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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Jeremiah 51
51
1The Lord says,
“I will cause a powerful, destructive
wind to blow against Babylon and the Babylonians.#51:1 Babylonians Literally, “Leb Kammai.” In Hebrew this was a secret way of writing “Chaldeans.”
2I will send foreigners to winnow#51:2 winnow To separate grain from the hulls around it. Farmers threw the grain with the hulls into the air. The wind blew the hulls away and left the good grain. Babylon,
and they will take everything from the city.
Armies will surround the city,
and there will be terrible destruction.
3The Babylonian soldiers will not get to use their bows and arrows.
They will not even put on their armor.
Don’t feel sorry for the soldiers of Babylon.
Destroy her army completely!
4Babylon’s soldiers will be killed in the land of the Chaldeans.
They will be badly wounded in the streets of Babylon.”
5The Lord All-Powerful did not leave Israel and Judah alone, like a widow.
No, they are guilty of leaving the Holy One of Israel.
Their God did not leave them.
They left him!
6Run 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 the Babylonians for the bad things they have done.
Babylon will get the punishment that she should have.
7Babylon was like a golden cup in the Lord’s hand.
Babylon made the whole world drunk.
The nations drank Babylon’s wine,
so they went crazy.
8But Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
Cry for her!
Get medicine for her pain,
and maybe she can be healed.
9We tried to heal Babylon,
but she cannot be healed.
So let us leave her,
and let each of us go to our own country.
God in heaven will decide Babylon’s punishment.
He will decide what will happen to Babylon.
10The Lord got even for us.
Come, let’s tell about that in Zion.
Let’s tell what the Lord our God has done.
11Sharpen the arrows!
Get your shields!
The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes
because he wants to destroy Babylon.
The army from Babylon destroyed his Temple in Jerusalem,
so he will give them the punishment they deserve.
12Lift up a flag 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.
13Babylon, 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 All-Powerful used his name to make this promise:
“Babylon, I will fill you with so many enemy soldiers they will be like a cloud of locusts.
They will win their war against you.
They will stand over you shouting their victory cry.”
15God used his great power and made the earth.
He used his wisdom to build the world
and his understanding to stretch out the skies.
16When he thunders, the waters in the skies roar.
He sends clouds all over the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain.
He brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17But people are so stupid.
They don’t understand what God has done.
Skilled workers make statues of false gods.
Those statues are only false gods.
They show how foolish those workers are.
Those statues are not alive.
18Those idols are worthless.
People made them, and they are nothing but a joke.
Their time of judgment will come,
and those idols will be destroyed.
19But God, who is Jacob’s Portion, is not like those worthless statues.
People didn’t make God;
God made his people.
He made everything.
His name is the Lord All-Powerful.
20The Lord says, “Babylon, you are my club.
I used you to smash nations.
I used you to destroy kingdoms.
21I used you to smash horse and rider.
I used you to smash chariot and driver.
22I used you to smash men and women.
I used you to smash men, old and young.
I used you to smash young men and young women.
23I used you to smash shepherds and flocks.
I used you to smash farmers and oxen.
I used you to smash governors and important officials.
24But I will repay Babylonia and all the Babylonians for all the evil things they did to Zion.
I will pay them back so that you can see it, Judah.”
This is what the Lord said.
25The Lord says,
“Babylon, you are like a volcano
that destroys the whole country.
But I have turned against you,
and I will turn you into a burned-out mountain.
26People will not take stones from Babylon to use as the foundation of a building.
That is because they will not find any stones big enough for cornerstones.
Your city will be a pile of broken rocks forever.”
This is what the Lord said.
27“Lift up the war flag in the land!
Blow the trumpet in all the nations!
Prepare the nations for war against Babylon.
Call these kingdoms to come fight against Babylon:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Choose a commander to lead the army against her.
Send so many horses that they are like a swarm of locusts.
28Get the nations ready for battle against her.
Get the kings of the Medes ready.
Get their governors and all their important officials ready.
Get all the countries they rule ready for battle against Babylon.
29The land shakes and moves as if it is in pain.
It will shake when the Lord does to Babylon what he plans—
to make the land of Babylon an empty desert,
a place where no one will live.
30Babylon’s soldiers have stopped fighting.
They stay in their forts.
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 places where people cross the rivers have been captured.
The swamplands are burning.
All of Babylon’s soldiers are afraid.”
33This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says:
“Babylon is like a threshing floor,
where people beat the grain at harvest time.
