Jeremiah 51
The Message
Hurricane Persia
51 1-5 There’s more. God says more:
“Watch this:
I’m whipping up
A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia’—
against all who live in that perverse land.
I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon.
They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom.
When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her
worth taking or talking about.
They won’t miss a thing.
A total and final Doomsday!
Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got.
It’s no-holds-barred.
They will spare nothing and no one.
It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end!
Babylon littered with the wounded,
streets piled with corpses.
It turns out that Israel and Judah
are not widowed after all.
As their God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well,
committed to them even though
They filled their land with sin
against Israel’s most Holy God.
6-8 “Get out of Babylon as fast as you can.
Run for your lives! Save your necks!
Don’t linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her
as I pay her back for her sins.
Babylon was a fancy gold chalice
held in my hand,
Filled with the wine of my anger
to make the whole world drunk.
The nations drank the wine
and they’ve all gone crazy.
Babylon herself will stagger and crash,
senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic!
Get anointing balm for her wound.
Maybe she can be cured.”
* * *
9 “We did our best, but she can’t be helped.
Babylon is past fixing.
Give her up to her fate.
Go home.
The judgment on her will be vast,
a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance.
Your Lifeline Is Cut
10 “God has set everything right for us.
Come! Let’s tell the good news
Back home in Zion.
Let’s tell what our God did to set things right.
11-13 “Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers!
God has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!’
God’s on the warpath.
He’s out to avenge his Temple.
Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls.
Station guards around the clock.
Bring in reinforcements.
Set men in ambush.
God will do what he planned,
what he said he’d do to the people of Babylon.
You have more water than you need,
you have more money than you need—
But your life is over,
your lifeline cut.”
* * *
14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn:
“I’ll fill this place with soldiers.
They’ll swarm through here like locusts
chanting victory songs over you.”
* * *
15-19 By his power he made earth.
His wisdom gave shape to the world.
He crafted the cosmos.
He thunders and rain pours down.
He sends the clouds soaring.
He embellishes the storm with lightnings,
launches the wind from his warehouse.
Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish!
god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!
Their gods are frauds, dead sticks—
deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.
They’re nothing but stale smoke.
When the smoke clears, they’re gone.
But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing;
he put the whole universe together,
With special attention to Israel.
His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
They’ll Sleep and Never Wake Up
20-23 God says, “You, Babylon, are my hammer,
my weapon of war.
I’ll use you to smash godless nations,
use you to knock kingdoms to bits.
I’ll use you to smash horse and rider,
use you to smash chariot and driver.
I’ll use you to smash man and woman,
use you to smash the old man and the boy.
I’ll use you to smash the young man and young woman,
use you to smash shepherd and sheep.
I’ll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen,
use you to smash governors and senators.
24 “Judeans, you’ll see it with your own eyes. I’ll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion.” God’s Decree.
25-26 “I’m your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer,
you ravager of the whole earth.
I’ll reach out, I’ll take you in my hand,
and I’ll crush you till there’s no mountain left.
I’ll turn you into a gravel pit—
no more cornerstones cut from you,
No more foundation stones quarried from you!
Nothing left of you but gravel.” God’s Decree.
* * *
27-28 “Raise the signal in the land,
blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations.
Consecrate the nations for holy work against her.
Call kingdoms into service against her.
Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a field marshal against her,
and round up horses, locust hordes of horses!
Consecrate the nations for holy work against her—
the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.
29-33 “The very land trembles in terror, writhes in pain,
terrorized by my plans against Babylon,
Plans to turn the country of Babylon
into a lifeless moonscape—a wasteland.
Babylon’s soldiers have quit fighting.
They hide out in ruins and caves—
Cowards who’ve given up without a fight,
exposed as cowering crybabies.
Babylon’s houses are going up in flames,
the city gates torn off their hinges.
Runner after runner comes racing in,
each on the heels of the last,
Bringing reports to the king of Babylon
that his city is a lost cause.
The fords of the rivers are all taken.
Wildfire rages through the swamp grass.
Soldiers desert left and right.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, said it would happen:
‘Daughter Babylon is a threshing floor
at threshing time.
Soon, oh very soon, her harvest will come
and then the chaff will fly!’
* * *
34-37 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
chewed up my people and spit out the bones.
He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair,
and belched—a huge gluttonous belch.
Lady Zion says,
‘The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!’
And Jerusalem says,
‘The blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!’
Then I, God, step in and say,
‘I’m on your side, taking up your cause.
I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge.
I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs.
Babylon will be a pile of rubble,
scavenged by stray dogs and cats,
A dumping ground for garbage,
a godforsaken ghost town.’
* * *
38-40 “The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs,
ravenous, roaring for food.
I’ll fix them a meal, all right—a banquet, in fact.
