Jeremiah 51
Tree of Life Version
Apocalyptic Vengeance
51 Thus says Adonai:
“Look!
Stirring up against Babylon and those living in Leb-kamai,
a spirit of destruction.
2 I will send strangers to Babylon
to scatter her and empty her land.
For in the day of trouble
they will be against her all around.
3 Let the archer bend his bow at her.
Let him rise up at her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men.
Destroy her whole army.
4 They will fall down slain in the land of Chaldea,
thrust through in her streets.
5 For neither Israel nor Judah will be widowed
by his God, Adonai-Tzva’ot,
though their land is full of guilt
before the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from within Babylon!
Each one, escape with his soul!
Be not silenced in her iniquity!
For it is a time of vengeance for Adonai.
He will repay her recompense.[a]
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in Adonai’s hand,
intoxicating the whole earth.
The nations drunk her wine—
so the nations are going crazy.
8 Suddenly Babylon is fallen![b]
Shattered! Howl over her!
Bring balm for her wound.
Perhaps she may be healed?
9 We would have healed Babylon,
but she cannot be healed.
Abandon her!
Let’s go, each one to his own country,
for her judgment has reached up to the heavens[c]
and has risen beyond the skies.
10 Adonai has brought forth our vindication!
Come, let us declare in Zion
the work of Adonai Eloheinu!
11 Sharpen the arrows.
Fill the quivers!
Adonai has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it.
For it is Adonai’s vengeance, vengeance for His Temple.
12 Raise a banner at Babylon’s walls!
Strengthen the guard.
Station watchmen.
Prepare ambushes.
For Adonai has both planned and accomplished what He spoke about the Babylonians.
13 You dwelling by many waters,
rich in treasures, your end has come,
the measure of your covetousness.
14 Adonai-Tzva’ot has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men like a locust swarm,
and they will shout cheers over you.”
Creator of All, Judge of All
15 One made the earth by His power,
set up the world by His wisdom,
and spread out the heavens by His knowledge.[d]
16 At His giving voice—
tumult of waters in the skies!
He causes clouds to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings forth wind from His storehouses.
17 All mankind is stupid, ignorant.
Every goldsmith is disgraced by an idol,
for his molten image is a lie—
there is no breath in them.
18 They are futile, a work of delusion.
In the time of their visitation they will perish.
19 Jacob’s Portion is not like these,
for He is the former of all things,
including the tribe of His heritage
—Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name.
20 “You are My club, a war weapon—
with you I shatter nations,
with you I destroy kingdoms.
21 With you I wreck horse and rider,
with you I wreck chariot and rider,
22 with you I break man and woman,
with you I break elder and youth,
with you I break young man and maid,
23 with you I scatter shepherd and flock,
with you I scatter plowman and ox-team,
with you I scatter governors and officials.
24 I will repay Babylon and all living in Chaldea
for all their evil that they did in Zion,
before your eyes.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
25 “Beware! I am against you,
destroyer of the Mount!”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“Destroyer of all the land—
I will stretch out My hand at you,
roll you down from the cliffs,
and make you a burning hill.
26 They will not even take from you
a cornerstone or foundation stone,
for you will be desolate forever.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
27 Raise a banner in the land!
Blow a shofar among the nations!
Consecrate the nations against her.
Summon against her the kingdoms—
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a marshal against her.
Bring horses up like rough locusts.
28 Consecrate the nations against her,
the kings of the Medes,
its governors and all its deputies,
and all the land of his dominion.
29 Now the land shakes and writhes,
for Adonai’s plans against Babylon arise—
to make the land of Babylon
a desolation without inhabitant.
30 Babylon’s warriors ceased fighting.
They stay in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted.
They have become like women.
Her dwellings are set ablaze,
her gate-bars are broken.
31 One runner runs to meet another,
and one messenger to meet another,
to tell Babylon’s king that his city
has been taken from end to end.
32 The fords have also been seized
and the marshes burned with fire,
so the warriors are in panic.
33 For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
at treading time.
A little longer,
and the time of harvest for her will come.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me,
crushed me, set me aside like an empty dish,
swallowed me up like a dragon,
filled his belly with my delicacies,
rinsed me away.”
35 The one dwelling in Zion says:
“Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon!”
Jerusalem says:
“My blood be on the Chaldeans!”
36 Therefore thus says Adonai:
“Yes, I will uphold your cause
and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea,
and make her fountain dry.
37 Babylon will become heaps,
a dwelling for jackals,
a horror and a hissing, uninhabited.
38 They roar together like young lions,
growl like lions cubs.
