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
Jeremiah 51
New Living Translation
51 This is what the Lord says:
“I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon
and the people of Babylonia.[a]
2 Foreigners will come and winnow her,
blowing her away as chaff.
They will come from every side
to rise against her in her day of trouble.
3 Don’t let the archers put on their armor
or draw their bows.
Don’t spare even her best soldiers!
Let her army be completely destroyed.[b]
4 They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians,[c]
slashed to death in her streets.
5 For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
has not abandoned Israel and Judah.
He is still their God,
even though their land was filled with sin
against the Holy One of Israel.”
6 Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves!
Don’t get trapped in her punishment!
It is the Lord’s time for vengeance;
he will repay her in full.
7 Babylon has been a gold cup in the Lord’s hands,
a cup that made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank Babylon’s wine,
and it drove them all mad.
8 But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen.
Weep for her.
Give her medicine.
Perhaps she can yet be healed.
9 We would have helped her if we could,
but nothing can save her now.
Let her go; abandon her.
Return now to your own land.
For her punishment reaches to the heavens;
it is so great it cannot be measured.
10 The Lord has vindicated us.
Come, let us announce in Jerusalem[d]
everything the Lord our God has done.
11 Sharpen the arrows!
Lift up the shields![e]
For the Lord has inspired the kings of the Medes
to march against Babylon and destroy her.
This is his vengeance against those
who desecrated his Temple.
12 Raise the battle flag against Babylon!
Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen.
Prepare an ambush,
for the Lord will fulfill all his plans against Babylon.
13 You are a city by a great river,
a great center of commerce,
but your end has come.
The thread of your life is cut.
14 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has taken this vow
and has sworn to it by his own name:
“Your cities will be filled with enemies,
like fields swarming with locusts,
and they will shout in triumph over you.”
A Hymn of Praise to the Lord
15 The Lord made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
he stretched out the heavens.
16 When he speaks in the thunder,
the heavens roar with rain.
He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.
He sends the lightning with the rain
and releases the wind from his storehouses.
17 The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge!
The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
These idols have no breath or power.
18 Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!
On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.
19 But the God of Israel[f] is no idol!
He is the Creator of everything that exists,
including his people, his own special possession.
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
Babylon’s Great Punishment
20 “You[g] are my battle-ax and sword,”
says the Lord.
“With you I will shatter nations
and destroy many kingdoms.
21 With you I will shatter armies—
destroying the horse and rider,
the chariot and charioteer.
22 With you I will shatter men and women,
old people and children,
young men and young women.
23 With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks,
farmers and oxen,
captains and officers.
24 “I will repay Babylon
and the people of Babylonia[h]
for all the wrong they have done
to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.
25 “Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth!
I am your enemy,” says the Lord.
“I will raise my fist against you,
to knock you down from the heights.
When I am finished,
you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble.
26 You will be desolate forever.
Even your stones will never again be used for building.
You will be completely wiped out,”
says the Lord.
27 Raise a signal flag to the nations.
Sound the battle cry!
Mobilize them all against Babylon.
Prepare them to fight against her!
Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander,
and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!
28 Bring against her the armies of the nations—
led by the kings of the Medes
and all their captains and officers.
29 The earth trembles and writhes in pain,
for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged.
Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.
30 Her mightiest warriors no longer fight.
They stay in their barracks, their courage gone.
They have become like women.
The invaders have burned the houses
and broken down the city gates.
31 The news is passed from one runner to the next
as the messengers hurry to tell the king
that his city has been captured.
32 All the escape routes are blocked.
The marshes have been set aflame,
and the army is in a panic.
33 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says:
“Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor,
about to be trampled.
In just a little while
her harvest will begin.”
34 “King Nebuchadnezzar[i] of Babylon has eaten and crushed us
and drained us of strength.
He has swallowed us like a great monster
and filled his belly with our riches.
He has thrown us out of our own country.
35 Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,”
say the people of Zion.
“Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,”
says Jerusalem.
The Lord’s Vengeance on Babylon
36 This is what the Lord says to Jerusalem:
“I will be your lawyer to plead your case,
and I will avenge you.
I will dry up her river,
as well as her springs,
37 and Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
haunted by jackals.
She will be an object of horror and contempt,
a place where no one lives.
38 Her people will roar together like strong lions.
They will growl like lion cubs.
39 And while they lie inflamed with all their wine,
I will prepare a different kind of feast for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
and they will never wake up again,”
says the Lord.
40 “I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats to be sacrificed.
41 “How Babylon[j] is fallen—
great Babylon, praised throughout the earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
among the nations.
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered by its crashing waves.
43 Her cities now lie in ruins;
she is a dry wasteland
where no one lives or even passes by.
44 And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon,
and make him vomit up all he has eaten.
The nations will no longer come and worship him.
The wall of Babylon has fallen!
A Message for the Exiles
45 “Come out, my people, flee from Babylon.
Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger.
46 But do not panic; don’t be afraid
when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces.
For rumors will keep coming year by year.
Violence will erupt in the land
as the leaders fight against each other.
47 For the time is surely coming
when I will punish this great city and all her idols.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
and her dead will lie in the streets.
48 Then the heavens and earth will rejoice,
for out of the north will come destroying armies
against Babylon,” says the Lord.
49 “Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel
and others throughout the world,
so must her people be killed.
50 Get out, all you who have escaped the sword!
Do not stand and watch—flee while you can!
Remember the Lord, though you are in a far-off land,
and think about your home in Jerusalem.”
51 “We are ashamed,” the people say.
“We are insulted and disgraced
because the Lord’s Temple
has been defiled by foreigners.”
52 “Yes,” says the Lord, “but the time is coming
when I will destroy Babylon’s idols.
The groans of her wounded people
will be heard throughout the land.
53 Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens
and makes her fortifications incredibly strong,
I will still send enemies to plunder her.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
Babylon’s Complete Destruction
54 “Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon,
the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.
55 For the Lord is destroying Babylon.
He will silence her loud voice.
Waves of enemies pound against her;
the noise of battle rings through the city.
56 Destroying armies come against Babylon.
Her mighty men are captured,
and their weapons break in their hands.
For the Lord is a God who gives just punishment;
he always repays in full.
57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
along with her captains, officers, and warriors.
They will fall asleep
and never wake up again!”
says the King, whose name is
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
58 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:
“The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground,
and her massive gates will be burned.
The builders from many lands have worked in vain,
for their work will be destroyed by fire!”
Jeremiah’s Message Sent to Babylon
59 The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, a staff officer, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.[k] 60 Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon—all the words written here. 61 He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll. 62 Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.’ 63 When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River. 64 Then say, ‘In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.’”
This is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.
Footnotes
- 51:1 Hebrew of Leb-kamai, a code name for Babylonia.
- 51:3 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
- 51:4 Or Chaldeans; also in 51:54.
- 51:10 Hebrew Zion; also in 51:24.
- 51:11 Greek version reads Fill up the quivers.
- 51:19 Hebrew the Portion of Jacob. See note on 5:20.
- 51:20 Possibly Cyrus, whom God used to conquer Babylon. Compare Isa 44:28; 45:1.
- 51:24 Or Chaldea; also in 51:35.
- 51:34 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.
- 51:41 Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon.
- 51:59 The fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign was 593 B.c.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
