Jeremiah 51
Babylon Judged for Sins against Israel
1 This is what the Lord says:“Behold, I am going to stir up
▼
▼Or a destroying wind
The bspirit of a destroyer against Babylon And against the inhabitants of ▼
▼Cryptic name for Chaldea; or the heart of those who rise up against Me
Leb-kamai. 2 “I will send ▼
▼Some ancient versions winnowers
foreigners to Babylon so that they may ewinnow her And devastate her land;
For they will be opposed to her on every side
On the day of her disaster.
3 “Let not ▼
▼I.e., the Chaldean defender
him who ▼▼Lit step(s) on; MT in order to string
hbends his bow ▼▼Lit step(s) on; MT in order to string
bend it, Nor let him rise up in his jcoat of armor.
Do not spare her young men;
Devote all her army to destruction.
4 “They will fall down ▼
▼Lit killed; or wounded
dead in the land of the Chaldeans, And lpierced through in their streets.”
5 For mneither Israel nor Judah has been ▼
▼Lit widowed
forsaken By his God, the Lord of armies,
Although their land is ofull of guilt
▼
▼Lit From
Before the Holy One of Israel. 6 qFlee from the midst of Babylon,
And each of you save his life!
Do not rperish in her ▼
▼Or penalty for wrongdoing
punishment, For this is the tLord’s time of vengeance;
He is going to urepay to her what she deserves.
7 Babylon has been a golden vcup in the hand of the Lord,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The wnations have drunk of her wine;
Therefore the nations are xgoing insane.
8 Suddenly yBabylon has fallen and been broken;
zWail over her!
aaBring ▼
▼Or balsam resin
balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;
Abandon her and aclet’s each go to his own country,
For her judgment has adreached to heaven
And it rises to the clouds.
10 The Lord has aebrought ▼
▼Lit forth
about our vindication; Come and let’s agrecount in Zion
The work of the Lord our God!
11 ahSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
Because His plan is against Babylon to destroy it;
For it is the aivengeance of the Lord, vengeance for His temple.
12 ajLift up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon;
Post a strong guard,
Station ▼
▼Or watchmen
sentries, Set up an ambush!
For the Lord has both alplanned and performed
What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 You who amlive by many waters,
Abundant in antreasures,
Your end has come,
The ▼
▼Lit cubit
measure of your ▼▼Lit being cut off
aqend. 14 The arLord of armies has sworn by Himself:
“I will certainly fill you with a ▼
▼Or mankind
population like atlocusts, And they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.”
15 It is auHe who made the earth by His power,
Who established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding He avstretched out the heavens.
16 When He utters His awvoice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens,
And He makes the axclouds ascend from the end of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
And brings out aywind from His storehouses.
17 azEvery person is stupid, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his ▼
▼Or images
idols, For his cast metal images are bbdeceitful,
And there is no breath in them.
18 They are bcworthless, a work of mockery;
At the time of their punishment they will perish.
19 The bdportion of Jacob is not like these;
For He is the ▼
▼Lit Fashioner
Maker of everything, And of the ▼
▼Or scepter; cf. Num 24:17
tribe of His inheritance; The bgLord of armies is His name.
20 He says, “You are My ▼
▼Lit shatterer
biwar-club, My weapon of war; And with you I bjshatter nations,
And with you I destroy kingdoms.
21 “With you I bkshatter the horse and his rider,
And with you I shatter the blchariot and its rider,
22 And with you I shatter bmman and woman,
And with you I shatter the old man and bnyouth,
And with you I shatter the young man and virgin,
23 And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,
And with you I shatter the farmer and his team,
And with you I shatter governors and officials. 24 “But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of boChaldea for bpall their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares the Lord.
25 “Behold, bqI am against you, mountain of brdestruction
That destroys the whole earth,” declares the Lord,
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
And roll you down from the rocky cliffs,
And I will make you a bsburnt out mountain.
26 “They will not take from you even a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for foundations,
But you will be btdesolate forever,” declares the Lord.
27 buLift up a signal flag in the land,
Blow a trumpet among the nations!
Consecrate the nations against her,
Summon against her the bvkingdoms of bwArarat, Minni, and bxAshkenaz;
Appoint an officer against her,
Bring up the byhorses like bristly locusts.
28 Consecrate the nations against her,
The kings of the Medes,
▼
▼Lit her
Their governors and all ▼▼Lit her
their officials, And every land ▼
▼Lit of his dominion
under their control. 29 So the ccland quakes and writhes,
For the plans of the Lord against Babylon stand,
To make the land of Babylon
▼
▼Or An object of horror
A cedesolation without inhabitants. 30 The cfwarriors of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They stay in the strongholds;
cgTheir strength is ▼
▼Lit dried up
exhausted, They are becoming cilike women;
Their homes are set on fire,
The cjbars of her gates are broken.
