The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 51
1 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon a destroying wind, and against those who dwell in the hearts of those who rise up against me.
2 And I will send winnowers against Babylon, who shall winnow her, and empty her land: for they shall come against her all around in the day of calamity.
3 Let the archer bend his bow against him who bends his bow, and against him who boasts of his armor; and do not spare her young men: destroy all her army.
4 And they shall fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and slain in the streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord of hosts, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; Do not destroy yourselves in her wickedness, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will repay her.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, which made all the earth drunk; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad.
8 In a moment Babylon has fallen and been destroyed; wail over her, take balm for her pain, perhaps she will be healed.
9 We wanted 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 risen to the highest clouds.
10 The Lord has brought our righteousness to light; come, let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Sharpen the arrows, prepare the shields perfectly; the Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of Media, for his purpose against Babylon is to destroy her. For this is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Set up a banner on the walls of Babylon, reinforce the guard, post sentinels, prepare the ambushes; for the Lord intended and did what he said concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures! Your end has come, the measure of your greed.
14 The Lord of Hosts has sworn by himself, saying: Surely I will fill you with men, as with aphids, and they shall sing with joy over you.
15 He made the earth by his power, and ordered the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he utters his voice, there is a great roar of waters in the heavens, and the vapors ascend from the end of the earth; he makes lightning with the rain, and brings forth the wind from his treasuries.
17 Every man is brutish, and has no knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols; for his molten images are falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, a work of deceit; in the time when I visit them they shall perish.
19 Jacob’s portion is not like these, for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.
20 You are my hammer and my weapons of war; with you I will shatter nations, with you I will destroy kings;
21 With you I will shatter horse and rider, with you I will shatter chariot and its rider;
22 With you I will shatter man and woman, with you I will shatter old and young; 22 And with you I will shatter the young man and the virgin;
23 And with you I will shatter the shepherd and his flock; and with you I will shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will shatter the captains and the magistrates.
24 And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their wickedness, which they have done in Zion in your sight, says the Lord.
25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the Lord, you who destroy the whole earth; and I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the rocks, and make you a mountain of fire.
26 And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation, for you shall become a perpetual desolation, says the Lord.
27 Raise a banner in the land, sound the trumpet among the nations, and consecrate the nations against her, summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her, and send up horses like a stingless aphid.
28 Consecrate against her the nations, the kings of Media, its captains, and all its officials, and all the land of its dominion.
29 Then the earth will tremble and mourn, for every one of the Lord’s plans stands firm against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting; they remain in their strongholds; their strength has failed; they have become like women; they have set fire to their dwellings, their bars have been broken.
31 One messenger will run to meet another messenger, and one messenger to meet another messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been taken on all sides.
32 The fords are occupied, and the reeds are burning with fire; and the men of war are dismayed.
33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time of threshing; yet a little while, and the time of harvest will come for her.
34 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has devoured me, trampled me underfoot, made me an empty vessel; like a dragon he has swallowed me up, filled his belly with my delicacies; he has cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, says the inhabitant of Zion; and my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will plead your cause, and avenge you of the vengeance that is taken against you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her spring dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place of dragons, a horror and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 Together they shall roar like young lions; they shall growl like cubs of lions.
39 While they are excited, I will give them their drink, and I will make them drunk, so that they will leap about; but they will sleep a perpetual sleep, and will not wake up, says the Lord.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with the goats.
41 How Sheshach has been taken, and the glory of the whole earth has been taken by surprise! How Babylon has become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The sea has risen over Babylon, and its waves are covered with its multitude.
43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and deserted land, a land where no one lives, nor does any son of man pass through it.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will take away from his mouth what he has swallowed, and the nations will never again flock to him; also the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45 “Come out of her, my people, and save yourselves, every one of you, because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
46 Do not let your hearts be afraid, nor be afraid of the rumor that will be heard in the land; for in one year there will be a rumor, and in another year another rumor; and there will be violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the carved images of Babylon; all her slain will fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, will rejoice over Babylon; for from the north will come destroyers against her,” says the Lord.
49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so in Babylon shall the slain of all the earth fall.
50 You who have escaped the sword, go, do not stop; 50 From afar remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem come up to your hearts.
51 You will say: We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces, because strangers have come upon the sanctuaries of the house of the Lord.
52 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish her carved images; and the wounded one will groan throughout all her land.
53 Though Babylon should ascend to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her stronghold, from me shall destroyers come upon her, says the Lord.
54 The sound of a cry is heard from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;
55 For the Lord destroys Babylon, and will cause her great voice to perish within her; and her waves will roar like many waters; the noise of her voice will be heard.
56 For the destroyer is coming upon her, upon Babylon, and her mighty men shall be taken captive, their bows broken: for the Lord, the God of recompense, will surely repay her.
57 And I will make her princes, and her wise men, and her captains, and her magistrates, and her mighty men drunk; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor in vain, and the nations shall be for the fire, and shall be weary.
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign; And Seraiah was a peaceful prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon: all these words that were written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, you will see and read all these words.
62 And you will say, ‘Lord! You spoke concerning this place, that you would uproot it, so that no one would remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it would become a perpetual desolation.’
63 And it shall be that when you have finished reading this book, you shall bind it to a stone and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.
64 And you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall be sunk, and shall not rise again, because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.’ Thus far the words of Jeremiah.”