The Utter Destruction of Babylon

51 Thus says the Lord:

“Behold, I will raise up against aBabylon,

Against those who dwell in 1Leb Kamai,

bA destroying wind.

2 And I will send cwinnowers to Babylon,

Who shall winnow her and empty her land.

dFor in the day of doom

They shall be against her all around.

3 Against her elet the archer bend his bow,

And lift himself up against her in his armor.

Do not spare her young men;

fUtterly destroy all her army.

4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,

gAnd those thrust through in her streets.

5 For Israel is hnot forsaken, nor Judah,

By his God, the Lord of hosts,

Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

6 iFlee from the midst of Babylon,

And every one save his life!

Do not be cut off in her iniquity,

For jthis is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;

kHe shall recompense her.

7 lBabylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,

That made all the earth drunk.

mThe nations drank her wine;

Therefore the nations nare deranged.

8 Babylon has suddenly ofallen and been destroyed.

pWail for her!

qTake balm for her pain;

Perhaps she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon,

But she is not healed.

Forsake her, and rlet us go everyone to his own country;

sFor her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.

10 The Lord has trevealed our righteousness.

Come and let us udeclare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

11 vMake 2the arrows bright!

Gather the shields!

wThe Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.

xFor His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,

Because it is ythe vengeance of the Lord,

The vengeance for His temple.

12 zSet 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 aO you who dwell by many waters,

Abundant in treasures,

Your end has come,

The measure of your covetousness.

14 bThe Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:

“Surely I will fill you with men, cas with locusts,

And they shall lift dup a shout against you.”

15 eHe has made the earth by His power;

He has established the world by His wisdom,

And fstretched out the heaven by His understanding.

16 When He utters His voice—

There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:

g“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 hEveryone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;

Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;

iFor his molded image is falsehood,

And there is no breath in them.

18 They are futile, a work of errors;

In the time of their punishment they shall perish.

19 The 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 jare My battle-ax and weapons of war:

For with you I will break the nation in pieces;

With you I will destroy kingdoms;

21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;

With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;

22 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;

With you I will break in pieces kold and young;

With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;

23 With 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 lI 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, mO 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,

nAnd make you a burnt mountain.

26 They shall not take from you a stone for a corner

Nor a stone for a foundation,

oBut you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.

27 pSet up a banner in the land,

Blow the trumpet among the nations!

qPrepare the nations against her,

Call rthe kingdoms together against her:

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a general against her;

Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

28 Prepare against her the nations,

With the kings of the Medes,

Its governors and all its rulers,

All the land of his dominion.

29 And the land will tremble and sorrow;

For every spurpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,

tTo make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,

They have remained in their strongholds;

Their might has failed,

uThey became like women;

They have burned her dwelling places,

vThe bars of her gate are broken.

31 wOne 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 xThe passages are blocked,

The reeds they have burned with fire,

And the men of war are terrified.

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

“The daughter of Babylon is ylike a threshing floor

When zit is time to thresh her;

Yet a little while

aAnd the time of her harvest will come.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon

Has bdevoured me, he has crushed me;

He has made me an cempty vessel,

He has swallowed me up like a monster;

He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,

He has spit me out.

35 Let 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.

36 Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, dI will plead your case and take vengeance for you.

eI will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

37 fBabylon shall become a heap,

A dwelling place for jackals,

gAn astonishment and a hissing,

Without an inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like lions,

They shall growl like lions’ whelps.

39 In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;

hI 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 iSheshach 3is taken!

Oh, how jthe praise of the whole earth is seized!

How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!

42 kThe sea has come up over Babylon;

She is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43 lHer cities are a desolation,

A dry land and a wilderness,

A land where mno one dwells,

Through which no son of man passes.

44 I will punish nBel 4in Babylon,

And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;

And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.

Yes, othe wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 “My ppeople, go out of the midst of her!

And let everyone deliver 5himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.

46 And lest your heart faint,

And you fear qfor 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),

47 Therefore 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.

48 Then rthe heavens and the earth and all that is in them

Shall sing joyously over Babylon;

sFor the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,

So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.

50 tYou who have escaped the sword,

Get away! Do not stand still!

uRemember the Lord afar off,

And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

51 vWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach.

Shame has covered our faces,

For strangers whave come into the 6sanctuaries 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 xThough Babylon were to 7mount 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 yThe sound of a cry comes from Babylon,

And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,

55 Because 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,

56 Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,

And her mighty men are taken.

Every one of their bows is broken;

zFor the Lord is the God of recompense,

He will surely repay.

57 “And I will make drunk

Her princes and awise men,

Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.

And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep

And not awake,” says bthe King,

Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

58 Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly cbroken, 8

And her high gates shall be burned with fire;

dThe people will labor in vain,

And the nations, because of the fire;

And they shall be weary.”

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of eNeriah, 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. 60 So Jeremiah fwrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, 62 then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that gnone shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ 63 Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, hthat you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. 64 Then 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.

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed

52 Zedekiah was atwenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of bLibnah. 2 He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then