Jeremiah 51

1 This is what the LORD says: “See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.[a]
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster.
3 Let not the archer string his bow, nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy[b] her army.
4 They will fall down slain in Babylon,[c]fatally wounded in her streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD Almighty, though their land[d] is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.
6 “Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the LORD’s vengeance; he will repay her what she deserves.
7 Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.
8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.
9 “ ‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens.’
10 “ ‘The LORD has vindicated us; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has done.’
11 “Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. The LORD will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple.
12 Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon! Reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare an ambush! The LORD will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon.
13 You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be destroyed.
14 The LORD Almighty has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.
15 “He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17 “Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.
19 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including the people of his inheritance— the LORD Almighty is his name.
20 “You are my war club, my weapon for battle— with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms,
21 with you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver,
22 with you I shatter man and woman, with you I shatter old man and youth, with you I shatter young man and young woman,
23 with you I shatter shepherd and flock, with you I shatter farmer and oxen, with you I shatter governors and officials.
24 “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia[e] for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.
25 “I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the LORD. “I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain.
26 No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.
27 “Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for battle against her— the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule.
29 The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand— to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there.
30 Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become weaklings. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.
31 One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured,
32 the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.”
33 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out.
35 May the violence done to our flesh[f] be on Babylon,” say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.
38 Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs.
39 But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter— then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the LORD.
40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
41 “How Sheshak[g] will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! How desolate Babylon will be among the nations!
42 The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her.
43 Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no one travels.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.
45 “Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
47 For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her,” declares the LORD.
49 “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and call to mind Jerusalem.”
51 “We are disgraced, for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.”
52 “But days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.
53 Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD.
54 “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.[h]
55 The LORD will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound.
56 A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God of retribution; he will repay in full.
57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty.
58 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”
59 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign.
60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon.
61 He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.
62 Then say, ‘LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’
63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.
64 Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’ ” The words of Jeremiah end here.

Jeremiah 51 Commentary

Chapter 51

Babylon's doom; God's controversy with her; encouragements from thence to the Israel of God. (1-58) The confirming of this. (59-64)

Verses 1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, ( revelation 18:9 revelation 18:19 ) . The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

Verses 59-64 This prophecy is sent to Babylon, to the captives there, by Seraiah, who is to read it to his countrymen in captivity. Let them with faith see the end of these threatening powers, and comfort themselves herewith. When we see what this world is, how glittering its shows, and how flattering its proposals, let us read in the book of the Lord that it shall shortly be desolate. The book must be thrown into the river Euphrates. The fall of the New Testament Babylon is thus represented, ( Revelation 18:21 ) . Those that sink under the weight of God's wrath and curse, sink for ever. Babylon, and every antichrist, will soon sink and rise no more for ever. Let us hope in God's word, and quietly wait for his salvation; then we shall see, but shall not share, the destruction of the wicked.

