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
1This is what the Lord says:
‘See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.#51:1 Leb Kamai is a cryptogram for Chaldea, that is, Babylonia.
2I will send foreigners to Babylon
to winnow her and to devastate her land;
they will oppose her on every side
in the day of her disaster.
3Let not the archer string his bow,
nor let him put on his armour.
Do not spare her young men;
completely destroy#51:3 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them. her army.
4They will fall down slain in Babylon,#51:4 Or Chaldea
fatally wounded in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
by their God, the Lord Almighty,
though their land#51:5 Or Almighty, / and the land of the Babylonians is full of guilt
before the Holy One of Israel.
6‘Flee from Babylon!
Run for your lives!
Do not be destroyed because of her sins.
It is time for the Lord’s vengeance;
he will repay her what she deserves.
7Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand;
she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore they have now gone mad.
8Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
perhaps she can be healed.
9‘ “We would have healed Babylon,
but she cannot be healed;
let us leave her and each go to our own land,
for her judgment reaches to the skies,
it rises as high as the heavens.”
10‘ “The Lord has vindicated us;
come, let us tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has done.”
11‘Sharpen the arrows,
take up the shields!
The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will take vengeance,
vengeance for his temple.
12Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon!
Reinforce the guard,
station the watchmen,
prepare an ambush!
The Lord will carry out his purpose,
his decree against the people of Babylon.
13You who live by many waters
and are rich in treasures,
your end has come,
the time for you to be destroyed.
14The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself:
I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts,
and they will shout in triumph over you.
15‘He made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17‘Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud;
they have no breath in them.
18They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
19He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the Maker of all things,
including the people of his inheritance –
the Lord Almighty is his name.
20‘You are my war club,
my weapon for battle –
with you I shatter nations,
with you I destroy kingdoms,
21with you I shatter horse and rider,
with you I shatter chariot and driver,
22with you I shatter man and woman,
with you I shatter old man and youth,
with you I shatter young man and young woman,
23with you I shatter shepherd and flock,
with you I shatter farmer and oxen,
with you I shatter governors and officials.
24‘Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia#51:24 Or Chaldea; also in verse 35 for all the wrong they have done in Zion,’ declares the Lord.
25‘I am against you, you destroying mountain,
you who destroy the whole earth,’
declares the Lord.
‘I will stretch out my hand against you,
roll you off the cliffs,
and make you a burnt-out mountain.
26No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
nor any stone for a foundation,
for you will be desolate for ever,’ declares the Lord.
27‘Lift up a banner in the land!
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations for battle against her;
summon against her these kingdoms:
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander against her;
send up horses like a swarm of locusts.
28Prepare the nations for battle against her –
the kings of the Medes,
their governors and all their officials,
and all the countries they rule.
29The land trembles and writhes,
for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand –
to lay waste the land of Babylon
so that no-one will live there.
30Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;
they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength is exhausted;
they have become weaklings.
Her dwellings are set on fire;
the bars of her gates are broken.
31One courier follows another
and messenger follows messenger
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his entire city is captured,
32the river crossings seized,
the marshes set on fire,
and the soldiers terrified.’
33This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
‘Daughter Babylon is like a threshing-floor
at the time it is trampled;
the time to harvest her will soon come.’
34‘Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us,
he has thrown us into confusion,
he has made us an empty jar.
Like a serpent he has swallowed us
and filled his stomach with our delicacies,
and then has spewed us out.
35May the violence done to our flesh#51:35 Or done to us and to our children be on Babylon,’
say the inhabitants of Zion.
‘May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,’
says Jerusalem.
36Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘See, I will defend your cause
and avenge you;
I will dry up her sea
and make her springs dry.
37Babylon will be a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,
a place where no-one lives.
38Her people all roar like young lions,
they growl like lion cubs.
39But while they are aroused,
I will set out a feast for them
and make them drunk,
so that they shout with laughter –
then sleep for ever and not awake,’
declares the Lord.
40‘I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats.
41‘How Sheshak#51:41 Sheshak is a cryptogram for Babylon. will be captured,
the boast of the whole earth seized!
How desolate Babylon will be
among the nations!
42The sea will rise over Babylon;
its roaring waves will cover her.
43Her towns will be desolate,
a dry and desert land,
a land where no-one lives,
through which no-one travels.
44I will punish Bel in Babylon
and make him spew out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
And the wall of Babylon will fall.
45‘Come out of her, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.
46Do not lose heart or be afraid
when rumours are heard in the land;
one rumour comes this year, another the next,
rumours of violence in the land
and of ruler against ruler.
47For the time will surely come
when I will punish the idols of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced
and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
48Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy over Babylon,
for out of the north
destroyers will attack her,’
declares the Lord.
49‘Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
just as the slain in all the earth
have fallen because of Babylon.
50You who have escaped the sword,
leave and do not linger!
Remember the Lord in a distant land,
and call to mind Jerusalem.’
51‘We are disgraced,
for we have been insulted
and shame covers our faces,
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the Lord’s house.’
52‘But days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
‘when I will punish her idols,
and throughout her land
the wounded will groan.
53Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens
and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
I will send destroyers against her,’
declares the Lord.
54‘The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
the sound of great destruction
from the land of the Babylonians.#51:54 Or Chaldeans
55The Lord will destroy Babylon;
he will silence her noisy din.
Waves of enemies will rage like great waters;
the roar of their voices will resound.
56A destroyer will come against Babylon;
her warriors will be captured,
and their bows will be broken.
For the Lord is a God of retribution;
he will repay in full.
57I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep for ever and not awake,’
declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
58This is what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Babylon’s thick wall will be levelled
and her high gates set on fire;
the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,
the nations’ labour is only fuel for the flames.’
59This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. 60Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon – all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. 61He said to Seraiah, ‘When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62Then say, “Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate for ever.” 63When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. 64Then say, “So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.” ’
The words of Jeremiah end here.
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