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27 Raise a signal flag to the nations.
    Sound the battle cry!
Mobilize them all against Babylon.
    Prepare them to fight against her!
Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
    Appoint a commander,
    and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!
28 Bring against her the armies of the nations—
    led by the kings of the Medes
    and all their captains and officers.

29 The earth trembles and writhes in pain,
    for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged.
Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.
30     Her mightiest warriors no longer fight.
They stay in their barracks, their courage gone.
    They have become like women.
The invaders have burned the houses
    and broken down the city gates.
31 The news is passed from one runner to the next
    as the messengers hurry to tell the king
    that his city has been captured.
32 All the escape routes are blocked.
    The marshes have been set aflame,
    and the army is in a panic.

33 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    the God of Israel, says:
“Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor,
    about to be trampled.
In just a little while
    her harvest will begin.”

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27 Lift up a battle standard in the land.
    Blow a trumpet among the nations.
Consecrate the nations against her.
    Summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni,
        and Ashkenaz against her.
Appoint a commander against her,
    bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28 Consecrate the nations against her,
    the kings of the Medes, their governors, their prefects,
        and every land under their domination.
29 The land quakes and writhes
    because the Lord’s purposes
against Babylon stand firm,
    to make the land of Babylon a waste without inhabitants.
30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting.
    They stay in their strongholds;
their strength is dried up;
    they have become like women.
Her buildings are set on fire;
    the bars of her gates are broken.
31 One runner runs to meet another runner,[a]
    and one messenger to meet another messenger,[b]
to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been seized
    from one end to the other.[c]
32 The fords have been captured,
    and the marshes burned with fire.
        The soldiers are terrified.
33 For this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
    the God of Israel, says:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
    at the time when it’s pounded down.[d]
In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come.”

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 51:31 Lit. to meet a runner
  2. Jeremiah 51:31 Lit. to meet a messenger
  3. Jeremiah 51:31 Lit. from the end
  4. Jeremiah 51:33 I.e. threshing floors were pounded and smoothed in preparation for an upcoming harvest