Cross References 162

  • 1. S Isaiah 13:17
  • 2. Jeremiah 25:12
  • 3. Isaiah 13:5
  • 4. S Isaiah 41:16; Jeremiah 15:7; Matthew 3:12
  • 5. S Isaiah 13:9
  • 6. S Jeremiah 50:29
  • 7. Jeremiah 46:4
  • 8. Isaiah 13:15
  • 9. S Isaiah 13:18; Jeremiah 49:26; Jeremiah 50:30
  • 10. S Leviticus 26:44; Isaiah 54:6-8
  • 11. Hosea 4:1
  • 12. S Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 50:8
  • 13. Numbers 16:26; Revelation 18:4
  • 14. Jeremiah 50:27
  • 15. S Isaiah 1:24; S Jeremiah 50:15
  • 16. ver 24,56; Deuteronomy 32:35; S Job 21:19; Jeremiah 25:14; Jeremiah 50:29; Lamentations 3:64
  • 17. S Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 25:15-16; Jeremiah 49:12; Revelation 14:8-10; Revelation 17:4
  • 18. S Isaiah 14:15; S Isaiah 21:9; S Revelation 14:8
  • 19. Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11
  • 20. S Isaiah 13:14; S Isaiah 31:9; Jeremiah 50:16
  • 21. Revelation 18:4-5
  • 22. Micah 7:9
  • 23. Psalms 64:9; S Jeremiah 50:28
  • 24. Jeremiah 50:9
  • 25. S Isaiah 21:5; Jeremiah 46:4
  • 26. S Isaiah 41:2
  • 27. ver 28; S Isaiah 13:3; S Isaiah 41:25
  • 28. S Jeremiah 50:45
  • 29. S Leviticus 26:25
  • 30. S Jeremiah 50:28
  • 31. ver 27; S Psalms 20:5
  • 32. 2 Samuel 18:24; Ezekiel 33:2
  • 33. Jeremiah 50:24
  • 34. S Psalms 33:11
  • 35. S Jeremiah 50:38; Revelation 17:1,15
  • 36. S Isaiah 45:3; Ezekiel 22:27; Habakkuk 2:9
  • 37. Jeremiah 50:3
  • 38. S Genesis 22:16; Amos 6:8
  • 39. ver 27; Amos 7:1; Nahum 3:15
  • 40. Jeremiah 50:15
  • 41. Psalms 104:24
  • 42. S Genesis 1:1; Job 9:8; S Psalms 104:2
  • 43. S Psalms 136:5
  • 44. Psalms 18:11-13
  • 45. S Job 28:26
  • 46. S Deuteronomy 28:12; S Psalms 135:7; John 1:4
  • 47. S Isaiah 44:20; Habakkuk 2:18-19
  • 48. S Jeremiah 18:15
  • 49. S Psalms 119:57
  • 50. S Exodus 34:9
  • 51. S Isaiah 10:5; Zechariah 9:13
  • 52. S Job 34:24; Micah 4:13
  • 53. S Isaiah 45:1
  • 54. S Exodus 15:1
  • 55. S Isaiah 43:17; S Jeremiah 50:37
  • 56. S 2 Chronicles 36:17; Isaiah 13:17-18
  • 57. ver 57
  • 58. S ver 6,35; S Deuteronomy 32:41; S Jeremiah 50:15; Lamentations 3:64
  • 59. S Isaiah 45:1
  • 60. S Jeremiah 21:13
  • 61. Jeremiah 50:23
  • 62. S Exodus 3:20
  • 63. Zechariah 4:7
  • 64. ver 29; S Isaiah 13:19-22; S Jeremiah 50:12
  • 65. S Psalms 20:5; S Isaiah 13:2; Jeremiah 50:2
  • 66. S Jeremiah 25:14
  • 67. S Genesis 8:4
  • 68. Genesis 10:3
  • 69. S ver 14
  • 70. S ver 11
  • 71. ver 48
  • 72. S Judges 5:4; S Jeremiah 49:21
  • 73. S Psalms 33:11
  • 74. Jeremiah 48:9
  • 75. ver 43; S Isaiah 13:20
  • 76. S Jeremiah 50:36
  • 77. S Isaiah 19:16
  • 78. S Isaiah 47:14
  • 79. S Isaiah 45:2; Lamentations 2:9; Nahum 3:13
  • 80. 2 Samuel 18:19-31
  • 81. S Jeremiah 50:2; Daniel 5:30
  • 82. S Isaiah 47:14
  • 83. S Jeremiah 50:36
  • 84. S Isaiah 47:1
  • 85. S Isaiah 21:10
  • 86. S Isaiah 17:5; Hosea 6:11
  • 87. S Isaiah 13:22
  • 88. S Jeremiah 50:17
  • 89. Nahum 2:12
  • 90. Hosea 8:8
  • 91. ver 44; S Leviticus 18:25
  • 92. Joel 3:19; Habakkuk 2:17
  • 93. S ver 24; Psalms 137:8
  • 94. Psalms 140:12; Jeremiah 50:34; Lamentations 3:58
  • 95. ver 6; Jeremiah 20:12; S Romans 12:19
