Jer 51
1
Thus says YHWH: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell
in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.
2
And I will send to Babylon strangers, that shall winnow her; and they shall empty
her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
3
Against [him whom] bends let the archer bend his bow, and against [him whom] lifts
himself up in his coat of mail: and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly
all her host.
4
And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in
her streets.
5
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of YHWH of hosts; though their
land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cut off in her
iniquity: for it is the time of YHWH`s vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
7
Babylon has been a golden cup in YHWH`s hand, that made all the earth drunken: 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 every
one into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even
to the skies.
10
YHWH has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work
of YHWH our God.
11
Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: YHWH has stirred up the spirit of the
kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it
is the vengeance of YHWH, the vengeance of his temple.
12
Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen,
prepare the ambushes; for YHWH has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning
the inhabitants of Babylon.
13
O you that dwell upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, the measure
of your covetousness.
14
YHWH of hosts has sworn by himself, [saying], Surely I will fill you with men, as
with the canker-worm; 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
by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:
16
when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes
the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain,
and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.
17
Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to
shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18
They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19
The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and [Israel]
is the tribe of his inheritance: YHWH of hosts is his name.
20
You are my battle-axe and weapons of war: and 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 his rider;
22
and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him whom rides therein; and with
you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the
old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
23
and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will
I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke [of oxen]; and with you will I break
in pieces governors and deputies.
24
And I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil
that they have done in Zion in your sight, says YHWH.
25
Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says YHWH, which 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 for ever, says YHWH.
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 marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough
canker-worm.
28
Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and
all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion.
29
And the land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of YHWH against Babylon do
stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds;
their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling-places are set on fire;
her bars are broken.
31
One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to met another, to show the
king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:
32
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men
of war are frightened.
33
For thus says YHWH 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
harvest shall come for her.
34
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made
me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw
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 be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36
Therefore thus says YHWH: Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for
you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
37
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and
a hissing, without inhabitant.
38
They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions` whelps.
39
When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that
they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says YHWH.
40
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41
How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become
a desolation among the nations!
42
The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43
Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man
dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.
44
And I will execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his
mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more to him:
yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45
My people, go you out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the
fierce anger of YHWH.
46
And let not your heart faint, neither fear you for the tidings that shall be heard
in the land; for tidings shall come one year, and after that in another year [shall
come] tidings, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47
Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute 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 heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon;
for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, says YHWH.
49
As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain
of all the land.
50
You that have escaped the sword, go you, stand not still; remember YHWH from afar,
and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces:
for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of YHWH`s house.
52
Wherefore, behold, the days come, says YHWH, 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 destroyers come to her, says YHWH.
54
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55
For YHWH lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves
roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:
56
for the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken,
their bows are broken in pieces; for YHWH is a God of recompenses, he will surely
requite.
57
And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies,
and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the
King, whose name is YHWH of hosts.
58
Thus says YHWH of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and
her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity,
and the nations for 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 to Babylon in the fourth year
of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief chamberlain.
60
And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all
these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61
And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all
these words,
62
and say, O YHWH, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall
dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
63
And it shall be, when you have made an end of 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 again because of the
evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of
Jeremiah.