THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

 

Jeremiah Chapter 51

1 ¶ The LORD says; Behold, I will raise up a destructive wind, against Babylon, and against those who dwell in the midst of my enemies;

2 And will send to Babylon winnowers, whose fans will scatter her, and empty her land: for in the day of trouble they will be against her on every side.

3 Lament the archer who must bend his bow, and lament him who must put on his coat of mail: do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army.

4 They will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and they will be thrust through in her streets.

5 For neither Israel or Judah has been forsaken by his God, by the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and let every man save his life: do not perish through her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will pay her back in full.

7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, which made the whole world drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations went mad.

8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and is destroyed: wail for her; get balm for her wound, perhaps she can be healed.

9 We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed: forsake her, and let each of us return to his own country: for the judgment against her reaches to heaven, and has risen up to the skies.

10 The LORD will reveal our righteousness: come, and let us proclaim the work of the LORD our God in Zion.

11 Polish the arrows; and gather the shields: the LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: because he is making plans against Babylon, to destroy it; because that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.

12 Raise a standard on the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, place the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both planned and done what he said he would against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O you who sit upon many waters, and have abundant treasure, your end has come, and the end of your plundering.

14 The LORD of armies has sworn by himself, saying, Though I once filled you with men, swarming like locusts; now men will shout in triumph over you.

15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

16 When he utters his voice, a rainstorm appears in the sky; and he causes the vapors to rise from the end of the earth: he makes lightning with rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouse.

17 The knowledge of all men is like that of an animal in the sight of God; every goldsmith is put to shame by the images he has made: for his molten idols are a lie, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are worthless, the work of delusion: at the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.

19 But he who is the portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the one who formed all things: and Israel is the tribe that belongs to him: the LORD of hosts is his name.

20 You are my battle axe and weapons of war: for with you I will break in pieces the nations, and with you I will destroy kingdoms;

21 And with you I will smash the horse and his rider; and with you I will break in pieces the chariot and his rider;

22 With you I will also smash men and women; and with you I will smash the old and the young; and with you I will smash the young man and the maid;

23 With you I will also break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will break in pieces captains and rulers.

24 And I will repay to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all the evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD.

25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, who destroys all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.

26 And they will not take one of your stones for a corner stone, or a foundation stone; but you will be desolate forever, says the LORD.

27 Raise a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations to attack her, call the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz together against her; appoint a captain against her; bring up the horses like bristling locusts.

28 Prepare the nations to attack her, the king of the Medes, with his governors, and all his deputies, and the entire land of his dominion.

29 And the land will tremble and writhe in pain: for every plan the LORD made will be carried out against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited ruin.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have quit, they stay in their strongholds: their might has failed; they have become like women: her homes have been burned; her bars are broken.

31 One dispatch-bearer will run to meet the next, and one messenger to meet another, bringing news to the king of Babylon that his entire city is taken,

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the bulwarks set on fire, and the men of war in panic.

33 For the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, it is time to thresh her: in a little while her harvest will come.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has consumed me, he has drained me out and set me down like an empty jar, he has swallowed me like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, and rinsed me out.

35 The inhabitant of Zion will say, May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon; and Jerusalem will say, May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea.

36 Therefore the LORD says; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her river, and make her water source dry.

37 And Babylon will become heaps of rubble, a dwelling place for reptiles, a place of horror and scorn, where no one lives.

38 They will roar together like lions: they will growl like lions’ whelps when they are restless.

39 I will prepare a feast for them, and I will make them drunk, so that they feel happy, and fall into a lasting sleep, and never wake up, says the LORD.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.

41 How can it be that Sheshach is taken! and how can the city praised by the whole earth be taken by surprise! how has Babylon become a horror among the nations!

42 The sea has risen over Babylon: she is covered with its turbulent waves.

43 Her cities will become ruins, a dry land, and a desert, a land where no one lives, and no one passes through.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and will remove what he has swallowed from his mouth: and the nations will no longer flow into him: yea, the wall of Babylon will fall.

45 Get out of her my people, and save your souls from the fierce anger of the LORD.

46 Do not become disheartened, and frightened by rumors that will be heard in the land; one rumor will come one year, and another the next, when there is violence in the land, ruler fighting ruler.

47 Therefore, look, the days are coming, when I will punish Babylon’s graven images: and her whole land will be put to shame, and all who are slain within her will lie there.

48 Then heaven and earth, and everything in them, will sing with joy over Babylon: because the destroyers from the north will come against her, says the LORD.

49 Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen for Babylon.

50 You who escaped the sword, leave, and do not stay there: though you are far away, remember the LORD, and think of Jerusalem.

51 We were ashamed, when we heard about the disgrace: our faces were covered with shame: because strangers came into the holy places of the LORD’S house.

52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, when I will execute judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded will groan.

53 Even if Babylon could rise up to heaven, and fortify her high strongholds, yet destroyers would come to her from me, says the LORD.

54 Listen! A cry comes from Babylon, and the sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

55 It is the LORD destroying Babylon, and silencing her mighty voice; as the waves of her destroyers roar like great waters, the noise of their tumult resounds:

56 For the destroyer will come upon Babylon, and will capture her mighty men, and break their bows in pieces: because the LORD is a God of retribution, who will surely repay.

57 And I will make her princes, and her wise men drunk, and also her captains, her rulers, and her mighty men: and they will sleep a lasting sleep, and never wake up, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58 The LORD of hosts says this; The broad walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground, and her high gates will be burned with fire; and all the effort of the people will be in vain, and the nations exhaust themselves only for the fire.

59 ¶ This is the order that Jeremiah the prophet gave Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah the king of Judah during the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster.

60 On a scroll Jeremiah wrote down all the evils that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words;

62 Then say, O LORD, you have said you would destroy this place, and cut it off, so that no one will remain in it, neither man or beast, but it will be uninhabited forever.

63 And when you have finished reading this book, you will tie a stone to it, and throw it into the midst of Euphrates:

64 And you shall say, In the same way Babylon will sink, and will not rise again from the disaster that I will bring upon her: for they will have no strength. Thus far the words of Jeremiah.