  • 96. S Isaiah 11:15; S Isaiah 19:5; Hosea 13:15; Jeremiah 50:38
  • 97. S Isaiah 13:22; Revelation 18:2
  • 98. Nahum 3:6; Malachi 2:9
  • 99. S Jeremiah 50:13,39
  • 100. S Isaiah 5:29
  • 101. S Isaiah 21:5
  • 102. S Psalms 13:3
  • 103. ver 57; S Jeremiah 50:24
  • 104. Ezekiel 39:18
  • 105. S Jeremiah 25:26
  • 106. Isaiah 13:19
  • 107. Jeremiah 50:13
  • 108. S Psalms 18:4; Isaiah 8:7
  • 109. S Isaiah 21:1
  • 110. S ver 29,62; S Isaiah 13:20; Jeremiah 2:6
  • 111. S Isaiah 21:9; S Isaiah 46:1
  • 112. S ver 34
  • 113. ver 58; S 2 Kings 25:4; Isaiah 25:12; Jeremiah 50:15
  • 114. ver 50; Revelation 18:4
  • 115. ver 6; S Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 50:8
  • 116. Psalms 76:10; Psalms 79:6
  • 117. Psalms 18:45
  • 118. S Jeremiah 46:27
  • 119. S 2 Kings 19:7
  • 120. ver 52; S Isaiah 46:1-2; S Jeremiah 50:2
  • 121. Jeremiah 50:12
  • 122. S Jeremiah 27:7
  • 123. S Job 3:7; S Psalms 149:2; Isaiah 44:23; Revelation 18:20
  • 124. ver 11; S Isaiah 41:25; S Jeremiah 25:26
  • 125. ver 53,56
  • 126. Psalms 137:8; S Jeremiah 50:29
  • 127. ver 45
  • 128. S Psalms 137:6
  • 129. Jeremiah 23:23
  • 130. Psalms 44:13-16; Psalms 79:4
  • 131. Lamentations 1:10
  • 132. ver 47
  • 133. S Job 24:12
  • 134. S Genesis 11:4; S Isaiah 14:13-14
  • 135. S ver 48; S Job 15:21; Jeremiah 49:16
  • 136. S Job 24:12
  • 137. S Jeremiah 50:22
  • 138. Isaiah 25:5
  • 139. S Psalms 18:4
  • 140. S ver 48; S Job 15:21
  • 141. Psalms 46:9
  • 142. S ver 6; S Genesis 4:24; S Deuteronomy 32:41; Psalms 94:1-2; Habakkuk 2:8
  • 143. S ver 23
  • 144. S Job 5:13
  • 145. S Isaiah 21:5
  • 146. S ver 39; Psalms 76:5; S Jeremiah 25:27
  • 147. S Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 46:18; Jeremiah 48:15
  • 148. S ver 44; S 2 Kings 25:4; S Isaiah 15:1
  • 149. S Isaiah 13:2
  • 150. ver 64
  • 151. S Isaiah 47:13
  • 152. S Isaiah 47:14; Habakkuk 2:13
  • 153. Jeremiah 36:4
  • 154. Jeremiah 52:1
  • 155. Jeremiah 28:1
  • 156. S Exodus 17:14; Jeremiah 30:2; Jeremiah 36:2
  • 157. S Isaiah 13:20; S Jeremiah 9:11; S Jeremiah 50:13,39
  • 158. S Genesis 2:14
  • 159. Ezekiel 26:21; Ezekiel 28:19
  • 160. S ver 58
  • 161. Revelation 18:21
  • 162. S Job 31:40

Footnotes 8

  • [a]. "Leb Kamai" is a cryptogram for Chaldea, that is, Babylonia.
  • [b]. The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
  • [c]. Or "Chaldea"
  • [d]. Or "Almighty," / "and the land of the Babylonians"
  • [e]. Or "Chaldea" ; also in verse 35
  • [f]. Or "done to us and to our children"
  • [g]. "Sheshak" is a cryptogram for Babylon.
  • [h]. Or "Chaldeans"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 51

The former part of this chapter is a continuation of the prophecy of the preceding chapter, concerning the destruction of Babylon, Jer 51:1-58; the latter part of it contains a prophecy of Jeremiah sent to the captives in Babylon by the hand of Seraiah, with the copy of the above prophecy against Babylon, and an order to fasten a stone to it, and cast it into the river Euphrates, as a sign, confirming the utter and irreparable ruin of Babylon, Jer 51:59-64.

Jeremiah 51 Commentaries

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