Jeremiah 51:34-64

English Standard Version

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon ^(A)has devoured me;
    he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
    ^(B)he has swallowed me like ^(C)a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
    he has rinsed me out.^[a]
³⁵The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”
    let the inhabitant of Zion say.
“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
    let Jerusalem say.
³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, ^(D)I will plead your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
^(E)I will dry up her sea
    and ^(F)make her fountain dry,
³⁷and Babylon shall become ^(G)a heap of ruins,
    ^(H)the haunt of jackals,
^(I)a horror ^(J)and a hissing,
    without inhabitant.

³⁸^(K)“They shall roar together ^(L)like lions;
    they shall growl like lions' cubs.
³⁹^(M)While they are inflamed ^(N)I will prepare them a feast
    and ^(O)make them drunk, that they may become merry,
^(P)then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and not wake, declares the Lord.
⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and male goats.

⁴¹“How ^(Q)Babylon^[b] is taken,
    ^(R)the praise of the whole earth ^(S)seized!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
⁴²^(T)The sea has come up on Babylon;
    she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
⁴³Her cities have become a horror,
    ^(U)a land of drought and a desert,
^(V)a land in which no one dwells,
    and through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴And I will punish ^(W)Bel in Babylon,
    and ^(X)take out of his mouth ^(Y)what he has swallowed.
^(Z)The nations shall no longer flow to him;
    ^(AA)the wall of Babylon has fallen.

⁴⁵“Go out of the midst of her, ^(AB)my people!
    Let every one save his life
    from ^(AC)the fierce anger of the Lord!
⁴⁶Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
    ^(AD)at the report heard in the land,
^(AE)when a report comes in one year
    and afterward a report in another year,
and violence is in the land,
    ^(AF)and ruler is against ruler.

⁴⁷“Therefore, behold, the days are coming
    when ^(AG)I will punish the images of Babylon;
^(AH)her whole land shall be put to shame,
    and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
⁴⁸^(AI)Then the heavens and the earth,
    and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
    ^(AJ)for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the Lord.
⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
    ^(AK)just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

⁵⁰^(AL)“You who have escaped from the sword,
    go, do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
    and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
⁵¹^(AM)‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
    ^(AN)dishonor has covered our face,
^(AO)for foreigners have come
    into the holy places of the Lord's house.’

⁵²“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when ^(AP)I will execute judgment upon her images,
^(AQ)and through all her land
    the wounded shall groan.
⁵³Though Babylon should ^(AR)mount up to heaven,
    and though she should ^(AS)fortify her strong height,
yet destroyers would come from me against her,
    declares the Lord.

⁵⁴^(AT)“A voice! A cry from Babylon!
    The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵For the Lord is laying Babylon waste
    and stilling her mighty voice.
^(AU)Their waves roar like many waters;
    the noise of their voice is raised,
⁵⁶for a destroyer has come upon her,
    upon Babylon;
her warriors are taken;
    their bows are broken in pieces,
^(AV)for the Lord is a God of recompense;
    he will surely repay.
⁵⁷^(AW)I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
    ^(AX)her governors, her commanders, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
    declares ^(AY)the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

⁵⁸“Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The broad ^(AZ)wall of Babylon
    shall be leveled to the ground,
^(BA)and her high gates
    shall be burned with fire.
^(BB)The peoples labor for nothing,
    and ^(BC)the nations weary themselves only for fire.”

⁵⁹The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah ^(BD)the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, ^(BE)in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster. ⁶⁰^(BF)Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, ^(BG)all these words that are written concerning Babylon. ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words, ⁶²and say, ‘O Lord, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so ^(BH)that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be ^(BI)desolate forever.’ ⁶³When you finish reading this book, ^(BJ)^(BK)tie a stone to it ^(BL)and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, ⁶⁴and say, ^(BM)‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, ^(BN)and they shall become exhausted.’”