Jeremiah 51

CHAPTER 51

Yahweh Sends Calamity to Babylon

¹Thus says Yahweh:

“Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon

And against the inhabitants of ¹Leb-kamai

²The ^aspirit of a destroyer.

²“I will send ¹strangers to Babylon that they may ^awinnow her

And may empty her land to destruction;

For on every side they will be against her

In the day of her calamity.

³“¹Let not ²him who ^3abends his bow ⁴bend it,

⁵Nor let him rise up in his ^bscale-armor;

So do not spare her young men;

Devote all her army to destruction.

⁴“They will fall down ¹slain in the land of the Chaldeans,

And ^apierced through in their streets.”

⁵For ^aneither Israel nor Judah has been widowed

By his God, by Yahweh of hosts,

Although their land is ^bfull of guilt

¹Before the Holy One of Israel.

^6aFlee from the midst of Babylon,

And each of you escape with his life!

Do not be ^1bsilenced in her ²iniquity,

For this is ^cYahweh’s time of vengeance;

He is going to ^drender recompense to her.

⁷Babylon has been a golden ^acup in the hand of Yahweh,

Intoxicating all the earth.

The ^bnations have drunk of her wine;

Therefore the nations are ^cgoing mad.

⁸Suddenly ^aBabylon has fallen and been broken;

^bWail over her!

^cTake ¹balm for her pain;

Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;

Forsake her and ^alet us each go to his own country,

For her judgment has ^btouched heaven

And lifts up to the very skies.

¹⁰Yahweh has ^abrought ¹about our righteousness;

Come and let us ^brecount in Zion

The work of Yahweh our God!

^11aSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!

Yahweh has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes

Because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it;

For it is the ^bvengeance of Yahweh, vengeance for His temple.

^12aLift up a standard against the walls of Babylon;

Make strong the watch;

Raise up ¹watchmen;

Establish men in ambush!

For Yahweh has both ^bpurposed and performed

What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³O you who ^adwell by abundant waters,

Abundant in ^btreasures,

Your end has come,

The ¹measure of your ^2cend.

^14aYahweh of hosts has sworn by Himself:

“Surely I will fill you with a ¹population like ^blocusts,

And they will cry out with ²shouts of victory over you.”

¹⁵It is ^aHe who made the earth by His power,

Who established the world by His wisdom,

And by His understanding He ^bstretched out the heavens.

¹⁶When He gives forth His ^avoice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,

And He causes the ^bclouds to ascend from the end of the earth;

He makes lightning for the rain

And brings forth the ^cwind from His storehouses.

^17aAll mankind is senseless, devoid of knowledge;

Every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image,

For his molten images are ^ba lie,

And there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are ^avanity, a work of mockery;

In the time of their punishment they will perish.

¹⁹The ^aportion of Jacob is not like these;

For the ¹Maker of all is He,

And of the ²tribe of His inheritance;

^bYahweh of hosts is His name.

²⁰He says, “You are My ^ainstrument of shattering, My weapon of war;

And with you I ^bshatter nations,

And with you I destroy kingdoms.

²¹“With you I ^ashatter the horse and his rider,

And with you I shatter the ^bchariot and its rider,

²²And with you I shatter ^aman and woman,

And with you I shatter old man and ^byouth,

And with you I shatter choice man and virgin,

²³And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,

And with you I shatter the farmer and his pair of oxen,

And with you I shatter governors and prefects.

²⁴“But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of ^aChaldea for ^ball their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares Yahweh.

²⁵“Behold, ^aI am against you, ^bO destroying mountain,

Who destroys the whole earth,” declares Yahweh,

“And I will stretch out My hand against you

And roll you down from the crags,

And I will make you a ^cburnt out mountain.

²⁶“They will not take from you even a stone for a corner

Nor a stone for foundations,

But you will be a perpetual ^adesolation,” declares Yahweh.

^27aLift up a standard in the land,

Blow a trumpet among the nations!

Set apart the nations against her;

Summon against her the ^bkingdoms of ^cArarat, Minni, and ^dAshkenaz;

Appoint a marshal against her;

Bring up the ^ehorses like bristly locusts.

²⁸Set apart the nations against her,

The kings of the Medes,

¹Their governors and all ²their ³prefects

And every land of ⁴their rule.

²⁹So the ^aland quakes and writhes,

For the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand,

To make the land of Babylon

¹A ^bdesolation without inhabitants.

³⁰The ^amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting;

They inhabit the strongholds;

^bTheir might is dried up;

They are becoming ^clike women;

Their dwelling places are set on fire;

The ^dbars of her gates are broken.

