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
1 Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will raise up, over Babylon and over its inhabitants, who have lifted up their heart against me, something like a pestilent wind.
2 And I will send winnowers into Babylon, and they will winnow her, and they will demolish her land. For they will overwhelm her from every side in the day of her affliction.
3 Let him who draws the bow, not draw his bow. And let him who wears armor, not rise up. Do not spare her young men. Destroy her entire military.
4 And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in its regions.
5 Yet Israel and Judah have not been widowed by their God, the Lord of hosts, though their land has been filled with transgression against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon! And let each one save his own life. Do not be silent about her iniquity. For it is the time of revenge from the Lord. He himself will repay her, in her turn.
7 Babylon is a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, inebriating the entire earth. The nations have drunk from her wine, and therefore they have staggered.
8 Suddenly, Babylon has fallen and been crushed. Wail over her! Take a balm to her pain, if perhaps she may be healed."
9 "We would have cured Babylon, but there is no cure. Let us abandon her, and let each one of us go to his own land. For her judgment has reached even to the heavens, and has been lifted up even to the clouds.
10 The Lord has brought forth our justices. Come and let us describe in Zion the work of the Lord our God."
11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. And his mind is against Babylon, so that he may destroy her. For this is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Upon the walls of Babylon, lift up a sign. Increase the watch! Rouse the watchmen! Prepare ambushes! For the Lord has planned and has accomplished all that he has spoken, against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 You who live above many waters, rich in treasures: your end has arrived, your measure has been cut short.
14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself, saying: "For I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they will sing a rhythmic chant against you."
15 The One who made the earth by his strength, who prepared the world by his wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens by his prudence:
16 when he utters his voice, the waters will be multiplied in the heavens. The One who lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he has turned lightning into rain, and he has brought forth wind from his storehouses.
17 Each man has become foolish before his own knowledge. Each sculptor has been confounded by his own sculpture. For what he has formed of them is a lie, and there is no spirit in them.
18 They are empty works, deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like their portion. For the One who made all things is his portion, and Israel is the scepter of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name:
20 "For me, you strike together the instruments of war; and with you, I will strike together nations; and with you, I will scatter the kingdoms.
21 And with you, I will strike together the horse and his rider; and with you, I will strike together the chariot and its rider.
22 And with you, I will strike together man and woman; and with you, I will strike together the old man and the boy; and with you, I will strike together the young man and the virgin.
23 And with you, I will strike together the pastor and his flock; and with you, I will strike together the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you, I will strike together military leaders and civil leaders.
24 And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion, before your eyes, says the Lord.
25 Behold, I am against you, you pestilent mountain, says the Lord, for you are corrupting the entire earth. And I will extend my hand over you, and I will roll you down from the rocks, and I will make you into a burning mountain.
26 And they will not take from you a stone for the corner, nor a stone for the foundations. Instead, you will be destroyed unto eternity," says the Lord.
27 Lift up a sign in the land! Sound the trumpet among the nations! Sanctify the nations against her. Announce against her the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Number against her Taphsar. Lead in the horse, like the stinging locust.
28 Sanctify the nations against her: the kings of Media, their military leaders, and all their civil leaders, and the entire land under their authority.
29 And the earth will be shaken and will be disturbed. For the plan of the Lord against Babylon will awaken, so that he may make the land of Babylon desolate and uninhabitable.
30 The strong ones of Babylon have ceased to do battle. They have lived in fortresses. Their health has been devoured, and they have become like women. Her tabernacles have been set ablaze; her bars have been broken.
31 Runner will go forth to meet runner, and messenger will meet messenger, so as to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, from one end to the other,
32 and that the fords were seized in advance, and that the marshes have been burned with fire, and that the men of war have been set in disarray.
33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. This is the time of her threshing. A little while longer, and the time of her harvest will arrive."
34 "Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has consumed me, has devoured me. He has made me like an empty vessel. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my tender ones, and he has cast me out.
35 This iniquity is against me, and so my flesh is upon Babylon," says the habitation of Zion. "And my blood is upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," says Jerusalem.
36 Because of this, thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will judge your case, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will make her sea into a desert, and I will dry up her spring.
37 And Babylon will become a tumult, the habitation of dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.
38 They will roar together, like lions, they will shake their manes, like young lions.
39 In their heat, I will give them a drink, and I will inebriate them, so that they become drowsy, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and do not rise up, says the Lord.
40 I will lead them away, like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with young goats.
41 How was Sesac captured, and how was the renowned one of all the earth seized? How has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations?
42 The sea has ascended over Babylon; she has been covered by the multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities have become an astonishment, an uninhabited and desolate land, a land in which no one may live, nor may a son of man pass through it.
44 And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will cast from his mouth what he has swallowed. And the nations will no longer flow together before him. For even the wall of Babylon will also fall.
45 Go forth from her midst, my people, so that each one may save his life from the wrath of the fury of the Lord.
46 For otherwise, your heart may faint, and you may be afraid at the news that is heard in the land. And the news will arrive within a year, and after that year more news will arrive. And iniquity will be in the land, and one ruler will be over another ruler.
47 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, when I will visit against the graven images of Babylon. And her entire land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 And the heavens and the earth, and all the things that are in them, will give praise over Babylon. For despoilers will approach her from the north, says the Lord.
49 And in the manner that Babylon has caused the slain to fall in Israel, so the slain of Babylon will fall over the entire earth.
50 You who have fled from the sword, approach, do not stand still. Remember from afar the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise up in your heart.
51 We have been confounded, for we heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have overwhelmed the holiness of the house of the Lord.
52 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will visit against her graven images, and within all her land the wounded will groan.
53 If Babylon were to ascend to heaven, and establish her strength on high, her despoilers would go forth from me, says the Lord."
54 A voice of outcry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the Lord has despoiled Babylon, and he has perished the great voice from her. And their wave will make a sound like many waters. Their voice has uttered a noise.
56 For the despoiler has overwhelmed her, that is, Babylon, and her strong ones have been apprehended, and their bow has been weakened. For the Lord, the powerful revenger, will certainly repay.
57 "And I will inebriate her leaders, and her wise ones, and her military rulers, and her civil rulers, and her strong ones. And they will sleep an everlasting sleep, and they will not awaken," says the King: the Lord of hosts is his name.
58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: "That very wide wall of Babylon will be utterly overturned, and her exalted gates will be burned with fire, and the labors of the people will be as nothing, and the labors of the nations will be sent into the fire and will perish."
59 The word that Jeremiah, the prophet, instructed to Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he traveled with king Zedekiah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was the leader of the prophets.
60 And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that was to overwhelm Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: "When you will enter into Babylon, and you will see and read all these words,
62 you will say: 'O Lord, you have spoken against this place so that you may destroy it, so that there would not be anyone, from man even to beast, who may live in it, and so that it may be desolate forever.'
63 And when you will have completed reading this book, you will tie a stone to it, and you will cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.
64 And you will say: 'So shall Babylon be submerged! And she will not rise up before the face of the affliction that I will lead over her. And she will be broken.' " The words of Jeremiah thus far.
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