Jeremiah 51
Lexham English Bible
51 Thus says Yahweh:
“Look, I am going to stir up against Babylon
and against the inhabitants of Leb-qamai a destructive wind.
2 And I will send winnowers to Babylon,
and they will winnow her,
and they will lay waste her land,
for they will be against her from all sides on the day of disaster.
3 Let not him who bends the bow shoot his bow,
and let him not rise high in his body armor.
And you must not spare her young men;
destroy her whole army.
4 And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
and pierced through in her streets.
5 For neither Israel nor Judah is a widower from their God,
from Yahweh of hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.”
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon and save each one his life.
You must not perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of vengeance for Yahweh,
he will repay her what is deserved.
7 Babylon was a cup of gold in the hand of Yahweh,
making drunk all the earth.
The nations drank of her wine.
Therefore[a] the nations acted like madmen.
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and she is shattered.
Wail over her!
Take balm for her wounds,
perhaps she may be healed.
9 We tried to heal Babylon, and she was not healed.
Forsake her and let us go each one to his country,
for her judgment has reached to the heavens,
and it has been lifted up to the skies.
10 Yahweh has brought forth our vindication.
Come and let us make known in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.
11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
Because his plan concerning Babylon is to destroy it,
for that is the vengeance of Yahweh,
the vengeance for his temple.
12 Against the walls of Babylon raise a banner;
post a strong watch,[b] post watchmen, prepare the ambushes,
for Yahweh has both planned as well as performed
what he has spoken concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who live by mighty waters, rich in treasures,
your end has come, the measure of your life.[c]
14 Yahweh of hosts has sworn by himself,
“Surely I will fill you with troops like the creeping locusts,[d]
and they will sing over you a war cry.”
15 He is the one who made the earth by his power,
the one who created the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens.
16 At the giving of his voice
there is a roar of waters in the heavens,
and he causes the patches of mist
to go up from the end of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17 All humankind turns out to be stupid,
without knowledge.
Every goldsmith is put to shame
by the divine image.
For his cast image is a lie,
and there is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless,
a work of mockery.
At the time of their punishment,
they will perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the creator of everything,[e]
and the tribe of his inheritance.
Yahweh of hosts is his name.
20 He says, “You are a war club for me,
a weapon of battle,
and I smash nations with you,
and I destroy kingdoms with you.
21 And I smash the horse with you,
and its rider,
and I smash the chariot with you,
and its rider.
22 And I smash man and woman with you,
and I smash the old man and the boy with you,
and I smash the young man and the young woman with you.
23 And I smash the shepherd and his flock with you,
and I smash the farmer and his team with you,
and I smash the governors and the officials with you.
24 And I will repay Babylon,
and all the inhabitants of Chaldea,
all their wickedness that they have done in Zion
before your eyes,” declares[f] Yahweh.
25 “Look, I am against you,
O mountain of the destruction,” declares[g] Yahweh,
“the one that destroys the whole earth.
And I will stretch out my hand against you,
and I will roll you down from the cliffs,
and I will make you as a mountain burned away.
26 They will not take from you
a stone for a corner,
and a stone for a foundation,
for you will be an everlasting desolation,”[h] declares[i] Yahweh.
27 Raise a banner in the land;
blow a horn among the nations;
prepare for holy war against her;
summon the nations against her,
the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
summon against her an official;
bring up horses[j] like bristling creeping locusts.[k]
28 Prepare the nations for holy war against her,
the kings of the Medes,
with their governors and all their officials,
and every land of their dominion.
29 And the land quakes and writhes,
for the plans of Yahweh against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon as a horror,
without[l] inhabitant.
30 The warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight,
they remain in the strongholds,
their power has dried up,
they have become as women.
Her dwelling places are set on fire,
her bars are broken.
31 one runner runs to meet another runner,
and one messenger to meet another messenger,
to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured,
from end to end.[m]
32 And the fords have been seized,
and the reed marshes have been burned with fire,
and the soldiers[n] are horrified.
33 For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel,
“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trodden down,
just a little while[o]
and the time of the harvest will come for her.”