³¹One ^arunner runs to meet ¹another,

And one ^bmessenger to meet ²another,

To give a message to the king of Babylon

That his city has been captured from end to end;

³²The fords also have been seized,

And they have burned the marshes with fire,

And the men of war are terrified.

³³For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a ^athreshing floor

At the time ¹it is stamped firm;

Yet in a little while the time of ^bharvest will come for her.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has ^adevoured me and brought me into confusion;

He has set me down like an ^bempty vessel;

He has ^cswallowed me like a sea monster;

He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;

He has rinsed me away.

³⁵“May the ^aviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”

The ¹inhabitant of Zion will say;

And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

Jerusalem will say.

³⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh,

“Behold, I am going to ^aplead your case

And ^bexact full vengeance for you;

And ^cI will dry up her ¹sea

And make her fountain dry.

³⁷“^aBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,

An ^bobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

³⁸“They will roar together like ^ayoung lions;

They will growl like lions’ cubs.

³⁹“When they become heated up, I will set before them their feast

And ^amake them drunk, that they may exult

And may ^bsleep a perpetual sleep

And not wake up,” declares Yahweh.

⁴⁰“I will bring them down like ¹lambs ^ato the slaughter,

Like rams together with male goats.

⁴¹“How ^1aSheshak has been captured,

And ^bthe praise of the whole earth been seized!

How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

⁴²“The ^1asea has come up over Babylon;

She has been covered with its tumultuous waves.

⁴³“Her cities have become an ^aobject of horror,

A parched land, and a desert,

A land in which ^bno man lives

And through which no son of man passes.

⁴⁴“^aI will punish Bel in Babylon,

And I will make what he has swallowed ^bcome out of his mouth;

And the nations will no longer ^cstream to him.

Even the ^dwall of Babylon has fallen down!

⁴⁵“^aCome forth from her midst, My people,

And each of you ^bescape with his life

From the burning anger of Yahweh.

⁴⁶“Now ^alest your heart grow faint,

And you fear the ^breport that will be heard in the land—

For the report will come ¹one year,

And after that ²another report in ³another year,

And violence will be in the land

With ^cruler against ruler—

⁴⁷Therefore behold, days are coming

When I will punish the ^agraven images of Babylon;

And her whole land will be ^bput to shame,

And all her slain will fall in her midst.

⁴⁸“Then ^aheaven and earth and all that is in them

Will shout for joy over Babylon,

For ^bthe destroyers will come to her from the north,”

Declares Yahweh.

^49aIndeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,

As also for Babylon ^bthe slain of all the earth have fallen.

⁵⁰You ^awho have escaped the sword,

Go! Do not stand around!

^bRemember Yahweh from afar,

And let Jerusalem come upon your heart.

^51aWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach;

Dishonor has covered our faces,

For ^bstrangers have entered

The holy places of the house of Yahweh.

⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh,

“When I will punish her ^agraven images,

And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.

⁵³“Though Babylon should ^aascend to the heavens,

And though she should fortify ¹her lofty stronghold,

From ^bMe destroyers will come to her,” declares Yahweh.

⁵⁴The ^asound of an outcry from Babylon,

And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For Yahweh is going to destroy Babylon,

And He will make her loud ¹noise ²vanish from her.

And their ^awaves will roar like many waters;

The rumbling of their voices ³sounds forth.

⁵⁶For the ^adestroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,

And her mighty men will be captured;

Their ^bbows are shattered;

For Yahweh is a God of ^crecompense,

He will fully repay.

⁵⁷“I will ^amake her princes and her wise men drunk,

Her governors, her prefects, and her mighty men,

That they may sleep a ^bperpetual sleep and not wake up,”

^cDeclares the King, whose name is Yahweh of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“The broad ^awall of Babylon will be completely razed,

And her high ^bgates will be set on fire;

So the peoples will ^ctoil for nothing,

And the nations become ^dweary only for fire.”

⁵⁹The ¹message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of ^aNeriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with ^bZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.)

⁶⁰So Jeremiah ^awrote in a single ¹scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud,

⁶²and then you will say, ‘You, O Yahweh, have ¹promised concerning this place to ^acut it off, so that there will be ^bnothing inhabiting it, ²whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’

⁶³“And as soon as you finish reading this ¹scroll, you will tie a stone to it and ^athrow it into the middle of the Euphrates,

⁶⁴and then you will say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and ^anot rise again because of…