’ll fill this place with soldiers.
They’ll swarm through here like locusts
chanting victory songs over you.”
* * *
15-19By his power he made earth.
His wisdom gave shape to the world.
He crafted the cosmos.
He thunders and rain pours down.
He sends the clouds soaring.
He embellishes the storm with lightnings,
launches the wind from his warehouse.
Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish!
god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!
Their gods are frauds, dead sticks—
deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.
They’re nothing but stale smoke.
When the smoke clears, they’re gone.
But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing;
he put the whole universe together,
With special attention to Israel.
His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
They’ll Sleep and Never Wake Up
20-23God says, “You, Babylon, are my hammer,
my weapon of war.
I’ll use you to smash godless nations,
use you to knock kingdoms to bits.
I’ll use you to smash horse and rider,
use you to smash chariot and driver.
I’ll use you to smash man and woman,
use you to smash the old man and the boy.
I’ll use you to smash the young man and young woman,
use you to smash shepherd and sheep.
I’ll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen,
use you to smash governors and senators.
24“Judeans, you’ll see it with your own eyes. I’ll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion.” God’s Decree.
25-26“I’m your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer,
you ravager of the whole earth.
I’ll reach out, I’ll take you in my hand,
and I’ll crush you till there’s no mountain left.
I’ll turn you into a gravel pit—
no more cornerstones cut from you,
No more foundation stones quarried from you!
Nothing left of you but gravel.” God’s Decree.
* * *
27-28“Raise the signal in the land,
blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations.
Consecrate the nations for holy work against her.
Call kingdoms into service against her.
Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a field marshal against her,
and round up horses, locust hordes of horses!
Consecrate the nations for holy work against her—
the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.
29-33“The very land trembles in terror, writhes in pain,
terrorized by my plans against Babylon,
Plans to turn the country of Babylon
into a lifeless moonscape—a wasteland.
Babylon’s soldiers have quit fighting.
They hide out in ruins and caves—
Cowards who’ve given up without a fight,
exposed as cowering crybabies.
Babylon’s houses are going up in flames,
the city gates torn off their hinges.
Runner after runner comes racing in,
each on the heels of the last,
Bringing reports to the king of Babylon
that his city is a lost cause.
The fords of the rivers are all taken.
Wildfire rages through the swamp grass.
Soldiers desert left and right.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, said it would happen:
‘Daughter Babylon is a threshing floor
at threshing time.
Soon, oh very soon, her harvest will come
and then the chaff will fly!’
* * *
34-37“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
chewed up my people and spit out the bones.
He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair,
and belched—a huge gluttonous belch.
Lady Zion says,
‘The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!’
And Jerusalem says,
‘The blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!’
Then I, God, step in and say,
‘I’m on your side, taking up your cause.
I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge.
I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs.
Babylon will be a pile of rubble,
scavenged by stray dogs and cats,
A dumping ground for garbage,
a godforsaken ghost town.’
* * *
38-40“The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs,
ravenous, roaring for food.
I’ll fix them a meal, all right—a banquet, in fact.
They’ll drink themselves falling-down drunk.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep, and sleep . . .
and they’ll never wake up.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll haul these ‘lions’ off to the slaughterhouse
like the lambs, rams, and goats,
never to be heard of again.
* * *
41-48“Babylon is finished—
the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face.
What a comedown for Babylon,
to end up inglorious in the sewer!
Babylon drowned in chaos,
battered by waves of enemy soldiers.
Her towns stink with decay and rot,
the land empty and bare and sterile.
No one lives in these towns anymore.
Travelers give them a wide berth.
I’ll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon.
I’ll make him vomit up all he gulped down.
No more visitors stream into this place,
admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon.
The wonders of Babylon are no more.
Run for your lives, my dear people!
Run, and don’t look back!
Get out of this place while you can,
this place torched by God’s raging anger.
Don’t lose hope. Don’t ever give up
when the rumors pour in hot and heavy.
One year it’s this, the next year it’s that—
rumors of violence, rumors of war.
Trust me, the time is coming
when I’ll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place.
I’ll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud,
with dead bodies strewn all over the place.
Heaven and earth, angels and people,
will throw a victory party over Babylon
When the avenging armies from the north
descend on her.” God’s Decree!
Remember God in Your Long and Distant Exile
49-50“Babylon must fall—
compensation for the war dead in Israel.
Babylonians will be killed
because of all that Babylonian killing.
But you exiles who have escaped a Babylonian death,
get out! And fast!
Remember God in your long and distant exile.
Keep Jerusalem alive in your memory.”
51How we’ve been humiliated, taunted and abused,
kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are!
And we hardly know what to think—
our old Sanctuary, God’s house, desecrated by strangers.
52-53“I know, but trust me: The time is coming”
—God’s Decree—
“When I will bring doom on her no-god idols,
and all over this land her wounded will groan.
Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon
and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her,
That wouldn’t stop me.
I’d make sure my avengers would reach her.”
God’s Decree.
54-56“But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon!
An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!
God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon.
We’ll be hearing the last of her noise—
Death throes like the crashing of waves,
death rattles like the roar of cataracts.
The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon:
Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed.
Indeed, God is a God who evens things out.
All end up with their just deserts.
57“I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them—
princes, sages, governors, soldiers.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep and sleep . . .
and never wake up.” The King’s Decree.
His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
58 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“The city walls of Babylon—those massive walls!—
will be flattened.
And those city gates—huge gates!—
will be set on fire.
The harder you work at this empty life,
the less you are.
Nothing comes of ambition like this
but ashes.”
* * *
59Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.
60-62Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon. He told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read this out in public. Read, ‘You, O God, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human nor animal—a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.’
63-64“When you’ve finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink. Then say, ‘That’s how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I’m going to bring upon her.’”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.