Jeremiah 51:1-64

YAHWEH says, “I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer to fight against Babylon and the heart of my enemies. I will bring foreigners against Babylon to winnow her and plunder her country. They will attack her on every side in the day of her disaster. Shoot down all their archers and all their proud warriors dressed in armor. Do not spare her soldiers! Destroy her entire army! The slaughtered will fall throughout the land of the Chaldeans. They will be wounded and die in their city streets. Remember, your God, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, has not forsaken Israel and Judah even though the land is awash with their sins against me, the Holy One of Israel. Flee from Babylon! Save your lives! Don’t you perish when I punish her for her guilt; the time of revenge is here. Now YAHWEH will pay her back for what she has done. Babylon was like a golden cup in YAHWEH’s hand; she made the whole world drunk. The nations drank her wine and then went mad. Suddenly the cup of Babylon falls to the ground and is shattered. Wail for her! Get medicine for her wounds; perhaps she can be cured. They said, ‘We tried to heal Babylon but failed. She can’t be healed, so let’s each go to our own country. For her judgment has reached up to heaven and rises to the very clouds. YAHWEH has judged in our favor. Come, let us tell the news in Zion, all the wonders that YAHWEH our God has done!’ ” YAHWEH has stirred up a spirit of hostility in the king of the Medes because YAHWEH’s plan is to destroy Babylon. This is YAHWEH’s revenge for destroying his temple. “Sharpen the arrows; fill up your quivers! Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls! Post sentries and reinforce the guards! Prepare a surprise attack! YAHWEH has done what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. You who are enthroned beside many rivers and canals and are rich in treasures, your end has come. The thread of your life is cut. For I have sworn by my great name, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, that I will fill your land with warriors as a swarm of locusts, and they will raise up the victory shout over you.” YAHWEH made the earth by his glorious power and firmly established it by his great wisdom. His skill stretched out the sky. When he speaks, a roar is released in the waters of heaven. Clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He unleashes on the earth from his storehouses, rain, lightning bolts, and stormy winds. Idolaters are senseless and know so little. Idol-makers are shamed by what they make since their idols are nothing but lifeless lies. They are worthless—nothing but a joke! When YAHWEH comes to punish them, they will perish. YAHWEH, the Riches of Jacob, you are nothing like these. He created the universe and has chosen Israel to be his inheritance. YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, is his name! YAHWEH “You were my war club, my battle club. I used you to crush nations and overthrow kingdoms. With you I defeated horses and riders, and with you I broke chariots and their riders in pieces. With you I shattered men and women, with you I conquered old and young, and with you I triumphed over young men and girls. With you I overpowered shepherds and flocks, with you I devastated plowmen and animals that pull the plow, and with you I crushed governors and officials.” “But now,” YAHWEH says, “you will see with your own eyes how I repay you, Babylon and the Chaldeans, for all the wrongs you have done to Zion. I have become your enemy,” says YAHWEH, “O mountain of destruction, destroyer of the whole world! I will unleash my power against you, send you tumbling to the ground, and turn you into a mountain of soot and ashes. I, YAHWEH, declare: After I am through with you, people will not be able to find any among you to rebuild you, not one foundation stone or cornerstone. You will lie desolate forever.” “Raise up a signal flag throughout the world; sound the war trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations to attack her! Assemble the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz to make war against her. Appoint a commanding officer to lead her enemies in battle; send multitudes of horsemen like swarms of locusts. Prepare the kings of Media, her governors, all her officials, and all the lands they rule to come make war against Babylon.” Then, when YAHWEH executed his plan against Babylon, the earth trembled and convulsed. He determined to make Babylon an uninhabited desert. Babylon’s warriors had enough of fighting, so they stayed inside their forts. With their courage melted away, they have been left like ordinary civilians. Their city gates have been broken through, and her houses are on fire. Courier after courier, messenger after messenger, runs to inform the king of Babylon: One says, “Your city has been taken from every side.” Another says, “The river crossings have been overrun.” And another, “The thickets and reed marshes have all been burned.” And yet another one says, “All your fighting men are gripped with panic.” For YAHWEH, the God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says to you: “When people trample down the threshing place, the time of threshing is not far off. The time to harvest Fair Babylon is almost here!” Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, devoured us, chewed us up, and consumed us like a hungry man consumes a meal. Like a monster he swallowed us whole, filled his belly with our delicacies and then expelled us. Let the people of Zion say, “May the violence done to our people fall upon Babylon!” Let Jerusalem say, “May the Chaldeans pay for the crime of shedding my blood!” YAHWEH This is what YAHWEH says: “Look, I am taking up your cause to make sure you are avenged. I will dry up her water source and make her rivers run dry. Babylon will be reduced to a pile of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a thing of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. Like lions, the Babylonians all roar over their prey; they growl like lions’ cubs. Are they ready to feast? I will prepare them a drink that will make them drunk. They will drink themselves tipsy and fall into an everlasting sleep,” declares YAHWEH. “I will lead these proud lions down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed.” “What! Has the great city of Babylon been taken? Has the pride of the whole world been seized? Babylon has become an object of horror throughout the nations. The sea has risen over Babylon; she sinks beneath its crashing waves. Her nearby towns have become desolate, a parched land, a desert where no one lives and where nobody goes. I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and make him give back what he has stolen. The people will no longer stream to him to bring him their offering. The walls of Babylon have fallen.” YAHWEH “Leave Babylon behind, my people. Each of you, save your lives from YAHWEH’s furious anger. But make sure that you are not discouraged. Do not worry about the many conspiracy theories that are being circulated throughout the country. For every year a different rumor spreads— rumors of violence, rumors of one king fighting another. “Behold, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s ‘gods.’ Her entire country will be humiliated, with all her slaughtered lying in the streets. Creation itself will sing for joy over Babylon’s demise. Destroyers from the north will attack her,” declares YAHWEH. “For people throughout the world have been slain by Babylon. And now, because of Israel’s slaughtered ones, Babylon will fall.” YAHWEH “You who have escaped with your life, do not wait to leave Babylon behind. Remember YAHWEH your God in a distant land, and let your thoughts turn to beautiful Jerusalem.” “We were mocked and ashamed; we were covered with disgrace because foreigners had entered the temple of YAHWEH’s holy places.” YAHWEH declares, “Behold, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s ‘gods,’ and throughout the land, wounded people will be groaning in pain. I, YAHWEH, say, even if Babylon should climb up to the sky, and entrench herself in an inaccessible height, I would still call her enemies to destroy her.” “Listen! The voice of a shout from Babylon. It is a noise of great destruction coming from the country of the Chaldeans. I am attacking Babylon and will destroy her and will silence the noise of the city. The enemy armies rush in like roaring waves and attack with shouts and battle cries. An enemy has come to destroy Babylon. They have captured Babylon’s soldiers and broken their bows into pieces. For YAHWEH is a God of recompense; he never fails to repay. I will make her soldiers and all her leaders drunk, including the advisers, officials, and military commanders. They will fall into an everlasting sleep, never to wake again,” declares the King, whose name is YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies. “The attacking army will demolish the massive walls protecting Babylon and burn down the lofty gates of the city. The nations wear themselves out to no avail; they will see the flames destroy what they’ve done,” declares YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies. Now Jeremiah had written all these prophecies of Babylon’s doom on a scroll. In the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, the king traveled to Babylonia, accompanied by his personal attendant, Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. Jeremiah gave Seraiah the scroll together with this command: “When you arrive in Babylon, be sure to read all the prophecies written on this scroll to all the people. Afterward, pray this prayer: ‘O  YAHWEH, you have promised to destroy this place so that no one will live here ever again, neither human nor animal. You said it will be desolate forever.’ “Then, Seraiah, when you finish reading this book to the people, tie a heavy stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River with these words: ‘Just as this scroll will sink, so Babylon will sink to the depths, never to rise again from the disaster I am going to bring on her.’ ” This ends Jeremiah’s writings.