Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 51
51
1Thus said יהוה, “See, I am stirring up the spirit of a destroyer against Baḇel, against those who dwell in Lĕb – My opponents.
2And I shall send winnowers to Baḇel, who shall winnow her and empty her land. For they shall be against her all around, in the day of evil.
3“Let the archer draw his bow, and let him stand ready in his armour. Do not spare her young men, put all her army under the ban.
4“And the slain shall fall in the land of the Kasdim, and the pierced-through in her streets.
5“For neither Yisra’ĕl nor Yehuḏah is widowed by his Elohim, יהוה of hosts, though their land has been filled with sin against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.”
6Flee from the midst of Baḇel,#See Rev. 18:4 and let each one save his life! Do not be cut off in her crookedness, for this is the time of the vengeance of יהוה, the recompense He is repaying her.
7Baḇel was a golden cup in the hand of יהוה, making drunk all the earth.#See Rev. 17:1-18 The nations drank her wine, that is why the nations went mad!
8Baḇel shall suddenly fall and be broken. Howl for her! Take balm for her pain – if so be, she might be healed.
9We would have healed Baḇel, but she is not healed. Let us leave her and each go to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the clouds.
10יהוה has brought forth our righteousness. Come and let us relate in Tsiyon the work of יהוה our Elohim.
11Polish the arrows! Put on the shields! יהוה has stirred up the spirit of the sovereigns of the Medes. For His plan is against Baḇel to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of יהוה, the vengeance for His Hĕḵal.
12Lift up a banner on the walls of Baḇel, strengthen the watch, station the watchmen, prepare the ambush. For יהוה has both planned and done what He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Baḇel.
13You who dwell upon many waters, great in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your greedy gain.
14יהוה of hosts has sworn by Himself, “I shall certainly fill you with men, as with locusts, and they shall lift up a shout against you.”
15He made the earth by His power, He established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
16When He gives forth His voice the waters in the heavens roar, and He makes vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightnings for the rain, and He brings the wind out of His treasuries.
17All mankind has become too brutish to know, every smith has been put to shame by the carved image, for his moulded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18They are worthless, a work of mockery. In the time of their punishment they perish.
19The Portion of Ya‛aqoḇ is not like them, for He is the Maker of all, and Yisra’ĕl is the tribe of His inheritance. יהוה of hosts is His Name.
20“You are My battle-axe, weapons of battle, and with you I shall break nations in pieces, and with you I shall destroy reigns.
21“And with you I shall break in pieces the horse and its rider, and with you I shall break in pieces the chariot and its rider.
22“And with you I shall break in pieces man and woman, and with you I shall break in pieces old and young, and with you I shall break in pieces the young man and the maiden.
23“And with you I shall break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, and with you I shall break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen. And with you I shall break in pieces governors and rulers.
24“And I shall repay Baḇel and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Tsiyon before your eyes,” declares יהוה.
25“See, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth,” declares יהוה. “And I shall stretch out My hand against you. And I shall roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain.
26“And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for a foundation, but you shall be a waste forever,” declares יהוה.
27Lift up a banner in the land, blow a shophar among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, call the reigns together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her, bring up horses like hairy locusts.
28Separate the nations against her, with the sovereigns of the Medes, its governors and all its rulers, all the land of his rule,
29so that the land shakes and writhes in pain. For every plan of יהוה shall be established against Baḇel, to make the land of Baḇel a ruin, without inhabitant.
30The mighty men of Baḇel have ceased to fight, they remained in their strongholds. Their might has failed, they became like women, they have burned her dwelling places. The bars of her gate have been broken.
31One runner runs to meet another, and one reporter to meet another, to report to the sovereign of Baḇel that his city is taken on all sides,
32and the fords have been captured, and they have burned the reeds with fire, and the soldiers are startled.
33For thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “The daughter of Baḇel is like a threshing-floor at the time it is trodden. Yet a little while and the time of her harvest shall come.”