31 One ▼
▼Lit runner
clcourier runs to meet ▼▼Lit runner
another, And one ▼
▼Lit announcer
comessenger to meet ▼▼Lit announcer
another, To tell the king of Babylon
That his city has been captured from end to end;
32 The river crossing places have been seized,
And they have burned the marshes with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
33 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a cqthreshing floor
At the time that ▼
▼Lit of treading it
it is tread down; In just a little while the time of csharvest will come for her.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has ctdevoured me, he has crushed me,
He has set me down like an cuempty vessel;
He has cvswallowed me like a monster,
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
He has washed me away.
35 “May the cwviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The ▼
▼Lit inhabitress
inhabitant of Zion will say; And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say. 36 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“Behold, I am going to cyplead your case
And cztake vengeance for you;
And daI will dry up her ▼
▼Or broad river
sea And make her fountain dry.
37 “ dcBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,
An ddobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.
38 “They will roar together like deyoung lions,
They will growl like lions’ cubs.
39 “When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet
And dfmake them drunk, so that they may rejoice in triumph,
And may dgsleep a perpetual sleep
And not wake up,” declares the Lord.
40 “I will bring them down like ▼
▼Or young rams
lambs dito the slaughter, Like rams together with male goats.
41 “How ▼
▼Cryptic name for Babylon
dkSheshak has been captured, And dlthe praise of the whole earth has been seized!
How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
42 “The ▼
▼Or broad river
dnsea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed by its roaring waves.
43 “Her cities have become an doobject of horror,
A dry land and a desert,
A land in which dpno one lives
And through which no ▼
▼Lit son of man
one of mankind passes. 44 “ drI will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will make what he has swallowed dscome out of his mouth;
And the nations will no longer dtstream toward him.
Even the duwall of Babylon has fallen down!
45 “ dvCome out from her midst, My people,
And each of you dwsave yourselves
From the fierce anger of the Lord.
46 “Now, dxso that your heart does not grow faint,
And you are not afraid at the dyreport that will be heard in the land--
For the report will come in ▼
▼Lit the
one year, And after that ▼
▼Lit the
another report in ▼▼Lit the
another year, And violence will be in the land
With ecruler against ruler--
47 Therefore behold, days are coming
When I will punish the edidols of Babylon;
And her whole land will be eeput to shame.
And all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 “Then efheaven and earth and everything that is in them
Will shout for joy over Babylon,
Because egthe destroyers will come to her from the north,”
Declares the Lord.
49 ehIndeed, Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,
As eithe slain of all the earth have also fallen for Babylon.
50 You ejwho have escaped the sword,
Go! Do not stay!
ekRemember the Lord from far away,
And let Jerusalem ▼
▼Lit come upon your heart
come to your mind. 51 emWe are ashamed because we have heard rebuke;
Disgrace has covered our faces,
Because enstrangers have entered
The holy places of the Lord’s house.
52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“When I will punish her eoidols,
And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.
53 “Though Babylon epascends to the heavens,
And though she fortifies ▼
▼Lit the height of her strength
her lofty stronghold, Destroyers will come from erMe to her,” declares the Lord.
54 The essound of an outcry from Babylon,
And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the Lord is going to destroy Babylon,
And He will make her loud ▼
▼Or voice
noise vanish from her. And their euwaves will roar like many waters;
The clamor of their voices ▼
▼Lit is given
sounds forth. 56 For the ewdestroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,
And her warriors will be captured,
Their exbows shattered;
For the Lord is a God of eyretribution,
He will fully repay.
57 “I will ezmake her leaders and her wise men drunk,
Her governors, her officials, and her warriors,
So that they will sleep a faperpetual sleep and not wake up,”
fbDeclares the King, whose name is the Lord of armies. 58 This is what the Lord of armies says:
“The broad fcwall of Babylon will be completely demolished,
And her high fdgates will be set on fire;
So the peoples will felabor for nothing,
And the nations become ffexhausted only for fire.” 59 The ▼
▼Lit word
command that Jeremiah the prophet ▼▼Lit commanded
gave Seraiah the son of fiNeriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with fjZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (And Seraiah was quartermaster.) 60Jeremiah fkwrote ▼▼Or in...book
on a single scroll all the disaster which would come against Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. 61Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud, 62and say, ‘You, Lord, have ▼▼Lit spoken
promised concerning this place to fncut it off, so that there will be fonothing living in it, ▼▼Lit from man even to beast
whether man or animal; but it will be a permanent desolation.’ 63And as soon as you finish reading this ▼▼Or book
scroll, you shall tie a stone to it and frthrow it into the middle of the Euphrates, 64and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and fsnot rise again, because of the disaster that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become ftexhausted.’” fuTo this point are the words of Jeremiah.
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