34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
has devoured me and sucked me dry;
he has made me an empty vessel;
he has swallowed me like the sea monster;
he has filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has rinsed me.
35 “May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon,”
the inhabitants[p] of Zion will say;
and “My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say.
36 Therefore[q] thus says Yahweh,
“Look, I am going to contend your case,
and I will avenge your vengeance,
and I will cause her sea to dry up,
and I will cause her fountain to dry up.
37 And Babylon will become as a heap of stones,
a lair of jackals,
an object of horror, and an object of hissing,
without[r] inhabitants.
38 They will roar together like the young lions,
they will growl like the cubs of lions.
39 At their becoming hot I will set their banquets,
and I will make them drunk,
so that they will fall into a swoon,
and they will sleep an everlasting sleep,[s]
and they will not wake up,” declares[t] Yahweh.
40 “I will bring them down like young rams to slaughter,
like rams and goats.
41 How Sheshach is captured,
and the glory of all the earth is seized!
How Babylon has become as an object of horror
among the nations!
42 The sea has risen over Babylon,
she has been covered by the roar of its waves.
43 Her cities have become as an object of horror,
a dry land and a wilderness,[u]
a land in which no person lives,
nor does a son of humankind pass through it.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
and I will wrench out from his mouth what he has swallowed.[v]
And the nations will not stream towards him any longer
what’s worse,[w] the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45 Come out from her midst, my people,
and save each one his life
from the burning anger of[x] Yahweh.
46 Now so that you are not fainthearted,[y]
and you are afraid at the rumors[z] that are heard in the land—
and in the year the rumor comes,
and in the year after it the rumor,
and violence is in the land,
with ruler against ruler—
47 therefore[aa] look, days are coming,
and I will punish the images of Babylon,
and all her land will be put to shame,
and all her slain ones will fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heaven and the earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy over Babylon,
for from the north
the destroyers will come to it,” declares[ab] Yahweh.
49 Babylon must fall not only because of the slain ones of Israel,
but also because of Babylon the slain ones of all the earth have fallen.
50 Survivors of the sword, go!
You must not linger!
Remember Yahweh from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.[ac]
51 We are ashamed,
for we have heard taunts,[ad]
disgrace covers our faces,
for strangers have come to the holy places of the house of Yahweh.
52 “Therefore[ae] look, days are coming,” declares[af] Yahweh,
“and I will punish her images,
and the fatally wounded will sigh through all her land.
53 Though Babylon goes up to the heavens,
and though she fortifies the high place of her strength,
from me destroyers will come to her,” declares[ag] Yahweh.
54 The sound of a cry for help from Babylon,
and a great collapse from the land of the Chaldeans.
55 For Yahweh is devastating Babylon,
and he obliterates her loud noise[ah] from her.
Their waves roar like mighty waters,
the roar of their voices[ai] resounds.
56 For a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,
and her warriors are captured.
Their bows are broken;
for Yahweh is a God of recompense,
certainly he will repay.
57 “And I will make drunk her officials, and her wise men,
her governors, and her officials, and her warriors,
and they will sleep an everlasting sleep,[aj]
and they will not wake up,”
declares[ak] the King, Yahweh of hosts is his name.
58 Thus says Yahweh of hosts:
“The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly demolished,
and her high gates will burn with fire,
and the peoples will labor for nothing,[al]
and the nations for fire,[am]
and they will grow weary.”