34“Neḇuḵaḏretstsar the sovereign of Baḇel has devoured us, he has crushed us, he has made us an empty vessel, he has swallowed us up like a monster. He has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has driven us away.
35“Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Baḇel,” says the inhabitant of Tsiyon. And, “Let my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Yerushalayim.
36Therefore thus said יהוה, “See, I am pleading your case. And I shall take vengeance for you and dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.
37“And Baḇel shall become a heap, a habitation of jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38“Together they roar like lions, they shall growl like lions’ cubs.
39“In their heat I prepare their feasts. And I shall make them drunk, so that they rejoice, and sleep a neverending sleep and not awake,” declares יהוה.
40“I shall bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
41“Oh, how Shĕshaḵ has been captured, the praise of all the earth been seized! How Baḇel has become a ruin among the nations!
42“The sea has risen over Baḇel, she has been covered with the roaring of its waves.
43“Her cities have become a ruin, a dry land and a desert, a land where no one dwells, neither does son of man pass by it.
44“And I shall punish Bĕl in Baḇel. And I shall make him spew out what he has swallowed, and nations shall no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Baḇel shall fall.
45“Come out#See Rev. 18:4 of her midst, My people! And let everyone deliver his being from the burning displeasure of יהוה.
46“And lest your heart grow faint, and you fear the report heard in the land – for a report shall come one year, and after that, in another year a report shall come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler –
47therefore see, the days are coming that I shall bring punishment on the carved images of Baḇel, and all her land shall be put to shame, and all her slain fall in her midst.
48“And the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall shout for joy over Baḇel, for the ravagers shall come to her from the north,” declares יהוה.
49As Baḇel is to fall for the slain of Yisra’ĕl, so for Baḇel the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50You who have escaped the sword, go away! Do not stand still! Remember יהוה from afar, and let Yerushalayim come to your heart.
51We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the set-apart places of the House of יהוה.#See Psa. 79:1-7; Lam. 1:10; Dan. 8:13; Dan. 11:31; Mat. 24:15
52“Therefore see, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “that I shall bring punishment on her carved images, while the wounded groan throughout all her land.
53“Though Baḇel should mount up to the heavens, and though she should make the height of her strength inaccessible, ravagers shall come to her from Me,” declares יהוה.
54Listen! A cry from Baḇel, and great destruction from the land of the Kasdim,
55because יהוה is ravaging Baḇel, and shall silence her loud voice. And her waves shall roar like great waters, the noise of their voice shall resound,
56because the ravager shall come against her, against Baḇel, and her mighty men shall be captured. Every one of their bows shall be broken, for יהוה is the Ěl of recompense, He shall certainly repay.
57“And I shall make her rulers drunk, and her wise men, her governors, and her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a lasting sleep, and not awake,” declares the Sovereign, whose Name is יהוה of hosts.
58Thus said יהוה of hosts, “The broad walls of Baḇel are completely demolished, and her high gates are burned with fire, and peoples labour in vain, and the nations weary themselves for fire.”
59The word that Yirmeyahu the prophet commanded Serayah son of Nĕriyah, son of Maḥsĕyah, when he went with Tsiḏqiyahu the sovereign of Yehuḏah to Baḇel in the fourth year of his reign. And Serayah was a quartermaster.
60So Yirmeyahu wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Baḇel, all these words which have been written concerning Baḇel.
61And Yirmeyahu said to Serayah, “When you come to Baḇel and see it, and read all these words,
62then you shall say, ‘O יהוה, You have spoken concerning this place to cut it off, so that none shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, for it is a ruin forever.’
63“And it shall be, when you have ended reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates,
64and shall say, ‘So does Baḇel sink and not rise from the evil that I am bringing upon her, and they shall weary themselves.’ ” Thus far are the words of Yirmeyahu.
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Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 51: TS2009
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Jeremiah 51
51
1The LORD proclaims:
I’m stirring up a violent wind against Babylon
and those who live in Leb-qamai.#51.1 Or the inhabitants of Leb qamai, a reference to Chaldea (Babylonia); or those who rise up against me
2I will send mercenaries#51.2 Or foreigners to Babylon
who will sift her and clear out her land.