39 When they become hot,
I will set out a banquet for them
and will make them so drunk
that they become merry—
and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never awake.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
40 “I will drag them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams with he-goats.
41 How has Sheshach[e] been taken,
the praise of the whole earth seized?
How has Babylon become
a horror among the nations!
42 The sea has risen over Babylon—
she is covered with its roaring waves.
43 Her cities became desolation,
a dry land, desert, uninhabited land,
through which no son of man passes.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon—
What he swallowed I will make him disgorge out of his mouth.
Nations will no longer stream to him.
Yes, the wall of Babylon has fallen!
45 Come out of her, My people!
Each of you,
save your soul from the fierce anger of Adonai.
46 Do not be faint-hearted,
or be intimidated by the rumor heard in the land—
one year one rumor comes,
next year, another rumor.
Yet violence will be in the land,
with ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore behold, days are coming
when I will punish Babylon’s idols.
Her entire land will be disgraced
and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 Then heaven and the earth
and all that is in them
will sing for joy over Babylon,[f]
for the destroyers from the north will come to her.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
49 Yes, Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of all the earth fell to Babylon.
50 Escapees from the sword, go!
Do not stand still!
Remember Adonai from afar—
and make aliyah to Jerusalem in your heart.
51 “We were shamed
when we heard reproach.
Disgrace has covered our faces,
for foreigners entered
the holy places of Adonai’s House.”
52 “Therefore behold, days are coming”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“when I will punish her idols,
and the wounded will groan
throughout all her land.
53 Even if Babylon went up to heaven
and even if she fortified the height of her stronghold,
from Me destroyers will come to her.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
54 The sound of an outcry from Babylon!
Great ruin from the land of Chaldea!
55 For Adonai is devastating Babylon,
and will silence her loud voice.
Their waves will roar like many waters.
The noise of their voices will resound.
56 For a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,
and her warriors will be captured,
their bows broken.
For Adonai is a God of restitution,
He will fully repay.
57 “I will intoxicate her officials and sages,
her governors, deputies, and warriors,
and they will sleep a perpetual sleep,
and not awake.”
It is a declaration of the King,
whose Name is Adonai-Tzva’ot.
58 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“Babylon’s thick wall will be totally razed
and her high gates burned with fire.
So the peoples are toiling for nothing,
and nations weary themselves for fire.”
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was quartermaster. 60 And Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the evil that would come upon Babylon, including all these words that were written about Babylon.
61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you arrive in Babylon, then see that you read all these words, 62 and say: ‘Adonai, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that nothing will dwell there, neither man nor beast, but that it will be desolate forever.’
63 “Now when you have finished reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. 64 Then you will say: ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and not rise again, because of the calamity that I will bring on her. So they will weary themselves.’”
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 51:6 cf. Rev. 18:4.
- Jeremiah 51:8 cf. Rev. 1:8; 18:2.
- Jeremiah 51:9 cf. Rev. 18:5.
- Jeremiah 51:15 cf. Rom. 1:20.
- Jeremiah 51:41 Another name for Babylon.
- Jeremiah 51:48 cf. Rev. 18:20.
Jeremiah 51
EasyEnglish Bible
51 The Lord says this:
‘I will send an enemy to destroy Babylon and the people of Babylonia.
It will come like a strong wind that blows them away.
2 I will send foreign soldiers to remove them from their land,
like a wind that blows chaff away.
They will make the land become empty.
On the day of that great trouble,
they will attack Babylonia from all directions.
3 Do not give Babylon's soldiers time to pick up their weapons!
Do not give them time to put on their armour!
Kill all their young men.
Completely destroy their whole army.
4 Their dead bodies will lie on the ground
all over Babylonia and in the streets of the city.
5 The Lord Almighty, Israel's God,
will not leave Israel and Judah on their own.
Those people are guilty of many bad things
that they have done against Israel's holy God.[a]
6 Run away from Babylonia!
Run quickly to escape from there!
Do not stay there to die along with Babylonia's people.
The time has come for the Lord to pay them back for their sins.
He will punish them as they deserve.
7 Babylon has been like a gold cup of wine in the Lord's hand.
The nations of the world had to drink that wine.[b]
It made everyone become drunk,
and so they all became crazy.
8 But now Babylon will quickly fall.
An enemy will destroy it, so weep for it!
Find some medicine that will make its wounds better.
Perhaps it will become well again.
9 The foreign people in Babylon say,
“We tried to make its wounds better,
but it was not possible to do it.
Now we must leave it.
We must each go back to our own country.
Its punishment will have no end.
It will reach as high as the sky!”
10 The people from Judah who are in Babylon say,
“The Lord has shown that we are his people.
