Jeremiah 51

1Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am stirring up against Babylon, and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.

2And I will send strangers against Babylon, and they will winnow her and empty her land, for they will be against her from every side in the day of disaster.

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

4And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the pierced in her streets.

5For Israel and Judah are not widowed from their God, from Yahweh of Armies, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

6Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let each man save his life. Do not be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of Yahweh's vengeance; he is repaying her what she deserves.

7Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of Yahweh, making all the earth drunk. Nations drank from her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

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

9We tried to heal Babylon, but she was not healed. Leave her, and let each one go to his own land, for her judgment has reached to heaven and has been lifted up to the skies.

10Yahweh has brought forth our vindication. Come, and let us recount in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.

11Sharpen the arrows; fill the shields. Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of Media, because his plan is against Babylon, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, vengeance for his temple.

12Against the walls of Babylon, lift up a signal; strengthen the watch; station watchmen; prepare the ambushes. For Yahweh has both planned and done what he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13You who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your greed.

14Yahweh of hosts has sworn by himself: Surely I will fill you with men, like locusts, and they will raise over you a shout.

15He made the earth by his power, he established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens.

16At the sound of his voice, a multitude of waters is in the heavens; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain, and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

17Every man is made brutish, without knowledge; every metalworker is put to shame by his idol, for his cast image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

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

19Not like these is the Portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed everything, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; Yahweh of Armies is his name.

20You are my war club, my weapon of battle; with you I shatter nations, and with you I destroy kingdoms.

21And with you I shattered horse and rider; and with you I shattered chariot and rider.

22And with you I will shatter man and woman; and with you I will shatter old man and youth; and with you I will shatter young man and virgin.

23And with you I shattered the shepherd and his flock; and with you I shattered the farmer and his team; and with you I shattered governors and deputies.

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

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

26And they will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for foundations, for you will be everlasting desolations, declares Yahweh.

27Raise a banner in the land; blow a trumpet among the nations. Consecrate nations against her; summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like bristling locusts.

28Consecrate the nations against her—the kings of Media, her governors and all her prefects, and every land of his dominion.

29And the earth quakes and writhes, for the plans of Yahweh have arisen against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

30The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in the strongholds. Their strength has failed; they have become like women. Her dwellings are set on fire; her bars are broken.

31Runner runs to meet runner, and messenger to meet messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.

32The crossings have been seized, the marshes have been burned with fire, and the men of war are terrified.

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

34Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me down like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a sea monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies; he has cast me out.

35“My violence and my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the inhabitant of Zion. “And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

36Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am about to plead your case and take vengeance for you; I will dry up her sea and make her spring dry.

37And Babylon will become heaps, a haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing, with no inhabitant.

38Together they roar like young lions; they growl like lion cubs.

39When they are heated, I will set out their drink and make them drunk, so that they may exult, then sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake up, declares Yahweh.

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

41How Sheshak has been captured, and the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

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

43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land and a desert, a land where no one lives, and through which no son of man passes.

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

45Come out from her midst, my people, and let each man save his life from the burning anger of Yahweh.

46And do not let your heart grow faint, and do not fear the report heard in the land; a report will come in one year, and after it in the next year another report, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47Therefore, look, days are coming when I will punish the carved images of Babylon, and all her land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

48Then heaven and earth, and all that is in them, will shout for joy over Babylon, for from the north destroyers will come against her, declares Yahweh.

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

50You who have escaped the sword, go; do not stand still. Remember Yahweh from far away, and let Jerusalem come upon your heart.

51We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, for foreigners have come against the holy places of the house of the LORD.

52Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will punish her carved images, and throughout all her land the wounded will groan.

53Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens, and though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, destroyers will come to her from me, declares Yahweh.

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

55For Yahweh is devastating Babylon and destroying from her the great sound. Their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is given.

56For a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon, and her warriors have been captured; their bows are shattered. For Yahweh is a God of recompense; he will surely repay.

57And I will make her officials drunk—her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her warriors—and they will sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake up, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

58Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Babylon’s broad wall shall be utterly razed, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. Peoples labor for emptiness, and nations for the fire, and they grow weary.

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

60And Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words written against Babylon.

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

62and say, ‘O Yahweh, you yourself have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off so that no inhabitant will be in it, from man to beast; for it will become everlasting desolations.’

63And when you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates,

64And you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon will sink and will not rise because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they will grow weary.’ Up to this point are the words of Jeremiah.