They’ll drink themselves falling-down drunk.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep, and sleep . . .
and they’ll never wake up.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll haul these ‘lions’ off to the slaughterhouse
like the lambs, rams, and goats,
never to be heard of again.
* * *
41-48 “Babylon is finished—
the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face.
What a comedown for Babylon,
to end up inglorious in the sewer!
Babylon drowned in chaos,
battered by waves of enemy soldiers.
Her towns stink with decay and rot,
the land empty and bare and sterile.
No one lives in these towns anymore.
Travelers give them a wide berth.
I’ll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon.
I’ll make him vomit up all he gulped down.
No more visitors stream into this place,
admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon.
The wonders of Babylon are no more.
Run for your lives, my dear people!
Run, and don’t look back!
Get out of this place while you can,
this place torched by God’s raging anger.
Don’t lose hope. Don’t ever give up
when the rumors pour in hot and heavy.
One year it’s this, the next year it’s that—
rumors of violence, rumors of war.
Trust me, the time is coming
when I’ll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place.
I’ll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud,
with dead bodies strewn all over the place.
Heaven and earth, angels and people,
will throw a victory party over Babylon
When the avenging armies from the north
descend on her.” God’s Decree!
Remember God in Your Long and Distant Exile
49-50 “Babylon must fall—
compensation for the war dead in Israel.
Babylonians will be killed
because of all that Babylonian killing.
But you exiles who have escaped a Babylonian death,
get out! And fast!
Remember God in your long and distant exile.
Keep Jerusalem alive in your memory.”
51 How we’ve been humiliated, taunted and abused,
kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are!
And we hardly know what to think—
our old Sanctuary, God’s house, desecrated by strangers.
52-53 “I know, but trust me: The time is coming”
—God’s Decree—
“When I will bring doom on her no-god idols,
and all over this land her wounded will groan.
Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon
and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her,
That wouldn’t stop me.
I’d make sure my avengers would reach her.”
God’s Decree.
54-56 “But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon!
An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!
God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon.
We’ll be hearing the last of her noise—
Death throes like the crashing of waves,
death rattles like the roar of cataracts.
The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon:
Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed.
Indeed, God is a God who evens things out.
All end up with their just deserts.
57 “I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them—
princes, sages, governors, soldiers.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep and sleep . . .
and never wake up.” The King’s Decree.
His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
58 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“The city walls of Babylon—those massive walls!—
will be flattened.
And those city gates—huge gates!—
will be set on fire.
The harder you work at this empty life,
the less you are.
Nothing comes of ambition like this
but ashes.”
* * *
59 Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.
60-62 Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon. He told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read this out in public. Read, ‘You, O God, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human nor animal—a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.’
63-64 “When you’ve finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink. Then say, ‘That’s how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I’m going to bring upon her.’”
Jeremiah 51
Holman Christian Standard Bible
God’s Judgment on Babylon
51 This is what the Lord says:
I am about to stir up a destructive wind[a] against Babylon(A)
and against the population of Leb-qamai.[b][c]
2 I will send strangers to Babylon
who will scatter her and strip her land bare,(B)
for they will come against her
from every side in the day of disaster.
3 Don’t let the archer string his bow;
don’t let him put on[d] his armor.(C)
Don’t spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!
4 Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
those who were pierced through, in her streets.(D)
5 For Israel and Judah are not left widowed
by their God, the Lord of Hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.(E)
6 Leave Babylon;(F)
save your lives, each of you!(G)
Don’t perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance—
He will pay her what she deserves.(H)
7 Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand,(I)
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;(J)
therefore, the nations go mad.(K)
8 Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered.
Wail for her;
get balm(L) for her wound—
perhaps she can be healed.
9 We tried to heal Babylon,
but she could not be healed.
Abandon her!
Let each of us go to his own land,(M)
for her judgment extends to the sky
and reaches as far as the clouds.(N)
10 The Lord has brought about our vindication;(O)
come, let’s tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has accomplished.(P)
11 Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers!
The Lord has put it into the mind
of the kings of the Medes
because His plan is aimed at Babylon
to destroy her,
for it is the Lord’s vengeance,
vengeance for His temple.(Q)
12 Raise up a signal flag(R)
against the walls of Babylon;
fortify the watch post;
set the watchmen in place;
prepare the ambush.
For the Lord has both planned and accomplished
what He has threatened
against those who live in Babylon.
13 You who reside by many waters,(S)
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
your life thread is cut.
14 The Lord of Hosts has sworn by Himself:
I will fill you up with men as with locusts,
and they will sing the victory song over you.
