Jeremiah 51

The Call to Flee Babylon Jeremiah 51:9–14

⁹Verse 9. “We would have healed Babylon,but she is not healed.Forsake her,and let us each go into his own country;for her judgment reaches to heaven,and is lifted up even to the skies.¹⁰Verse 10. ‘Yahweh has produced our righteousness:come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.’¹¹Verse 11. “Make the arrows sharp!Hold the shields firmly!Yahweh 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 Yahweh,the vengeance of his temple.¹²Verse 12. Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon!Make the watch strong!Set the watchmen,and prepare the ambushes;for Yahweh has both purposed and donethat which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.¹³Verse 13. You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures,your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.¹⁴Verse 14. Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying,‘Surely I will fill you with men,as with the canker worm;and they will lift up a shout against you.’

Yahweh's Power and Judgment Jeremiah 51:15–24

¹⁵Verse 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.¹⁶Verse 16. When he utters his voice,there is a roar of waters in the heavens,and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rain,and brings the wind out of his treasuries.¹⁷Verse 17. “Every man has become brutish without knowledge.Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image;for his molten image is falsehood,and there is no breath in them.¹⁸Verse 18. They are vanity,a work of delusion.In the time of their visitation, they will perish.¹⁹Verse 19. The portion of Jacob is not like these,for he is the former of all things;including the tribe of his inheritance:Yahweh of Armies is his name.²⁰Verse 20. “You are my battle ax and weapons of war.With you I will break the nations into pieces.With you I will destroy kingdoms.²¹Verse 21. With you I will break in piecesthe horse and his rider.²²Verse 22. With you I will break in piecesthe chariot and him who rides therein.With you I will break in piecesman and woman.With you I will break in piecesthe old man and the youth.With you I will break in piecesthe young man and the virgin.²³Verse 23. With you I will break in piecesthe shepherd and his flock.With you I will break in piecesthe farmer and his yoke.With you will I break in piecesgovernors and deputies.²⁴Verse 24. “I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says Yahweh.

Desolation of Babylon Jeremiah 51:25–32

²⁵Verse 25. “Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh,“which destroys all the earth.I will stretch out my hand on you,roll you down from the rocks,and will make you a burned mountain.²⁶Verse 26. They won’t take a cornerstone from you,nor a stone for foundations;but you will be desolate for ever,” says Yahweh.²⁷Verse 27. “Set up a standard in the land!Blow the trumpet among 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 rough canker worm!²⁸Verse 28. Prepare against her the nations,the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion!²⁹Verse 29. The land trembles and is in pain;for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand,to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.³⁰Verse 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.³¹Verse 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.³²Verse 32. So the passages are seized.They have burned the reeds with fire.The men of war are frightened.”

The Fate of Babylon Jeremiah 51:33–44

³³Verse 33. For Yahweh 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.”³⁴Verse 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.³⁵Verse 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.³⁶Verse 36. Therefore Yahweh says:“Behold, I will plead your cause,and take vengeance for you.I will dry up her sea,and make her fountain dry.³⁷Verse 37. Babylon will become heaps,a dwelling place for jackals,an astonishment, and a hissing,without inhabitant.³⁸Verse 38. They will roar together like young lions.They will growl as lions’ cubs.³⁹Verse 39. When they are heated, 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 Yahweh.⁴⁰Verse 40. “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,like rams with male goats.⁴¹Verse 41. “How Sheshach is taken!How the praise of the whole earth seized!How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!⁴²Verse 42. The sea has come up on Babylon.She is covered with the multitude of its waves.⁴³Verse 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.⁴⁴Verse 44. I will execute judgment 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.

A Final Plea and Judgment Jeremiah 51:45–58

⁴⁵Verse 45. “My people, go away from the middle of her,and each of you save yourselves from Yahweh’s fierce anger.⁴⁶Verse 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.⁴⁷Verse 47. Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon;and her whole land will be confounded.All her slain will fall in the middle of her.⁴⁸Verse 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 Yahweh.⁴⁹Verse 49. “As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon.⁵⁰Verse 50. You who have escaped the sword, go!Don’t stand still!Remember Yahweh from afar,and let Jerusalem come into your mind.”⁵¹Verse 51. “We are confounded,because we have heard reproach.Confusion has covered our faces,for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”⁵²Verse 52. “Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh,“that I will execute judgment on her engraved images;and through all her land the wounded will groan.⁵³Verse 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 Yahweh.⁵⁴Verse 54. “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!⁵⁵Verse 55. For Yahweh lays Babylon waste,and destroys out of her the great voice!Their waves roar like many waters.The noise of their voice is uttered.⁵⁶Verse 56. For the destroyer has come on her,even on Babylon.Her mighty men are taken.Their bows are broken in pieces,for Yahweh is a God of retribution.He will surely repay.⁵⁷Verse 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 Yahweh of Armies.⁵⁸Verse 58. Yahweh of Armies says:“The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown.Her high gates will be burned with fire.The peoples will labor for vanity,and the nations for the fire;and they will be weary.”

Jeremiah's Instructions Jeremiah 51:59–64

⁵⁹Verse 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. ⁶⁰Verse 60. Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. ⁶¹Verse 61. Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words, ⁶²Verse 62. and say, ‘Yahweh, 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.’

⁶³Verse 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. ⁶⁴Verse 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.