Jeremiah 51

¹Thus says the Lord: Behold , I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon , against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai ,

²and I will send to Babylon winnowers , and they shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land , when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble .

³Let not the archer bend his bow , and let him not stand up in his armor . Spare not her young men ; devote to destruction all her army .

⁴They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans , and wounded in her streets .

⁵For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God , the Lord of hosts , but the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel .

⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon ; let every one save his life ! Be not cut off in her punishment , for this is the time of the Lord ’s vengeance , the repayment he is rendering her.

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord ’s hand , making all the earth drunken ; the nations drank of her wine ; therefore the nations went mad .

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken ; wail for her! Take balm for her pain ; perhaps she may be healed .

⁹We would have healed Babylon , but she was not healed . Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country , for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies .

¹⁰The Lord has brought about our vindication ; come , let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God .

¹¹Sharpen the arrows ! Take up the shields ! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes , because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for his temple .

¹²Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon ; make the watch strong ; set up watchmen ; prepare the ambushes ; for the Lord has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon .

¹³O you who dwell by many waters , rich in treasures , your end has come ; the thread of your life is cut .

¹⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself : Surely I will fill you with men , as many as locusts , and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.

¹⁵It is he who made the earth by his power , who established the world by his wisdom , and by his understanding stretched out the heavens .

¹⁶When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens , and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth . He makes lightning for the rain , and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses .

¹⁷Every man is stupid and without knowledge ; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols , for his images are false , and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless , a work of delusion ; at the time of their punishment they shall perish .

¹⁹Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob , for he is the one who formed all things , and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance ; the Lord of hosts is his name .

²⁰You are my hammer and weapon of war : with you I break nations in pieces ; with you I destroy kingdoms ;

²¹with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider ; with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer ;

²²with you I break in pieces man and woman ; with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth ; with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman ;

²³with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock ; with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team ; with you I break in pieces governors and commanders .

²⁴I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion , declares the Lord.

²⁵Behold , I am against you, O destroying mountain , declares the Lord, which destroys the whole earth ; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags , and make you a burnt mountain .

²⁶No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation , but you shall be a perpetual waste , declares the Lord.

²⁷Set up a standard on the earth ; blow the trumpet among the nations ; prepare the nations for war against her; summon against her the kingdoms , Ararat , Minni , and Ashkenaz ; appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like bristling locusts .

²⁸Prepare the nations for war against her, the kings of the Medes , with their governors and deputies , and every land under their dominion .

²⁹The land trembles and writhes in pain , for the Lord ’s purposes against Babylon stand , to make the land of Babylon a desolation , without inhabitant .

³⁰The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting ; they remain in their strongholds ; their strength has failed ; they have become women ; her dwellings are on fire ; her bars are broken .

³¹One runner runs to meet another , and one messenger to meet another , to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every side ;

³²the fords have been seized , the marshes are burned with fire , and the soldiers are in panic .

³³For thus says the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel : The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden ; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come .

³⁴Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel ; he has swallowed me like a monster ; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies ; he has rinsed me out .

³⁵The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon , let the inhabitant of Zion say . My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea , let Jerusalem say .

³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold , I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry ,

³⁷and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins , the haunt of jackals , a horror and a hissing , without inhabitant .

³⁸They shall roar together like lions ; they shall growl like lions ’ cubs .

³⁹While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk , that they may become merry , then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake , declares the Lord.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter , like rams and male goats .

⁴¹How Babylon is taken , the praise of the whole earth seized ! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations !

⁴²The sea has come up on Babylon ; she is covered with its tumultuous waves .

⁴³Her cities have become a horror , a land of drought and a desert , a land in which no one dwells , and through which no son of man passes .

⁴⁴And I will punish Bel in Babylon , and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed . The nations shall no longer flow to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen .

⁴⁵Go out of the midst of her, my people ! Let every one save his life from the fierce anger of the Lord!

⁴⁶Let not your heart faint , and be not fearful at the report heard in the land , when a report comes in one year and afterward a report in another year , and violence is in the land , and ruler is against ruler .

⁴⁷Therefore , behold , the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon ; her whole land shall be put to shame , and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth , and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon , for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north , declares the Lord.

⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel , just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth .

⁵⁰You who have escaped from the sword , go , do not stand still ! Remember the Lord from far away , and let Jerusalem come into your mind :

⁵¹We are put to shame , for we have heard reproach ; dishonor has covered our face , for foreigners have come into the holy places of the Lord ’s house .

⁵²Therefore , behold , the days are coming , declares the Lord, when I will execute judgment upon her images , and through all her land the wounded shall groan .

⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven , and though she should fortify her strong height , yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the Lord.

⁵⁴A voice ! A cry from Babylon ! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans !

⁵⁵For the Lord is laying Babylon waste and stilling her mighty voice . Their waves roar like many waters ; the noise of their voice is raised ,

⁵⁶for a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon ; her warriors are taken ; their bows are broken in pieces , for the Lord is a God of recompense ; he will surely repay .

⁵⁷I will make drunk her officials and her wise men , her governors , her commanders , and her warriors ; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake , declares the King , whose name is the Lord of hosts .

⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts : The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground , and her high gates shall be burned with fire . The peoples labor for nothing , and the nations weary themselves only for fire .

⁵⁹The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah , son of Mahseiah , when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon , in the fourth year of his reign . Seraiah was the quartermaster .

⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon , all these words that are written concerning Babylon .

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah : When you come to Babylon , see that you read all these words ,

⁶²and say , O Lord, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off , so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast , and it shall be desolate forever .

⁶³When you finish reading this book ,, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates ,

⁶⁴and say , Thus shall Babylon sink , to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted . Thus far are the words of Jeremiah .