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36 Therefore thus says the Lord:
I am going to defend your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,(A)
37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    a den of jackals,
an object of horror and of hissing,
    without inhabitant.(B)

38 Like lions they shall roar together;
    they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
39 When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink
    and make them drunk, until they become merry
and then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and never wake, says the Lord.(C)
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats.(D)

41 How Sheshach[a] is taken;
    the pride of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    an object of horror among the nations!(E)
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;
    she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.(F)
43 Her cities have become an object of horror,
    a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one lives
    and through which no mortal passes.(G)
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon
    and make him disgorge what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer stream to him;
    the wall of Babylon has fallen.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 51.41 That is, Babylon

36 Therefore[a] 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[b] 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,[c]
    and they will not wake up,” declares[d] 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,[e]
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.[f]
And the nations will not stream towards him any longer
    what’s worse,[g] the wall of Babylon has fallen.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 51:36 Literally “To thus”
  2. Jeremiah 51:37 Literally “from there is not”
  3. Jeremiah 51:39 Literally “a sleep of eternity”
  4. Jeremiah 51:39 Literally “a declaration of”
  5. Jeremiah 51:43 Or “Arabah”
  6. Jeremiah 51:44 Literally “what has been swallowed by him”
  7. Jeremiah 51:44 Literally “also”