And the time to beat Babylon is coming soon.
34“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed us in the past.
In the past he hurt us.
In the past he took our people away,
and we became like an empty jar.
He took the best we had.
He was like a giant monster that ate everything until it was full.
He took the best we had
and then threw us away.
35Babylon did terrible things to hurt us.
Now I want those things to happen to Babylon.”
The people living in Zion said,
“The people of Babylon are guilty of killing our people.
Now they are being punished for the bad things they did.”
The city of Jerusalem said those things.
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 water springs become dry.
37Babylon will become a pile of ruined buildings,
a place fit only for wild dogs.
People will be shocked and shake their heads at what is left there.
It will be a place where no one lives.
38“The people of Babylon are like roaring young lions.
They growl like baby lions.
39They are acting like powerful lions.
I will give a party for them.
I will make them drunk.
They will laugh and have a good time,
and then they will sleep forever.
They will never wake up.”
This is what the Lord said.
40“Babylon will be like sheep, rams, and goats waiting to be killed.
I will lead them to the slaughter.
41“Sheshach#51:41 Sheshach Jeremiah used a special code to create this secret name for Babylon. will be defeated.
The best and proudest country of the whole earth will be taken captive.
People from other nations will look at Babylon,
and what they see will make them afraid.
42The sea will rise over Babylon.
Its roaring waves will cover her.
43Babylon will be like a dry, desert land.
Its cities will be empty ruins.
No one will live in those cities.
No one will even travel through them.
44I will punish the false god Bel in Babylon.
I will make him vomit out the people he swallowed.
The wall around Babylon will fall,
and other nations will stop coming to Babylon.
45Come out of the city of Babylon, my people.
Run to save your lives.
Run from the Lord’s great anger.
46“Don’t be sad, my people.
Rumors will spread, but don’t be afraid.
One rumor comes this year.
Another rumor will come next year.
There will be rumors about terrible fighting in the country.
There will be rumors about rulers fighting against other rulers.
47The time will surely come when I will punish the false gods of Babylon,
and the whole land of Babylon will be put to shame.
There will be many dead people,
lying in the streets of that city.
48Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout with joy about Babylon.
They will shout because an army came from the north
and fought against Babylon.”
This is what the Lord said.
49“Babylon killed people from Israel.
Babylon killed people from every place on earth.
So Babylon must fall!
50You people escaped the swords.
You must hurry and leave Babylon.
Don’t wait!
You are in a faraway land,
but remember the Lord where you are and remember Jerusalem.”
51“We people of Judah are ashamed.
We have been insulted,
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.
At that time wounded people will cry
with pain everywhere in that country.
53Babylon might grow until she touches the sky.
Babylon might make her forts strong,
but I will send people to fight against that city.
And they will destroy her.”
This is what the Lord said.
54“We can hear people crying in Babylon.
We hear the sound of people destroying things in the land of Babylon.
55The Lord will destroy Babylon very soon.
He will stop the loud noises in that city.
Enemies will come roaring in like ocean waves.
People all around will hear that roar.
56The army will come and destroy Babylon.
Its soldiers will be captured, and their bows will be broken,
This will happen because the Lord punishes people for the bad things they do.
He gives them the full punishment they deserve.
57I will make Babylon’s wise men
and important officials drunk.
I will make the governors, officers,
and soldiers drunk too.
Then they will sleep forever.
They will never wake up.”
This is what the King said.
His name is the Lord All-Powerful.
58This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
“Babylon’s thick, strong wall will be pulled down.
Her high gates will be burned.
The people of Babylon will work hard,
but it will not help.
They will get very tired trying to save the city.
But they will only be fuel for the flames.”
Jeremiah Sends a Message to Babylon
59This is the message that Jeremiah gave to the officer Seraiah#51:59 Seraiah Seraiah was a brother of Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary. son of Neriah. Neriah was the son of Mahseiah. Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This happened in the fourth year that Zedekiah#51:59 the fourth year … Zedekiah That is, 594–593 B.C. was king of Judah. At that time Jeremiah gave this message to Seraiah, the officer. 60Jeremiah had written on a scroll all the terrible things that would happen to Babylon. He had written all these things about Babylon.
61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “Seraiah, go to Babylon. Be sure to read this message so that all the people can hear you. 62Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy this place, Babylon. You will destroy it so that no people or animals will live in it. This place 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. Babylon will rise no more. It will sink because of the terrible things that I will make happen here.’”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
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