The Scroll Concerning Babylon is Thrown into the Euphrates
59 The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, at his going with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was the quartermaster.[an] 60 And Jeremiah wrote all the disasters[ao] that would come on Babylon in one scroll, all these words that are written concerning Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “At your coming to Babylon, then you must see that you read aloud all these words. 62 And you must say, ‘Yahweh, you yourself spoke against this place, to destroy it, so that there will not be in it anything living, from humankind to animals,[ap] for it will be an everlasting desolation.’[aq] 63 And then[ar] when you finish reading aloud this scroll, you must tie a stone on it, and you must throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. 64 And you must say, ‘Babylon will sink, and she will not rise, because of[as] the face of the disasters[at] that I am bringing on her, and they will grow weary.’” Thus far[au] the words of Jeremiah.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 51:7 Literally “Unto thus”
- Jeremiah 51:12 Literally “make strong the guard”
- Jeremiah 51:13 Literally “the cubit of your severing”
- Jeremiah 51:14 Hebrew “locust”
- Jeremiah 51:19 Literally “the all”
- Jeremiah 51:24 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:25 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:26 Literally “a desolation of everlasting”
- Jeremiah 51:26 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:27 Hebrew “horse”
- Jeremiah 51:27 Hebrew “locust”
- Jeremiah 51:29 Literally “from there is not”
- Jeremiah 51:31 Literally “from end”
- Jeremiah 51:32 Literally “the men of the war”
- Jeremiah 51:33 Literally “still a little”
- Jeremiah 51:35 Hebrew “inhabitant”
- Jeremiah 51:36 Literally “To thus”
- Jeremiah 51:37 Literally “from there is not”
- Jeremiah 51:39 Literally “a sleep of eternity”
- Jeremiah 51:39 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:43 Or “Arabah”
- Jeremiah 51:44 Literally “what has been swallowed by him”
- Jeremiah 51:44 Literally “also”
- Jeremiah 51:45 Literally “the blazing of the nose of”
- Jeremiah 51:46 Literally “so that your heart is not timid”
- Jeremiah 51:46 Hebrew “rumor”
- Jeremiah 51:47 Literally “to thus”
- Jeremiah 51:48 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:50 Literally “heart”
- Jeremiah 51:51 Hebrew “taunt”
- Jeremiah 51:52 Literally “To thus”
- Jeremiah 51:52 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:53 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:55 Or “voice”
- Jeremiah 51:55 Hebrew “voice”
- Jeremiah 51:57 Literally “a sleep of eternity”
- Jeremiah 51:57 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 51:58 Literally “for enough of empty”
- Jeremiah 51:58 Literally “for enough of fire”
- Jeremiah 51:59 Literally “official of the resting place”
- Jeremiah 51:60 Hebrew “disaster”
- Jeremiah 51:62 Hebrew “animal”
- Jeremiah 51:62 Literally “a desolation of eternity”
- Jeremiah 51:63 Literally “And it will happen”
- Jeremiah 51:64 Literally “from”
- Jeremiah 51:64 Hebrew “disaster”
- Jeremiah 51:64 Literally “Up to here”
Jeremiah 51
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
51 Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will raise up as it were a pestilential wind against Babylon and against the inhabitants thereof, who have lifted up their heart against me.
2 And I will send to Babylon fanners, and they shall fan her, and shall destroy her land: for they are come upon her on every side in the day of her affliction.
3 Let not him that bendeth, bend his bow, and let not, him go up that is armed with a coat of mail: spare not her young men, destroy all her army.
4 And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in the regions thereof.
5 For Israel and Juda have not been forsaken by their God the Lord of hosts: but their land hath been filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee ye from the midst of Babylon, and let every one save his own life: be not silent upon her iniquity: for it is the time of revenge from the Lord, he will I render unto her what she hath deserved.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine, and therefore they have staggered.
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen, and destroyed: howl for her, take balm for her pain, if so she may be healed.
9 We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed: let us forsake her, and let us go every man to his own land: because her judgment hath reached even to the heavens, and is lifted up to the clouds.
10 The Lord hath brought forth our justices: Come, and let us declare in Sion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers, the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: and his mind is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard, strengthen the watch: set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both purposed, and done all that he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, rich in treasures, thy end is come for thy entire destruction.
14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying: I will fill thee with men as with locusts, and they shall lift up a joyful shout against thee.
15 He that made the earth by his power, that hath prepared the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he uttereth his voice the waters are multiplied in heaven: he lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth, he hath turned lightning into rain: and hath brought forth the wind out of his treasures.
17 Every man is become foolish by his knowledge: every founder is confounded by his idol, for what he hath cast is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vain works, and worthy to be laughed at, in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he that made all things he it is, and Israel is the sceptre of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.
