Jeremiah 51:59-64

59 The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of ¹Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with ²Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster *.)

60 So Jeremiah ³wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.

61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud,

62 and say, 'You, O LORD, have promised concerning this place to ⁴cut it off, so that there will be ⁵nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.'

63 "And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and ⁶throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,

64 and say, 'Just so shall Babylon sink down and ⁷not rise again because * of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become ⁸exhausted.' " ⁹Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 51:59-64 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 32:12; Jeremiah 36:4; Jeremiah 45:1
• 2. Jeremiah 28:1; Jeremiah 52:1
• 3. Isaiah 30:8; Jeremiah 30:2, 3; Jeremiah 36:2, 4, 32
• 4. Isaiah 13:19-22; Isaiah 14:22, 23; Jer 50:3, 13, 39, 40
• 5. Jeremiah 51:43; Ezekiel 35:9
• 6. Jeremiah 19:10, 11; Revelation 18:21
• 7. Nahum 1:8, 9
• 8. Jeremiah 51:58
• 9. Job 31:40; Psalms 72:20

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "word"
• [b] Or "book"
• [c] Lit "spoken"
• [d] Lit "from man even to beast"
• [e] Or "book"