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
The Utter Destruction of Babylon
1Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will raise up against #Is. 47:1; Jer. 50:1Babylon,
Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,
#2 Kin. 19:7; Jer. 4:11; Hos. 13:15A destroying wind.
2And I will send #Is. 41:16; Jer. 15:7; Matt. 3:12winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
#Jer. 50:14For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
3Against her #Jer. 50:14, 29let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
#Jer. 50:21Utterly destroy all her army.
4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
#Jer. 49:26; 50:30, 37And those thrust through in her streets.
5For Israel is #(Is. 54:7, 8; Jer. 33:24–26; 46:28)not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
6#Jer. 50:8; Rev. 18:4Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For #Jer. 50:15this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
#Jer. 25:14He shall recompense her.
7#Jer. 25:15; Hab. 2:16; Rev. 17:4Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
#Rev. 14:8The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations #Jer. 25:16are deranged.
8Babylon has suddenly #Is. 21:9; Jer. 50:2; Rev. 14:8; 18:2fallen and been destroyed.
#(Is. 48:20); Rev. 18:9, 11, 19Wail for her!
#Jer. 46:11Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and #Is. 13:14; Jer. 46:16; 50:16let us go everyone to his own country;
#Ezra 9:6; Rev. 18:5For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
10The Lord has #Ps. 37:6; Mic. 7:9revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us #(Is. 40:2); Jer. 50:28declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11#Jer. 46:4, 9; Joel 3:9, 10Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
#Is. 13:17The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
#Jer. 50:45For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is #Jer. 50:28the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
12#Nah. 2:1; 3:14Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13#Rev. 17:1, 15O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
14#Jer. 49:13; Amos 6:8The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, #Jer. 51:27; Nah. 3:15as with locusts,
And they shall lift #Jer. 50:15up a shout against you.”
15#Gen. 1:1, 6; Jer. 10:12–16He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And #Job 9:8; Ps. 104:2; Is. 40:22stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
#Ps. 135:7; Jer. 10:13“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
17#(Is. 44:18–20); Jer. 10:14Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
#Jer. 50:2For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
18They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.
20“You#Is. 10:5, 15; Jer. 50:23 are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
21With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces #2 Chr. 36:17; Is. 13:15, 16old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
24“And#Jer. 50:15, 29 I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord.
25“Behold, I am against you, #Is. 13:2; Zech. 4:7O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
#Rev. 8:8And make you a burnt mountain.
26They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
#Jer. 50:26, 40But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.
27#Is. 13:2; Jer. 50:2; 51:12Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
#Jer. 25:14Prepare the nations against her,
Call #Jer. 50:41, 42the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
28Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
29And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every #Jer. 50:45purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
#Is. 13:19, 20; 47:11; Jer. 50:13; 51:26, 43To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
#Is. 19:16; Jer. 48:41They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
#Is. 45:1, 2; Lam. 2:9; Amos 1:5; Nah. 3:13The bars of her gate are broken.
31#Jer. 50:24One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
32#Jer. 50:38The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
33For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
“The daughter of Babylon is #Is. 21:10; Dan. 2:35; Amos 1:3; Mic. 4:13like a threshing floor
When #Is. 41:15; Hab. 3:12it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
#Is. 17:5; Hos. 6:11; Joel 3:13; Rev. 14:15And the time of her harvest will come.”
34“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has #Jer. 50:17devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an #Is. 24:1–3empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
35Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.
36Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, #(Ps. 140:12); Jer. 50:34I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
#Jer. 50:38I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
37#Is. 13:22; Jer. 50:39; (Rev. 18:2)Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
#Jer. 25:9, 11An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
38They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
39In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
#Jer. 51:57I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
40“I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.
41“Oh, how #Jer. 25:26Sheshach is taken!
Oh, how #Is. 13:19; Jer. 49:25; (Dan. 4:30)the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
42#Is. 8:7, 8; Jer. 51:55; Dan. 9:26The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43#Jer. 50:39, 40Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where #Is. 13:20no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
44I will punish #Jer. 50:2; Is. 46:1Bel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, #Jer. 50:15the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45“My#Is. 48:20; (Jer. 50:8, 28; 51:6; Rev. 18:4) people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
46And lest your heart faint,
And you fear #2 Kin. 19:7; Is. 13:3–5for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
47Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48Then #Is. 44:23; 48:20; 49:13; Rev. 18:20the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
#Jer. 50:3, 41For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.
49As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50#Jer. 44:28You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
#(Deut. 4:29–31); Ezek. 6:9Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51#Ps. 44:15; 79:4We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers #Ps. 74:3–8; Jer. 52:13; Lam. 1:10have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.
52“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
53#Gen. 11:4; Job 20:6; (Ps. 139:8–10; Is. 14:12–14); Jer. 49:16; Amos 9:2; Obad. 4Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.
54#Jer. 50:22The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
56Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
#Ps. 94:1; Jer. 50:29For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.
57“And I will make drunk
Her princes and #Jer. 50:35wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says #Jer. 46:18; 48:15the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.
58Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly #Jer. 50:15broken,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
#Hab. 2:13The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”
Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah
59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of #Jer. 32:12Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60So Jeremiah #Is. 30:8; Jer. 36:2wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, 62then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that #Is. 13:20; 14:22, 23; Jer. 50:3, 39none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ 63Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, #Jer. 19:10, 11; Rev. 18:21that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. 64Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.