15 He made the earth by His power,
established the world(T) by His wisdom,(U)
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.(V)
16 When He thunders,[e]
the waters in the heavens are in turmoil,(W)
and He causes the clouds
to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from His storehouses.(X)
17 Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image,(Y)
for his cast images are a lie;(Z)
there is no breath in them.(AA)
18 They are worthless,(AB) a work to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.(AC)
19 Jacob’s Portion[f] is not like these
because He is the One who formed all things.(AD)
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;(AE)
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.(AF)
20 You are My battle club,
My weapons of war.
With you I will smash nations;
with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
21 With you I will smash the horse and its rider;
with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.
22 With you I will smash man and woman;(AG)
with you I will smash the old man and the youth;
with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.
23 With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock;
with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team.[g]
With you I will smash governors and officials.
24 “I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion before your very eyes.”(AH)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
25 Look, I am against you, devastating mountain—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you devastate the whole earth.
I will stretch out My hand against you,(AI)
roll you down from the cliffs,
and turn you into a charred mountain.
26 No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone
or a foundation stone from you,
because you will become desolate forever.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
27 Raise a signal flag(AJ) in the land;
blow a ram’s horn among the nations;
set apart the nations against her.(AK)
Summon kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a marshal against her;
bring up horses like a swarm[h] of locusts.
28 Set apart the nations for battle against her—
the kings of Media,
her governors and all her officials,
and all the lands they rule.
29 The earth quakes(AL) and trembles
because the Lord’s intentions against Babylon stand:
to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited desolation.
30 Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;(AM)
they sit in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,
her gate bars are shattered.(AN)
31 Messenger races to meet messenger,(AO)
and herald to meet herald,
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his city has been captured
from end to end.
32 The fords have been seized,(AP)
the marshes set on fire,
and the soldiers are terrified.
33 For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled.(AQ)
In just a little while her harvest time will come.(AR)
34 “Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me.
He has set me aside like an empty dish;
he has swallowed me like a sea monster;(AS)
he filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has vomited me out,”[i]
35 says the inhabitant of Zion;
“Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon.
Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
I am about to plead your case(AT)
and take vengeance on your behalf;
I will dry up her sea(AU)
and make her fountain run dry.
37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble,
a jackals’ den,
a desolation and an object of scorn,(AV)
without inhabitant.
38 They will roar together like young lions;
they will growl like lion cubs.
39 While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast,
and I will make them drunk so that they revel.[j](AW)
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams together with male goats.(AX)
41 How Sheshach has been captured,
the praise(AY) of the whole earth seized.
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!(AZ)
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;(BA)
she is covered with its turbulent waves.
43 Her cities have become a desolation,(BB)
a dry and arid land,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being passes through.
44 I will punish Bel(BC) in Babylon.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon’s wall will fall.
45 Come out from among her, My people!(BD)
Save your lives, each of you,
from the Lord’s burning anger.
46 May you not become cowardly and fearful
when the report is proclaimed in the land,
for the report will come one year,
and then another the next year.
There will be violence in the land
with ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore, look, the days are coming
when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.(BE)
Her entire land will suffer shame,
and all her slain will lie fallen within her.(BF)
48 Heaven and earth and everything in them
will shout for joy(BG) over Babylon
because the destroyers from the north
will come against her.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
49 Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of all the earth fell
because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword,(BH)
go and do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51 We are ashamed
because we have heard insults.(BI)
Humiliation covers our faces
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the Lord’s temple.(BJ)
52 Therefore, look, the days are coming—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
53 Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens(BK)
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
54 The sound of a cry from Babylon!(BL)
The sound of great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the Lord is going to devastate Babylon;
He will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like abundant waters;
the tumult of their voice resounds,
56 for a destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors will be captured,
their bows shattered,
for the Lord is a God of retribution;
He will certainly repay.
57 I will make her princes and sages drunk,
along with her governors, officials, and warriors.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.(BM)
This is the King’s declaration;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.(BN)
58 This is what Yahweh of Hosts says:
Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates consumed by fire.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;(BO)
the nations will exhaust themselves only to feed the fire.
59 This is what Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah,(BP) the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. 60 Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon;(BQ) all these words were written against Babylon.
61 Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62 You must say, ‘Lord, You have threatened to cut off(BR) this place so that no one will live in it—man or beast. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’ 63 When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.(BS) 64 Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.’”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 51:1 Or stir up the spirit of a destroyer
- Jeremiah 51:1 Lit heart of my adversaries
- Jeremiah 51:1 = Chaldeans
- Jeremiah 51:3 Hb obscure
- Jeremiah 51:16 Lit At His giving of the voice
- Jeremiah 51:19 = the Lord
- Jeremiah 51:23 Lit yoke
- Jeremiah 51:27 Hb obscure
- Jeremiah 51:34 Lit has rinsed me off
- Jeremiah 51:39 LXX reads pass out
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.