Jeremiah 51 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Sends Calamity to Babylon

51Thus says Yahweh: “Behold, I am going to arouse against BabylonAnd against the inhabitants of ¹Leb-kamai²The ^aspirit of a destroyer.

²“I will send ¹strangers to Babylon that they may ^awinnow herAnd may empty her land to destruction;For on every side they will be against herIn the day of her calamity.³“¹Let not ²him who ³^,^abends his bow ⁴bend it,⁵Nor let him rise up in his ^bscale-armor;So do not spare her young men;Devote all her army to destruction.⁴“They will fall down ¹slain in the land of the Chaldeans,And ^apierced through in their streets.”⁵For ^aneither Israel nor Judah has been widowedBy his God, by Yahweh of hosts,Although their land is ^bfull of guilt¹Before the Holy One of Israel.⁶^aFlee from the midst of Babylon,And each of you escape with his life!Do not be ¹^,^bsilenced in her ²iniquity,For this is ^cYahweh’s time of vengeance;He is going to ^drender recompense to her.⁷Babylon has been a golden ^acup in the hand of Yahweh,Intoxicating all the earth.The ^bnations have drunk of her wine;Therefore the nations are ^cgoing mad.⁸Suddenly ^aBabylon has fallen and been broken;^bWail over her!^cTake ¹balm for her pain;Perhaps she may be healed.⁹We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;Forsake her and ^alet us each go to his own country,For her judgment has ^btouched heavenAnd lifts up to the very skies.¹⁰Yahweh has ^abrought ¹about our righteousness;Come and let us ^brecount in ZionThe work of Yahweh our God!¹¹^aSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!Yahweh has aroused the spirit of the kings of the MedesBecause His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it;For it is the ^bvengeance of Yahweh, vengeance for His temple.¹²^aLift up a standard against the walls of Babylon;Make strong the watch;Raise up ¹watchmen;Establish men in ambush!For Yahweh has both ^bpurposed and performedWhat He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.¹³O you who ^adwell by abundant waters,Abundant in ^btreasures,Your end has come,The ¹measure of your ²^,^cend.¹⁴^aYahweh of hosts has sworn by Himself:“Surely I will fill you with a ¹population like ^blocusts,And they will cry out with ²shouts of victory over you.”¹⁵It is ^aHe who made the earth by His power,Who established the world by His wisdom,And by His understanding He ^bstretched out the heavens.¹⁶When He gives forth His ^avoice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,And He causes the ^bclouds to ascend from the end of the earth;He makes lightning for the rainAnd brings forth the ^cwind from His storehouses.¹⁷^aAll mankind is senseless, devoid of knowledge;Every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image,For his molten images are ^ba lie,And there is no breath in them.¹⁸They are ^avanity, a work of mockery;In the time of their punishment they will perish.¹⁹The ^aportion of Jacob is not like these;For the ¹Maker of all is He,And of the ²tribe of His inheritance;^bYahweh of hosts is His name.²⁰He says, “You are My ^ainstrument of shattering, My weapon of war;And with you I ^bshatter nations,And with you I destroy kingdoms.²¹“With you I ^ashatter the horse and his rider,And with you I shatter the ^bchariot and its rider,²²And with you I shatter ^aman and woman,And with you I shatter old man and ^byouth,And with you I shatter choice man and virgin,²³And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,And with you I shatter the farmer and his pair of oxen,And with you I shatter governors and prefects.

²⁴“But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of ^aChaldea for ^ball their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares Yahweh.

²⁵“Behold, ^aI am against you, ^bO destroying mountain,Who destroys the whole earth,” declares Yahweh,“And I will stretch out My hand against youAnd roll you down from the crags,And I will make you a ^cburnt out mountain.²⁶“They will not take from you even a stone for a cornerNor a stone for foundations,But you will be a perpetual ^adesolation,” declares Yahweh.²⁷^aLift up a standard in the land,Blow a trumpet among the nations!Set apart the nations against her;Summon against her the ^bkingdoms of ^cArarat, Minni, and ^dAshkenaz;Appoint a marshal against her;Bring up the ^ehorses like bristly locusts.²⁸Set apart the nations against her,The kings of the Medes,¹Their governors and all ²their ³prefectsAnd every land of ⁴their rule.²⁹So the ^aland quakes and writhes,For the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand,To make the land of Babylon¹A ^bdesolation without inhabitants.³⁰The ^amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting;They inhabit the strongholds;^bTheir might is dried up;They are becoming ^clike women;Their dwelling places are set on fire;The ^dbars of her gates are broken.³¹One ^arunner runs to meet ¹another,And one ^bmessenger to meet ²another,To give a message to the king of BabylonThat his city has been captured from end to end;³²The fords also have been seized,And they have burned the marshes with fire,And the men of war are terrified.

