Jeremiah 51
51
The Utter Destruction of Babylon
1Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will raise up against #Is. 47:1; Jer. 50:1Babylon,
Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,
#2 Kin. 19:7; Jer. 4:11; Hos. 13:15A destroying wind.
2And I will send #Is. 41:16; Jer. 15:7; Matt. 3:12winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
#Jer. 50:14For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
3Against her #Jer. 50:14, 29let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
#Jer. 50:21Utterly destroy all her army.
4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
#Jer. 49:26; 50:30, 37And those thrust through in her streets.
5For Israel is #(Is. 54:7, 8; Jer. 33:24–26; 46:28)not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
6#Jer. 50:8; Rev. 18:4Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For #Jer. 50:15this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
#Jer. 25:14He shall recompense her.
7#Jer. 25:15; Hab. 2:16; Rev. 17:4Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
#Rev. 14:8The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations #Jer. 25:16are deranged.
8Babylon has suddenly #Is. 21:9; Jer. 50:2; Rev. 14:8; 18:2fallen and been destroyed.
#(Is. 48:20); Rev. 18:9, 11, 19Wail for her!
#Jer. 46:11Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and #Is. 13:14; Jer. 46:16; 50:16let us go everyone to his own country;
#Ezra 9:6; Rev. 18:5For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
10The Lord has #Ps. 37:6; Mic. 7:9revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us #(Is. 40:2); Jer. 50:28declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11#Jer. 46:4, 9; Joel 3:9, 10Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
#Is. 13:17The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
#Jer. 50:45For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is #Jer. 50:28the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
12#Nah. 2:1; 3:14Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13#Rev. 17:1, 15O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
14#Jer. 49:13; Amos 6:8The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, #Jer. 51:27; Nah. 3:15as with locusts,
And they shall lift #Jer. 50:15up a shout against you.”
15#Gen. 1:1, 6; Jer. 10:12–16He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And #Job 9:8; Ps. 104:2; Is. 40:22stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
#Ps. 135:7; Jer. 10:13“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
17#(Is. 44:18–20); Jer. 10:14Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
#Jer. 50:2For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
18They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.
20“You#Is. 10:5, 15; Jer. 50:23 are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
21With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces #2 Chr. 36:17; Is. 13:15, 16old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
24“And#Jer. 50:15, 29 I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord.
25“Behold, I am against you, #Is. 13:2; Zech. 4:7O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
#Rev. 8:8And make you a burnt mountain.
26They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
#Jer. 50:26, 40But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.
27#Is. 13:2; Jer. 50:2; 51:12Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
#Jer. 25:14Prepare the nations against her,
Call #Jer. 50:41, 42the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
28Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
29And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every #Jer. 50:45purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
#Is. 13:19, 20; 47:11; Jer. 50:13; 51:26, 43To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
#Is. 19:16; Jer. 48:41They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
#Is. 45:1, 2; Lam. 2:9; Amos 1:5; Nah. 3:13The bars of her gate are broken.
31#Jer. 50:24One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
32#Jer. 50:38The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
33For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
“The daughter of Babylon is #Is. 21:10; Dan. 2:35; Amos 1:3; Mic. 4:13like a threshing floor
When #Is. 41:15; Hab. 3:12it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
#Is. 17:5; Hos. 6:11; Joel 3:13; Rev. 14:15And the time of her harvest will come.”
34“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has #Jer. 50:17devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an #Is. 24:1–3empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
35Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.
36Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, #(Ps. 140:12); Jer. 50:34I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
#Jer. 50:38I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
37#Is. 13:22; Jer. 50:39; (Rev. 18:2)Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
#Jer. 25:9, 11An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
38They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
39In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
#Jer. 51:57I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
40“I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.
41“Oh, how #Jer. 25:26Sheshach is taken!
Oh, how #Is. 13:19; Jer. 49:25; (Dan. 4:30)the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
42#Is. 8:7, 8; Jer. 51:55; Dan. 9:26The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43#Jer. 50:39, 40Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where #Is. 13:20no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
44I will punish #Jer. 50:2; Is. 46:1Bel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, #Jer. 50:15the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45“My#Is. 48:20; (Jer. 50:8, 28; 51:6; Rev. 18:4) people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
46And lest your heart faint,
And you fear #2 Kin. 19:7; Is. 13:3–5for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
47Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48Then #Is. 44:23; 48:20; 49:13; Rev. 18:20the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
#Jer. 50:3, 41For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.
49As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50#Jer. 44:28You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
#(Deut. 4:29–31); Ezek. 6:9Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51#Ps. 44:15; 79:4We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers #Ps. 74:3–8; Jer. 52:13; Lam. 1:10have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.
52“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
53#Gen. 11:4; Job 20:6; (Ps. 139:8–10; Is. 14:12–14); Jer. 49:16; Amos 9:2; Obad. 4Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.
54#Jer. 50:22The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
56Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
#Ps. 94:1; Jer. 50:29For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.
57“And I will make drunk
Her princes and #Jer. 50:35wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says #Jer. 46:18; 48:15the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.
58Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly #Jer. 50:15broken,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
#Hab. 2:13The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”
Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah
59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of #Jer. 32:12Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60So Jeremiah #Is. 30:8; Jer. 36:2wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, 62then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that #Is. 13:20; 14:22, 23; Jer. 50:3, 39none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ 63Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, #Jer. 19:10, 11; Rev. 18:21that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. 64Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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Jeremiah 51: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.