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Jeremiah 51

English Standard Version ESV

1 Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon, against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai,

2 and I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land, when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble.

3 Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not stand up in his armor. Spare not her young men; devote to destruction all her army.

4 They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and wounded in her streets.

5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts, but the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

6 "Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her.

7 Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad.

8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies.

10 The LORD has brought about our vindication; come, let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

11 "Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields!The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.

12 "Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon; make the watch strong; set up watchmen; prepare the ambushes; for the LORD has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut.

14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: Surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts, and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.

15 "It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

16 When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

17 Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

19 Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.

20 "You are my hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms;

21 with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider; with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;

22 with you I break in pieces man and woman; with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman;

23 with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team; with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.

24 "I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.

25 "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD, which destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain.

26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, declares the LORD.

27 "Set up a standard on the earth; blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her; summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like bristling locusts.

28 Prepare the nations for war against her, the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies, and every land under their dominion.

29 The land trembles and writhes in pain, for the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

30 The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting; they remain in their strongholds; their strength has failed; they have become women; her dwellings are on fire; her bars are broken.

31 One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every side;

32 the fords have been seized, the marshes are burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic.

33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come."

34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has rinsed me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon," let the inhabitant of Zion say. "My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," let Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry,

37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38 "They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl like lions' cubs.

39 While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk, that they may become merry, then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the LORD.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and male goats.

41 "How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

42 The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

43 Her cities have become a horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one dwells, and through which no son of man passes.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer flow to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen.

45 "Go out of the midst of her, my people! Let every one save his life from the fierce anger of the LORD!

46 Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful at the report heard in the land, when a report comes in one year and afterward a report in another year, and violence is in the land, and ruler is against ruler.

47 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north, declares the LORD.

49 Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

50 "You who have escaped from the sword, go, do not stand still! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come into your mind:

51 'We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach; dishonor has covered our face, for foreigners have come into the holy places of the LORD's house.'

52 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will execute judgment upon her images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the LORD.

54 "A voice! A cry from Babylon! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For the LORD is laying Babylon waste and stilling her mighty voice. Their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is raised,

56 for a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon; her warriors are taken; their bows are broken in pieces, for the LORD is a God of recompense; he will surely repay.

57 I will make drunk her officials and her wise men, her governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire."

59 The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.

60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: "When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,

62 and say, 'O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.'

63 When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,

64 and say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.'"Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

The Message Bible MSG

1 There's more. God says more: "Watch this: I'm whipping up A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon - 'Hurricane Persia' - against all who live in that perverse land.

2 I'm sending a cleanup crew into Babylon. They'll clean the place out from top to bottom. When they get through there'll be nothing left of her worth taking or talking about. They won't miss a thing. A total and final Doomsday!

3 Fighters will fight with everything they've got. It's no holds barred. They will spare nothing and no one. It's final and wholesale destruction - the end!

4 Babylon littered with the wounded, streets piled with corpses.

5 It turns out that Israel and Judah are not widowed after all. As their God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well, committed to them even though They filled their land with sin against Israel's most Holy God.

6 "Get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Run for your lives! Save your necks! Don't linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her as I pay her back for her sins.

7 Babylon was a fancy gold chalice held in my hand, Filled with the wine of my anger to make the whole world drunk. The nations drank the wine and they've all gone crazy.

8 Babylon herself will stagger and crash, senseless in a drunken stupor - tragic! Get anointing balm for her wound. Maybe she can be cured."

9 "We did our best, but she can't be helped. Babylon is past fixing. Give her up to her fate. Go home. The judgment on her will be vast, a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance. Your Lifeline Is Cut

10 "God has set everything right for us. Come! Let's tell the good news Back home in Zion. Let's tell what our God did to set things right.

11 "Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! God has stirred up the kings of the Medes, infecting them with war fever: 'Destroy Babylon!' God's on the warpath. He's out to avenge his Temple.

12 Give the signal to attack Babylon's walls. Station guards around the clock. Bring in reinforcements. Set men in ambush. God will do what he planned, what he said he'd do to the people of Babylon.

13 You have more water than you need, you have more money than you need - But your life is over, your lifeline cut."

14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn: "I'll fill this place with soldiers. They'll swarm through here like locusts chanting victory songs over you."

15 By his power he made earth. His wisdom gave shape to the world. He crafted the cosmos.

16 He thunders and rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring. He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches the wind from his warehouse.

17 Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish! god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods! Their gods are frauds, dead sticks - deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.

18 They're nothing but stale smoke. When the smoke clears, they're gone.

19 But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing; he put the whole universe together, With special attention to Israel. His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies! They'll Sleep and Never Wake Up

20 God says, "You, Babylon, are my hammer, my weapon of war. I'll use you to smash godless nations, use you to knock kingdoms to bits.