³³For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a ^athreshing floorAt the time ¹it is stamped firm;Yet in a little while the time of ^bharvest will come for her.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has ^adevoured me and brought me into confusion;He has set me down like an ^bempty vessel;He has ^cswallowed me like a sea monster;He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;He has rinsed me away.³⁵“May the ^aviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”The ¹inhabitant of Zion will say;And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”Jerusalem will say.

³⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I am going to ^aplead your caseAnd ^bexact full vengeance for you;And ^cI will dry up her ¹seaAnd make her fountain dry.

³⁷“^aBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,An ^bobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.³⁸“They will roar together like ^ayoung lions;They will growl like lions’ cubs.³⁹“When they become heated up, I will set before them their feastAnd ^amake them drunk, that they may exultAnd may ^bsleep a perpetual sleepAnd not wake up,” declares Yahweh.⁴⁰“I will bring them down like ¹lambs ^ato the slaughter,Like rams together with male goats.⁴¹“How ¹^,^aSheshak has been captured,And ^bthe praise of the whole earth been seized!How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!⁴²“The ¹^,^asea has come up over Babylon;She has been covered with its tumultuous waves.⁴³“Her cities have become an ^aobject of horror,A parched land, and a desert,A land in which ^bno man livesAnd through which no son of man passes.⁴⁴“^aI will punish Bel in Babylon,And I will make what he has swallowed ^bcome out of his mouth;And the nations will no longer ^cstream to him.Even the ^dwall of Babylon has fallen down!⁴⁵“^aCome forth from her midst, My people,And each of you ^bescape with his lifeFrom the burning anger of Yahweh.⁴⁶“Now ^alest your heart grow faint,And you fear the ^breport that will be heard in the land—For the report will come ¹one year,And after that ²another report in ³another year,And violence will be in the landWith ^cruler against ruler—⁴⁷Therefore behold, days are comingWhen I will punish the ^agraven images of Babylon;And her whole land will be ^bput to shame,And all her slain will fall in her midst.⁴⁸“Then ^aheaven and earth and all that is in themWill shout for joy over Babylon,For ^bthe destroyers will come to her from the north,”Declares Yahweh.⁴⁹^aIndeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,As also for Babylon ^bthe slain of all the earth have fallen.⁵⁰You ^awho have escaped the sword,Go! Do not stand around!^bRemember Yahweh from afar,And let Jerusalem come upon your heart.⁵¹^aWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach;Dishonor has covered our faces,For ^bstrangers have enteredThe holy places of the house of Yahweh.⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh,“When I will punish her ^agraven images,And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.⁵³“Though Babylon should ^aascend to the heavens,And though she should fortify ¹her lofty stronghold,From ^bMe destroyers will come to her,” declares Yahweh.⁵⁴The ^asound of an outcry from Babylon,And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!⁵⁵For Yahweh is going to destroy Babylon,And He will make her loud ¹noise ²vanish from her.And their ^awaves will roar like many waters;The rumbling of their voices ³sounds forth.⁵⁶For the ^adestroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,And her mighty men will be captured;Their ^bbows are shattered;For Yahweh is a God of ^crecompense,He will fully repay.⁵⁷“I will ^amake her princes and her wise men drunk,Her governors, her prefects, and her mighty men,That they may sleep a ^bperpetual sleep and not wake up,”^cDeclares the King, whose name is Yahweh of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “The broad ^awall of Babylon will be completely razed,And her high ^bgates will be set on fire;So the peoples will ^ctoil for nothing,And the nations become ^dweary only for fire.”

⁵⁹The ¹message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of ^aNeriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with ^bZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.) ⁶⁰So Jeremiah ^awrote in a single ¹scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. ⁶¹Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud, ⁶²and then you will say, ‘You, O Yahweh, have ¹promised concerning this place to ^acut it off, so that there will be ^bnothing inhabiting it, ²whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’ ⁶³“And as soon as you finish reading this ¹scroll, you will tie a stone to it and ^athrow it into the middle of the Euphrates, ⁶⁴and then you will say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and ^anot rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become ^butterly weary.’” ^cThus far are the words of Jeremiah.