Now we must go to Jerusalem.
We must tell people in Zion
about how the Lord our God has helped us.” ’
11 ‘Make your arrows sharp!
Prepare your weapons!
The Lord has caused Media's kings to prepare for war.
He will use them to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will punish the people of Babylonia
because they destroyed his temple.
12 Wave a flag and prepare to attack Babylon's city walls!
Bring plenty of guards to watch all around the city.
Put soldiers to catch anyone who tries to escape.
Yes, the Lord will now do everything that he has decided.
He will punish Babylon's people, as he said he would do.
13 You people of Babylon, who live beside many rivers,
it is now time for you to die.
You have become rich with many valuable things,
but now your lives will finish.’[c]
14 The Lord Almighty has made this strong promise
with the authority of his own name:
‘I will cause the enemy's soldiers to fill your cities.
They will come like a big crowd of locusts.
They will shout loudly when they take your city for themselves.’
A song to praise the Lord[d]
15 The Lord used his power to make the earth.
He used his wisdom to make it strong.
He knew how to put the sky to cover the earth.
16 When he shouts like thunder,
the water in the sky roars.
He brings the clouds from the far places of the earth.
He causes bright lightning to show in the storms.
He opens his rooms so that the wind comes out
and it blows everywhere.
17 People who worship idols are stupid.
They do not understand what they are doing.
The men who make idols will be ashamed.
They make images of gods that are false.
None of their idols have the breath of life in them.
18 They are useless things that people should laugh at.
When the time for their punishment arrives,
God will destroy them.
19 The God that Jacob's descendants worship
is not like those idols.
He created everything.
He chose Israel's people to belong to him.
His name is the Lord Almighty.
20 ‘You are the weapon that I use to fight my battles.[e]
I have used you to punish nations.
I have used you to destroy kingdoms.
21 I have used you to destroy whole armies,
with their horses, chariots and riders.
22 I have used you to destroy men and women,
old men, young men, boys and girls.
23 I have used you to destroy shepherds and their sheep,
as well as farmers and their oxen.
I have used you to destroy rulers and their officers.
24 But now I will punish Babylon
and all the people who live in Babylonia.
I will pay them back for all the evil things that they did in Jerusalem.
And you will see me do that.’
That is what the Lord says.
25 The Lord says,
‘Listen to me, Babylon! I am your enemy!
You are like a strong mountain that destroys the whole earth.
I will punish you with all my strength.
I will push you down from your high place.
I will make you a heap of ashes.
26 Nobody will be able to use any of your stones
as a foundation for a new building.
You will remain as empty as a desert for ever.’
That is what the Lord says.
27 ‘Call the nations to come and fight a battle against Babylonia.
Wave a flag and make a noise with trumpets,
so that these kingdoms prepare their armies to attack:
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Choose a captain to lead them into battle.
Send an army of soldiers on horses to attack,
like a large crowd of locusts.
28 Tell the nations to prepare their armies for war against Babylonia.
Tell the kings of Media to get ready,
as well as their leaders and officers.
The armies of the countries that they rule must also be ready to fight.
29 The whole earth will shake with pain
as the Lord punishes Babylonia.
He will certainly do what he has decided to do.
He will make the land of Babylonia as empty as a desert.
Nobody will live there.
30 The brave soldiers of Babylonia are no longer fighting!
They remain inside their strong buildings.
Their strength has gone! They are as weak as women.
In their cities, enemy soldiers are burning their houses.
They have broken down the city gates.
31 Now people run to send the news to the king of Babylon.
They pass this message along the line:
“The enemy has taken power over the whole city!
32 They have guards to stop people escaping across the rivers.
They have burned the reeds in the wet fields.
All our soldiers are afraid.”
33 The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this:
Babylon is like a threshing floor
that is ready for people to stamp on wheat.
The harvest time will soon come!
Then the enemy will cut down Babylon,
and they will stamp all over it!’
34 ‘King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has destroyed us with his army.
He has made us weak and confused.
He has eaten us like a hungry monster.
He has filled himself with all our good things.
Then he spat us out of his mouth.’
35 Zion's people then say to the Lord,
‘Please punish the people of Babylonia,
because they did cruel things to us.’
Jerusalem's people say,
‘Pay back the people of Babylonia,
because they killed our relatives.’
36 So the Lord says,
‘I will help you to win.
I will punish the people of Babylonia for what they have done to you.
I will cause all their rivers and their springs to become dry.
37 Babylon will become a heap of stones.
Wild animals will live there.
People will see that it is a disgusting place,
and they will laugh at it.
Nobody will live there.