21 I'll use you to smash horse and rider, use you to smash chariot and driver.

22 I'll use you to smash man and woman, use you to smash the old man and the boy. I'll use you to smash the young man and young woman,

23 use you to smash shepherd and sheep. I'll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen, use you to smash governors and senators.

24 "Judeans, you'll see it with your own eyes. I'll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion." God's Decree.

25 "I'm your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer, you ravager of the whole earth. I'll reach out, I'll take you in my hand, and I'll crush you till there's no mountain left. I'll turn you into a gravel pit -

26 no more cornerstones cut from you, No more foundation stones quarried from you! Nothing left of you but gravel."

27 "Raise the signal in the land, blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations. Consecrate the nations for holy work against her. Call kingdoms into service against her. Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a field marshal against her, and round up horses, locust hordes of horses!

28 Consecrate the nations for holy work against her - the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.

29 "The very land trembles in terror, writhes in pain, terrorized by my plans against Babylon, Plans to turn the country of Babylon into a lifeless moonscape - a wasteland.

30 Babylon's soldiers have quit fighting. They hide out in ruins and caves - Cowards who've given up without a fight, exposed as cowering milksops. Babylon's houses are going up in flames, the city gates torn off their hinges.

31 Runner after runner comes racing in, each on the heels of the last, Bringing reports to the king of Babylon that his city is a lost cause.

32 The fords of the rivers are all taken. Wildfire rages through the swamp grass. Soldiers desert left and right.

33 I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, said it would happen: 'Daughter Babylon is a threshing floor at threshing time. Soon, oh very soon, her harvest will come and then the chaff will fly!'

34 "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon chewed up my people and spit out the bones. He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair, and belched - a huge gluttonous belch.

35 Lady Zion says, 'The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!' And Jerusalem says, 'The blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!'

36 Then I, God, step in and say, 'I'm on your side, taking up your cause. I'm your Avenger. You'll get your revenge. I'll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs.

37 Babylon will be a pile of rubble, scavenged by stray dogs and cats, A dumping ground for garbage, a godforsaken ghost town.'

38 "The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs, ravenous, roaring for food.

39 I'll fix them a meal, all right - a banquet, in fact. They'll drink themselves falling-down drunk. Dead drunk, they'll sleep - and sleep, and sleep . . . and they'll never wake up." God's Decree.

40 "I'll haul these 'lions' off to the slaughterhouse like the lambs, rams, and goats, never to be heard of again.

41 "Babylon is finished - the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face. What a comedown for Babylon, to end up inglorious in the sewer!

42 Babylon drowned in chaos, battered by waves of enemy soldiers.

43 Her towns stink with decay and rot, the land empty and bare and sterile. No one lives in these towns anymore. Travelers give them a wide berth.

44 I'll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon. I'll make him vomit up all he gulped down. No more visitors stream into this place, admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon. The wonders of Babylon are no more.

45 Run for your lives, my dear people! Run, and don't look back! Get out of this place while you can, this place torched by God's raging anger.

46 Don't lose hope. Don't ever give up when the rumors pour in hot and heavy. One year it's this, the next year it's that - rumors of violence, rumors of war.

47 Trust me, the time is coming when I'll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place. I'll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud, with dead bodies strewn all over the place.

48 Heaven and earth, angels and people, will throw a victory party over Babylon When the avenging armies from the north descend on her." God's Decree! Remember God in Your Long and Distant Exile

49 "Babylon must fall - compensation for the war dead in Israel. Babylonians will be killed because of all that Babylonian killing.

50 But you exiles who have escaped a Babylonian death, get out! And fast! Remember God in your long and distant exile. Keep Jerusalem alive in your memory."

51 How we've been humiliated, taunted and abused, kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are! And we hardly know what to think - our old Sanctuary, God's house, desecrated by strangers.

52 "I know, but trust me: The time is coming" - God's Decree - "When I will bring doom on her no-god idols, and all over this land her wounded will groan.

53 Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her, That wouldn't stop me. I'd make sure my avengers would reach her." God's Decree.

54 "But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon! An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!

55 God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon. We'll be hearing the last of her noise - Death throes like the crashing of waves, death rattles like the roar of cataracts.

56 The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon: Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed. Indeed, God is a God who evens things out. All end up with their just deserts.

57 "I'll get them drunk, the whole lot of them - princes, sages, governors, soldiers. Dead drunk, they'll sleep - and sleep and sleep . . . and never wake up." The King's Decree. His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

58 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks: "The city walls of Babylon - those massive walls! - will be flattened. And those city gates - huge gates! - will be set on fire. The harder you work at this empty life, the less you are. Nothing comes of ambition like this but ashes."

59 Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.

60 Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon.

61 He told Seraiah, "When you get to Babylon, read this out in public.

62 Read, 'You, O God, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human nor animal - a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.'

63 "When you've finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink.

64 Then say, 'That's how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I'm going to bring upon her.'"