Jeremiah 51

1. Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those dwelling in the heart of My foes a destroying wind.

2. And I will send strangers to Babylon who will sift her and will empty her land. For in the day of trouble they shall be against her all around.

3. Do not let the archer bend his bow; nor lift himself up in his armor. And do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army.

4. Thus the dead shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, those who are thrust through in her streets.

5. For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God, by the LORD of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

6. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and each man deliver his soul. Be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; He will give to her a just reward.

7. Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, which made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations rage.

8. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. Wail for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.

9. We would have healed Babylon, but she would not be healed. Forsake her and let us go, each one into his own country; for her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the skies.

10. The LORD has brought forth our righteousness; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

11. Sharpen the arrows; gather the shields; the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan against Babylon is to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of His temple.

12. Set up a banner against the walls of Babylon; make the watch strong; set up the watchmen; prepare the ambushes. For the LORD has both planned and done that which He has spoken against the people of Babylon.

13. O you who live on many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your covetousness.

14. The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, “Surely I will fill you with men as with locusts; and they shall lift up a shout against you.”

15. He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

16. When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; He causes the mists to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning with rain and brings forth the wind out of His treasures.

17. Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by graven idols. For his molded image is a lie, and there is no breath in them.

18. They are vanity, the work of delusion; in the time of their judgment they shall perish.

19. The Portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the rod of His inheritance. The LORD of hosts is His name.

20. “You are My battle axe and weapons of war; for with you I will shatter nations; and with you I will destroy kingdoms.

21. And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider; and with you I will shatter the chariot and his rider.

22. Also with you I will shatter man and woman; and with you I will shatter old and young; and with you I will shatter the young man and the maid.

23. I will also shatter the shepherd and his flock with you. And with you I will shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will shatter heads and rulers.

24. And I will repay to Babylon, and all the people of Chaldea, all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says the LORD.

25. “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,” says the LORD, “who destroys all the earth. And I will stretch out My hand upon you and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.

26. And they shall not take a stone from you for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be a desolation forever,” says the LORD.

27. Set up a banner in the land; blow a ram’s horn among the nations; prepare the nations against her. Call the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her; set a commander against her. Cause the horses to come up as the rough locusts.

28. Consecrate nations against her, with the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her rulers, and all the land of his kingdom.

29. And the land shall tremble and writhe. For every purpose of the LORD shall be done against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

30. The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting; they have remained in strongholds; their power has failed. They have become like women; they have burned her houses; her bars are broken.

31. A runner shall run to meet a runner, and a herald to a herald, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from one end to the other end;

32. And that the fords are stopped. And they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war are terrified.

33. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; at the time it is trampled. Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come for her.

34. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a jackal; he has filled his belly with good things; he has thrown me out;

35. The violence done to me and to my flesh shall be on Babylon,” the dweller in Zion shall say. “And, my blood shall be upon the people of Chaldea,” Jerusalem shall say.

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

37. And Babylon shall become desolate heaps, a home for jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

38. They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl like lions’ cubs.

39. When they are inflamed I will prepare their feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may rejoice and sleep a neverending sleep, and never awaken,” says the LORD.

40. “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

41. How Sheshach is captured! And how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

42. The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43. Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, nor does any son of man pass by it.

44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. And the nations shall not flow together any more to him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45. My people, go out of her midst; and let each man deliver his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.

46. And let not your heart faint, nor fear the rumor that shall be heard in the land. A rumor shall come one year—and after that a rumor shall come in another year; and violence shall be in the land, ruler against ruler.

47. Therefore, behold, the days come that I will punish the idols of Babylon. And all her land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst.

48. And the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall shout for Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north,” says the LORD.

49. As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.

50. You who have escaped the sword, go out; do not stand still. Remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51. We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces, for foreigners have come into the holy places of the LORD’S house.

52. Wherefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53. Though Babylon should mount up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet destroyers shall come to her from Me,” says the LORD.

54. A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,

55. For the LORD will destroy Babylon, and the great voice will perish out of her. And her waves will roar like great waters; the noise of their voice is given,

56. Because the destroyer has come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are captured. Every one of their bows is broken, for the LORD, God of vengeance, shall surely repay.

57. And I will make her rulers drunk, also her wise ones, her governors, and her rulers, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a never-ending sleep and not awaken,” says the King, Whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58. Thus says the LORD of hosts, “The broad walls of Babylon shall be completely broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and nations shall weary themselves only for fire.”

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 into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was an officer of peace.

60. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.

61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all those words aloud,

62. Then you shall say, ‘O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be a desolation forever.’

63. And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.

64. And you shall say, ‘In this way shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring on her. And they shall be weary.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.