Jeremiah 51:1-64 - God's Judgment On Babylon
1 Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind; 2 And will send unto Babylon winnowers, that shall winnow her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. 3 Against him that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifts himself up in his armor: and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her army. 4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. 5 For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah 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 deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense. 7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even 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 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple. 12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both purposed and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13 O you that dwell by many waters, abundant 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 heaven by his understanding. 16 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his storehouses.
17 Every man is senseless by his knowledge; every goldsmith is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 18 They are vanity, the work of errors: 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 will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms; 21 And with you will I break in pieces the horse and its rider; and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and its rider; 22 With you also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maiden; 23 I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants 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 destroy all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. 26 And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate forever, says the LORD.
27 Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts. 28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of their dominion. 29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they have remained in their strongholds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken. 31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every side, 32 And that the fords are seized, and the reeds they have burned 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 threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall 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 up like a monster, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out. 35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem 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 a heap, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall growl as lions' whelps. 39 In their excitement I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the LORD. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! 42 The sea has come up upon 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, neither does any son of man pass by there. 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 unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver yourselves every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46 And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for Babylon: for the plunderers shall come unto her from the north, says the LORD.
49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 50 You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not 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 strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.
52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will execute judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall plunderers come unto her, says the LORD.
54 A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 55 Because the LORD has plundered Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is raised: 56 Because the plunderer has come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, everyone of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses shall surely repay. 57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 Thus says the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the nations, because of the fire, and they shall be weary.
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 this Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, and shall see, and shall read all these words; 62 Then shall you say, O LORD, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever. 63 And it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: 64 And you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.