Chapter 51
1 The LORD says : " Behold , I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind .
2 I will send to Babylon strangers , who will winnow her . They will empty her land; for in the day of trouble they will be against her all around .
3 Against him who bends , let the archer bend his bow , also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men ! Utterly destroy all her army !
4 They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans , and thrust through in her streets .
5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah , by his God , by the LORD of Armies ; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel .
6 " Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life ! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity , for it is the time of the LORD ’s vengeance . He will give to her a recompense .
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD ’s hand , who made all the earth drunk . The nations have drunk of her wine ; therefore the nations have gone mad .
8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed ! Wail for her ! Take balm for her pain . Perhaps she may be healed .
9 " We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed . Forsake her , and let ’s each go into his own country; for her judgement reaches to heaven , and is lifted up even to the skies .
10 ‘ The LORD has produced our righteousness . Come , and let’s declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God .’
11 " Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes , because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it ; for it is the vengeance of the LORD , the vengeance of his temple .
12 Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong ! Set the watchmen , and prepare the ambushes; for the LORD has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 You who dwell on many waters , abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness .
14 The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself , saying, ‘ Surely I will fill you with men , as with locusts , and they will lift up a shout against you .’
15 " He has made the earth by his power . He has established the world by his wisdom . By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens .
16 When he utters his voice , there is a roar of waters in the heavens , and he causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth . He makes lightning for the rain , and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
17 " Every man has become stupid and without knowledge . Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image , for his molten images are falsehood , and there is no breath in them .
18 They are vanity , a work of delusion . In the time of their visitation , they will perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like these , for he formed all things , including the tribe of his inheritance . The LORD of Armies is his name .
20 " You are my battle axe and weapons of war . With you I will break the nations into pieces . With you I will destroy kingdoms .
21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider .
22 With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth . With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin .
23 With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock . With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke . With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies .
24 " I will give to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight ," says the LORD .
25 " Behold , I am against you , destroying mountain ," says the LORD , " which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you , roll you down from the rocks , and will make you a burnt mountain .
26 They won’t take a cornerstone from you , nor a stone for foundations ; but you will be desolate forever ," says the LORD .
27 " Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet amongst the nations ! Prepare the nations against her ! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni , and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her ! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts !
28 Prepare against her the nations , the kings of the Medes , its governors , and all its deputies , and all the land of their dominion !
29 The land trembles and is in pain ; for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand , to make the land of Babylon a desolation , without inhabitant .
30 The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting , they remain in their strongholds . Their might has failed . They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire . Her bars are broken .
31 One runner will run to meet another , and one messenger to meet another , to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter .
32 So the passages are seized . They have burnt the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened."
33 For the LORD of Armies , the God of Israel says : " The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden . Yet a little while , and the time of harvest comes for her ."
34 " Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me . He has crushed me . He has made me an empty vessel . He has , like a monster , swallowed me up . He has filled his mouth with my delicacies . He has cast me out .
35 May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!" the inhabitant of Zion will say; and , "May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea !" will Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore the LORD says : " Behold , I will plead 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 place for jackals , an astonishment , and a hissing , without inhabitant .
38 They will roar together like young lions . They will growl as lions ’ cubs .
39 When they are inflamed, I will make their feast , and I will make them drunk , that they may rejoice , and sleep a perpetual sleep , and not wake up ," says the LORD .
40 "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter , like rams with male goats .
41 "How Sheshach is taken ! How the praise of the whole earth is seized ! How Babylon has become a desolation amongst the nations !
42 The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves .
43 Her cities have become a desolation , a dry land , and a desert , a land in which no man dwells . No son of man passes by it .
44 I will execute judgement on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up . The nations will not flow any more to him . Yes , the wall of Babylon will fall .
45 " My people , go away from the middle of her , and each of you save yourselves from the LORD ’s fierce anger .
46 Don’t let your heart faint . Don’t fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year , and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler .
47 Therefore behold , the days come that I will execute judgement on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land will be confounded. All her slain will fall in the middle of her .
48 Then the heavens and the earth , and all that is therein, will sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers will come to her from the north ," says the LORD .
49 " As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall , so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword , go ! Don’t stand still ! Remember the LORD from afar , and let Jerusalem come into your mind ."
51 " We are confounded because we have heard reproach . Confusion has covered our faces , for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD ’s house ."
52 " Therefore behold , the days come," says the LORD , " that I will execute judgement on her engraved images ; and through all her land the wounded will groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to the sky , and though she should fortify the height of her strength , yet destroyers will come to her from me ," says the LORD .
54 " The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans !
55 For the LORD lays Babylon waste , and destroys out of her the great voice ! Their waves roar like many waters . The noise of their voice is uttered .
56 For the destroyer has come on her , even on Babylon. Her mighty men are taken . Their bows are broken in pieces , for the LORD is a God of retribution. He will surely repay .
57 I will make her princes , her wise men , her governors , her deputies , and her mighty men drunk . They will sleep a perpetual sleep , and not wake up ," says the King , whose name is the LORD of Armies .
58 The LORD of Armies says : " The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burnt with fire . The peoples will labour for vanity , and the nations for the fire ; and they will be weary ."
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah , the son of Mahseiah , when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign . Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster .
60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah , " When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words ,
62 and say , ‘ LORD , you have spoken concerning this place , to cut it off , that no one will dwell in it , neither man nor animal , but that it will be desolate forever .’
63 It will be , when you have finished reading this book , that you shall bind a stone to it , and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates .
64 Then you shall say , ‘ Thus will Babylon sink , and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her ; and they will be weary .’" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah .