Jeremiah 51

1This is what Yahweh says: I am about to stir up a destroying wind against Babylon and against the people who live in Leb-kamai.

2I will send foreigners to Babylon, and they will winnow her and strip her land bare; they will come against her from every side on the day of her disaster.

3Let the archer string his bow against the one who strings his bow, and against the one who stands up in his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote her whole army to destruction.

4They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, pierced through in her streets.

5For Israel and Judah have not been left widowed by their God, Yahweh of Armies, for their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

6Flee from the midst of Babylon! Run for your lives, each of you! Do not be destroyed because of her guilt. For this is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance; he is paying her back what she deserves.

7Babylon was a gold cup in Yahweh’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; that is why the nations have gone mad.

8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

9We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the heavens and rises as high as the clouds.

10Yahweh has brought our righteousness to light. Come, let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.

11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. For this is the vengeance of Yahweh, vengeance for his temple.

12Raise a signal flag against the walls of Babylon! Strengthen the guard; post the watchmen; set the ambushes! For Yahweh has both planned and done what he said about the people of Babylon.

13You who live by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut.

14Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with men, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will raise a shout of victory over you.

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

16When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; 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 human being is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol, for his cast images are a lie, and there is no breath in them.

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

19The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things, including the tribe of his inheritance. Yahweh of Armies is his name.

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

21With you I shatter the horse and its rider; with you I shatter the chariot and its driver.

22With you I shatter man and woman; with you I shatter old man and youth; with you I shatter young man and young woman.

23With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; with you I shatter the farmer and his team of oxen; with you I shatter governors and officials.

24I will repay Babylon and all who live in Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion before your eyes, declares Yahweh.

25I am against you, you destroying mountain, declares Yahweh, you who destroy the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain.

26No stone will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever, declares Yahweh.

27Raise a signal flag in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of bristling locusts.

28Prepare the nations for battle against her: the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the lands they rule.

29The land quakes and writhes, for Yahweh’s purposes against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation where no one lives.

30Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they stay in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.

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

32The river crossings have been seized, the marshes have been set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.

33For this is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; in a little while the time of harvest will come for her.

34Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty jar; he has swallowed me like a sea monster. He has filled his belly with my delicacies and then spit me out.

35“May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon,” says the one who lives in Zion. “May my blood be on the people of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

36Therefore this is what Yahweh says: I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her spring run dry.

37Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, with no one living there.

38They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.

39While they are inflamed, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they celebrate, then sleep forever and never wake up, declares Yahweh.

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

41How Sheshach has been captured, the pride of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

42The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its roaring waves.

43Her towns have become a desolation, a dry land and a desert, a land where no one lives, where no human being passes through.

44I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen.

45Come out of her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of Yahweh.

46Do not lose heart or be afraid at the rumors heard in the land. One rumor comes this year, and another the next year, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

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

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

49Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

50You who have escaped the sword, go! Do not stand still! Remember Yahweh from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

51We are ashamed, for we have heard insults; disgrace has covered our faces, for foreigners have entered the holy places of Yahweh’s house.

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

53Even if Babylon climbs up to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her, declares Yahweh.

54Listen! A cry from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55For Yahweh is destroying Babylon; he will silence her loud noise. Their waves roar like great waters; the roar of their voices resounds.

56For a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are captured, their bows are broken. For Yahweh is a God of retribution; he will surely repay.

57I will make her officials and her wise men drunk, her governors, her officers, and her warriors; they will sleep forever and never wake up, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

58This is what Yahweh of Armies says: The broad wall of Babylon will be leveled to the ground, and her high gates will be set on fire. The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing; the nations wear themselves out only for the fire.

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

60Jeremiah had written on a single scroll all the disaster that would come on Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, make sure that you read all these words aloud.

62Then say, ‘Yahweh, you yourself have said about this place that you will destroy it, so that nothing will live in it, neither people nor animals; it will be desolate forever.’

63When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.

64Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink and never rise again, because of the disaster that I am going to bring on her. And they will grow weary.’” The words of Jeremiah end here.