“Flee(A) from Babylon!
    Run for your lives!
    Do not be destroyed because of her sins.(B)
It is time(C) for the Lord’s vengeance;(D)
    he will repay(E) her what she deserves.
Babylon was a gold cup(F) in the Lord’s hand;
    she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
    therefore they have now gone mad.
Babylon will suddenly fall(G) and be broken.
    Wail over her!
Get balm(H) for her pain;
    perhaps she can be healed.

“‘We would have healed Babylon,
    but she cannot be healed;
let us leave(I) her and each go to our own land,
    for her judgment(J) reaches to the skies,
    it rises as high as the heavens.’

10 “‘The Lord has vindicated(K) us;
    come, let us tell in Zion
    what the Lord our God has done.’(L)

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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.
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.
But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen.
    Weep for her.
Give her medicine.
    Perhaps she can yet be healed.
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[a]
    everything the Lord our God has done.

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Footnotes

  1. 51:10 Hebrew Zion; also in 51:24.