20 Thou dashest together for me the weapons of war, and with thee I will dash nations together, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms:
21 And with thee I will break in pieces the horse, and his rider, and with thee I will break in pieces the chariot, and him that getteth up into it:
22 And with thee I will break in pieces man and woman, and with thee I will break in pieces the old man and the child, and with thee I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin:
23 And with thee I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, and with thee I will break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and with thee I will break in pieces captains and rulers.
24 And I will render to Babylon, and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil, that they have done in Sion, before your eyes, saith the Lord.
25 Behold I come against thee, thou destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which corruptest the whole earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for the corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord.
27 Set ye up a standard in the land: sound with the trumpet among the nations: prepare the nations against her: call together against her the kings of Ararat, Menni, and Ascenez: number Taphsar against her, bring the horse as the stinging locust.
28 Prepare the nations against her, the kings of Media, their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of their dominion.
29 And the land shall be in a commotion, and shall be troubled: for the design of the Lord against Babylon shall awake, to make the land of Babylon desert and uninhabitable.
30 The valiant men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have dwelt in holds: their strength hath failed, and they are become as women: her dwelling places are burnt, her bars are broken.
31 One running post shall meet another, and messenger shall meet messenger: to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from one end to the other:
32 And that the fords are taken, and the marshes are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashingfloor, this is the time of her thrashing: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath eaten me up, he hath devoured me: he hath made me as an empty vessel: he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicate meats, and he hath cast me out.
35 The wrong done to me, and my flesh be upon Babylon, saith the habitation of Sion: and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, saith Jerusalem.
36 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will judge thy cause, and will take vengeance for thee, and I will make her sea desolate, and will dry up her spring.
37 And Babylon shall be reduced to heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions, they shall shake their manes like young lions.
39 In their heat I will set them drink: and I will make them drunk, that they may slumber, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and awake no more, saith the Lord.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with kids.
41 How is Sesach taken, and the renowned one of all the earth surprised? How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations?
42 The sea is come up over Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are become an astonishment, a land uninhabited and desolate, a land wherein none can dwell, nor son of man pass through it.
44 And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he had swallowed down: and the nations shall no more flow together to him, for the wall also of Babylon shall fall.
45 Go out of the midst of her, my people: that every man may save his life from the fierce wrath of the Lord.
46 And lest your hearts faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land: and a rumour shall come in one year, and after this year another rumour: and iniquity in the land, and ruler upon ruler.
47 Therefore behold the days come, and I will visit the idols of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 And the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them shall give praise for Babylon: for spoilers shall come to her from the north, saith the Lord.
49 And as Babylon caused that there should fall slain in Israel: so of Babylon there shall fall slain in all the earth.
50 You that have escaped the sword, come away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: because strangers are come upon the sanctuaries of the house of the Lord.
52 Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit her graven things, and in all her land the wounded shall groan:
53 If Babylon should mount up to heaven, and establish her strength on high: from me there should come spoilers upon her, saith the Lord.
54 The noise of a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
55 Because the Lord hath laid Babylon waste, and destroyed out of her the great voice: and their wave shall roar like many waters: their voice hath made a noise:
56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, that is, upon Babylon, and her valiant men are taken, and their bow is weakened, because the Lord, who is a strong revenger, will surely repay.
57 And I will make her princes drunk. and her wise men, and her captains, and her rulers, and her valiant men: and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall awake no more, saith the king whose name is Lord of hosts.
58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the labours of the people shall come to nothing, and of the nations shall go to the fire, and shall perish.
59 The word that Jeremias the prophet commanded Saraias the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, when he went with king Sedecias to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign: now Saraias was chief over the prophecy.
60 And Jeremias wrote in one book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon: all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremias said to Saraias: When thou shalt come into Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words,
62 Thou shalt say: O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place to destroy it: so that there should be neither man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be desolate for ever.
63 And when thou shalt have made an end of reading this book, thou shalt tie a stone to it, and shalt throw it into the midst of the Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and she shall not rise up from the affliction that I will bring upon her, and she shall be utterly destroyed. Thus far are the words of Jeremias.
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)