They will surround her
on the day of disaster.
3Let the archers draw their bows;
let them prepare their armor.
Show no mercy to her young men;
wipe out her entire company!
4They will fall wounded in the land of Babylon,
struck down in her streets.
5God, the LORD of heavenly forces,
hasn’t abandoned Israel and Judah,
even though they live in a land filled with guilt
before the holy one of Israel.
6Escape from Babylon;
each of you run for your lives!
Don’t perish because of her guilt,
because this is the time
for the LORD’s retribution,
a day of reckoning for all that Babylon#51.6 Or she or it has done.
7Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand;
it made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine
and went mad.
8But suddenly Babylon fell
and shattered into pieces.
Wail for her!
Bring medicine for her pain;
perhaps she will recover.
9We tried to cure Babylon,
but she was beyond help.
Let’s depart from her
and return to your own country, each of you.
Her punishment reaches to heaven
and extends to the clouds.
10The LORD has come to our defense,
so let’s declare in Zion
what the LORD our God has done!
11Sharpen your arrows;
prepare your shields.
The LORD is stirring up
the spirit of kings from Media.
He intends to destroy Babylon;
this is the LORD’s retribution,
a day of reckoning for his temple.
12Set up a flag on the walls of Babylon,
fortify the guards,
post watchmen,
prepare an ambush,
because the LORD has a plan
against the inhabitants of Babylon.
He will accomplish it,
just as he said he would.
13You live beside a great river,
and you are rich in treasures.
But your time has come;
your cruelty has caught up with you.#51.13 Heb uncertain
14The LORD of heavenly forces has sworn by his own name:
I’m going to fill your cities #51.14 Heb lacks cities.
with soldiers like a swarm of locusts;
they will celebrate their victory over you.
15God made the earth by his might,
shaped the world by his wisdom,
and crafted the skies by his knowledge.
16At the sound of God’s voice,
the heavenly waters roar.
God raises the clouds from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and sends the wind from his treasuries.
17Everyone is too foolish to understand;
every smith is shamed by his idols,
for their images are shams;
they aren’t alive.
18They are a delusion, a charade;
at the appointed time they will be ruined!
19But the portion of Jacob is utterly different,
for he has formed all things,
including his very own tribe;
the LORD of heavenly forces is his name!
20You are my hammer,
my weapon of war.
With you I will crush the nations.
With you I will destroy kingdoms.
21With you I will crush horse and rider.
With you I will crush chariot and driver.
22With you I will crush men and women.
With you I will crush old and young.
With you I will crush young men and young women.
23With you I will crush shepherds and flocks.
With you I will crush farmers and oxen.
With you I will crush governors and officials.
24I will repay Babylon and all its inhabitants
for the terrible things
they have done to Zion in your sight,
declares the LORD.
25I’m against you, you mountain of destruction,
declares the LORD,
you destroyer of the whole earth!
I will reach out against you;
I will topple you from your heights;
I will turn you into a rubbish heap.
26They will never remove a cornerstone
or a foundation stone from you.
You will be a wasteland forever,
declares the LORD.
27Set up a flag in the land;
sound the alarm among the nations!
Prepare them for war against her;
summon kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander against her;
call up the troops,
like swarms of locusts!
28Prepare the nations for war against her,
the kings of Media,
its governors, all its officials,
and all the countries they rule.
29The earth quakes and trembles
because the LORD’s plans against Babylon are fulfilled:
to reduce Babylon to a wasteland,
with no one left in it.
30Babylon’s warriors quit fighting;
they hide in their fortifications.
Their strength is worn out;
their courage is gone!
Babylon’s houses are burned down,
and its gates are smashed.
31Courier joins courier,
messenger joins messenger
to relate the news to the king of Babylon
that his entire city has fallen.
32The river crossings are blocked;
the marshes are on fire;
the soldiers are terrified.