38 Its people shout loudly, like lions that roar.
They make a noise like baby lions that are hungry.
39 While they are feeling so hungry,
I will prepare a feast for them.
I will cause them to become drunk,
and they will become helpless.
They will sleep for ever
and they will never wake up again.’
That is what the Lord says.
40 ‘I will take them down to the place of death.
People will kill them as if they are lambs, sheep and goats.’
41 ‘Now an enemy will take power over Babylon!
Everyone in the world praised it as a great nation.
But now all the nations will see that it is a disgusting place.
42 The sea will pour over it.
Many waves of water will cover it.
43 Babylonia's towns will become heaps of stones.
The land will be dry and empty, like a desert.
Nobody will live there any more.
Nobody will even travel through the land.
44 I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon.
I will cause him to give back everything that he has taken.
Nations will never go to worship him again.
Yes, the walls of Babylon will fall down!’
45 ‘Escape from Babylon, my people!
Run away to save your lives!
The Lord is very angry with that place,
so run away from there!
46 You must be brave!
When you hear news in Babylon of what is happening,
do not be afraid.
People will report one thing this year,
and next year they will report a different thing.
They will speak about violence in the land,
and about rulers who are fighting against each other.
47 So the time will soon come when I will punish Babylon's idols.
The whole country will become ashamed.
Its people will die and their dead bodies will lie everywhere.
48 Then everyone in heaven and everyone on the earth
will shout with joy because of what happens to Babylon.
They will be happy because an army will come from the north to destroy it.’
That is what the Lord says.
49 ‘Babylon's people have caused the death of people everywhere.
They have killed many Israelites.
So now Babylon must lose its power.
50 You Israelites who are still alive,
leave Babylon now! Do not wait!
You are far away from your homes.
But remember that the Lord is with you.
Think about Jerusalem.
51 You say, “We are ashamed. People have insulted us.
We hide our faces in shame
because foreigners have gone into the holy places of the Lord's temple.” ’
52 But the Lord says this:
‘The time will soon come when I will punish Babylon's idols.
People everywhere in that land will cry with pain,
because their wounds are causing them to die.
53 Babylon's people may build their city very high.
They may make its walls very strong.
But I will send an army to destroy it.’
That is what the Lord says.
54 ‘Listen to the noise that comes from Babylon!
People are crying in pain.
Listen to the noise of the enemy army
as it destroys Babylonia.
55 The Lord is preparing to destroy Babylon.
No noise will come from there any more.
The enemy soldiers will attack like great waves of water.
There will be a loud noise of battle.
56 An army is coming to destroy Babylon.
They will take hold of its brave soldiers.
They will break their weapons.
The Lord is a God who punishes people as they deserve.
He always pays them back for their sins.
57 I will make Babylon's officers and its wise men drunk,
as well as its rulers, its leaders and its soldiers.
They will sleep for ever
and they will never wake up again.’
That is what the King says. His name is the Lord Almighty.
58 The Lord Almighty says this:
‘The enemy will completely knock down the strong walls of Babylon.
They will burn its high gates with fire.
The nations work very hard,
but their work is useless.
They make themselves tired,
but fire destroys all their work.’
Jeremiah sends God's message to Babylon
59 This is the command that the prophet Jeremiah gave to the king's officer Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Neriah and the grandson of Mahseiah. He took the message when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. That happened in the fourth year that Zedekiah had ruled Judah as king. 60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the terrible troubles that would happen to Babylon. Those were all the messages that he had written about Babylon. 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, ‘When you arrive in Babylon, you must read aloud all these messages. 62 Then say, “Lord, you have said that you will destroy this place. Then no people or animals will live in it any longer. It will be empty for ever.” 63 When you have finished reading aloud all the words on the scroll, tie a big stone to it. Throw it all into the middle of the Euphrates river. 64 Then say, “That is how Babylon will sink! It will go down and it will never rise up again. The Lord is ready to cause all these terrible troubles to happen to Babylon. Its people will be too weak to stop it.” ’
That is the end of Jeremiah's messages.
Footnotes
- 51:5 ‘Those people’ probably means the people of Babylonia. See Jeremiah 50:29. It might mean the people of Israel and Judah, who did bad things against the Lord, but he continued to be with them.
- 51:7 The cup of wine is a picture of God's anger. He used Babylon to punish other nations. See Jeremiah 25:15-29.
- 51:13 Babylon was beside the big Euphrates river and there were many other small rivers (canals). The rich people were traders who brought things from other countries.
- 51:15 See Jeremiah 10:12-16.
- 51:20 God is probably saying this to Babylon's army.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.
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