33The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
ready to be trampled down.
In a little while her harvest will come.
34Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar has eaten us alive;
he’s drained us of strength;
he’s left us for dead.#51.34 Or He’s made us an empty container.
He’s gobbled us up like a great sea monster;
he’s filled his belly with our treasures;
and he’s spit us out.
35May Babylon be violated as our bodies were,
say the inhabitants of Zion.
May our blood be on the Babylonians,
say those from Jerusalem.
36Therefore, the LORD proclaims:
I’m going to defend your cause;
I’ll turn the tables on your attacker.
I’ll dry up her sea;
I’ll shut up her springs.
37Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
a den of wild dogs, a wasteland
with no one left in it.
38Like lions they will roar together;
they will growl like lions’ cubs.
39They are ready to devour,
so I’ll prepare the feast
and mix the drinks!
But after their noisy drunkenness,
they will fall fast asleep.
They will sleep forever,
never to get up,
declares the LORD.
40I’ll lead them off
like lambs for slaughter,
like rams and goats.
41How Sheshach#51.41 Sheshach is a name for Babylon. has been defeated,
the pride of the whole earth taken captive!
How Babylon has become a wasteland
among the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon;
its pounding waves overwhelm her.
43Her towns are devastated;
her land is scorched and barren,
a place where no one lives
or dares to pass through.
44I will punish Bel in Babylon;
I will force him to vomit what he’s consumed.
Then nations will no longer stream to him,
and Babylon’s walls will collapse!
45Get out of Babylon, my people!
Run for your lives
from the LORD’s fierce anger.
46Don’t be distracted or frightened
by the rumors you hear in the land.
Sometimes you hear one thing
and another time something else:
rumors of violence and uprisings.
47The time is coming
when I will deal with Babylon’s idols;
the whole land will be disgraced,
and her wounded will fall in her midst.
48Then all creation will rejoice over Babylon,
because out of the north
destroying armies will come to attack her,
declares the LORD.
49Babylon must fall
for the dead in Israel,
as the dead of all the earth
have fallen to Babylon.
50You survivors of war,
leave now; don’t delay!
Remember the LORD,
from a faraway land.
Keep Jerusalem alive in your hearts.
51We’re humiliated by their taunts;
we’re disgraced that strangers have violated the sacred places
of the LORD’s temple.
52The time is coming,
declares the LORD,
when I will deal with her idols,
and the wounded in her land will groan.
53Even if Babylon scales the heavens
and strengthens its towering defenses,
the destroying armies will still come
against her, at my command,
declares the LORD.
54Listen to the cries for help from Babylon,
signs of massive devastation in the land,
declares the LORD.
55The LORD is destroying Babylon
and silencing her outcry,
whose roar is like the crushing waves,
a deafening crash.
56He certainly comes against her;
the destroyer comes against Babylon.
Her warriors are captured;
their bows are broken.
The LORD is an exacting God
who repays in full.
57I’ll make her leaders and sages drunk,
her governors, officials, and warriors as well.
They will sleep forever, never to get up,
declares the king,
whose name is the LORD of heavenly forces.
58The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims:
Babylon’s massive walls will come down,
down to the ground;
and its high gates will be burned to the ground.
People labor in vain;
nations toil for nothing but ashes!
59This is what the prophet Jeremiah instructed the staff officer#51.59 Or officer of rest, often translated as quartermaster Seraiah, Neriah’s son and Mahseiah’s grandson, when Seraiah went to Babylon with Judah’s King Zedekiah in the fourth year of his rule. 60Jeremiah wrote down in a single scroll all the disasters that would happen to Babylon—all these things concerning Babylon. 61Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you get to Babylon, see to it that you read all these words. 62Then say, “LORD, you declared that this place will be destroyed and nothing will remain in it—neither human nor animal; that it will forever be a wasteland!” 63When you finish reading the scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates River. 64Then say, “In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I’m bringing against it.”
Jeremiah’s words end here.
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