OTNT

Jer 51


51:1 This is what the LORD says: “See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.

51:2 I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster.

51:3 Let not the archer string his bow, nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army.

51:4 They will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets.

51:5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD Almighty, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

51:6 “Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the LORD’S vengeance; he will pay her what she deserves.

51:7 Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’S hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.

51:8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

51:9 “‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the clouds.’

51:10 “‘The LORD has vindicated us; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has done.’

51:11 “Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. The LORD will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

51:12 Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon! Reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare an ambush! The LORD will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon.

51:13 You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be cut off.

51:14 The LORD Almighty has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with men, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.

51:15 “He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

51:16 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

51:17 “Every man is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have no breath in them.

51:18 They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.

51:19 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including the tribe of his inheritance–the LORD Almighty is his name.

51:20 “You are my war club, my weapon for battle–with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms,

51:21 with you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver,

51:22 with you I shatter man and woman, with you I shatter old man and youth, with you I shatter young man and maiden,

51:23 with you I shatter shepherd and flock, with you I shatter farmer and oxen, with you I shatter governors and officials.

51:24 “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.

51:25 “I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the LORD. “I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain.

51:26 No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.

51:27 “Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts.

51:28 Prepare the nations for battle against her–the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule.

51:29 The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD’S purposes against Babylon stand–to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there.

51:30 Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain 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.

51:31 One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured,

51:32 the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.”

51:33 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.”

51:34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out.

51:35 May the violence done to our flesh be upon Babylon,” say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem.

51:36 Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

51:37 Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.

51:38 Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs.

51:39 But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter–then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the LORD.

51:40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.

51:41 “How Sheshach will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! What a horror Babylon will be among the nations!

51:42 The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her.

51:43 Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no man travels.

51:44 I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.

51:45 “Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the LORD.

51:46 Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

51:47 For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her.

51:48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her,” declares the LORD.

51:49 “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

51:50 You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and think on Jerusalem.”

51:51 “We are disgraced, for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’S house.”

51:52 “But days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

51:53 Even if Babylon reaches the sky and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD.

51:54 “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

51:55 The LORD will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound.

51:56 A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God of retribution; he will repay in full.

51:57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty.

51:58 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”

51:59 This is the message Jeremiah gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign.

51:60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon–all that had been recorded concerning Babylon.

51:61 He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.

51:62 Then say, ‘O LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither man nor animal will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’

51:63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.

51:64 Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will fall.’” The words of Jeremiah end here.

51:1 Thus says Jehovah, I will stir up against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai / A destroying wind.

51:2 And I will send strangers against Babylon, and they will winnow her, / And they will empty her land / When they come against her from every side / In the evil day.

51:3 Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, / And against him who stands up in his armor; / And do not spare her young men, / But utterly destroy all her army.

51:4 And they will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans / And pierced through in her streets.

51:5 For neither Israel nor Judah is forsaken / By his God, by Jehovah of hosts; / But their land is full of guilt / Against the Holy One of Israel.

51:6 Flee from the midst of Babylon, / And let each man save his life; / Do not be cut off in her iniquity; / For this is a time of vengeance to Jehovah; / He will give full recompense to her.

51:7 Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah s hand / That has made all the earth drunk. / The nations have drunk of her wine; / Therefore the nations have become mad.

51:8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and become broken; / Howl over her; / Take balm for her pain, / If perhaps she may be healed.

51:9 We tried to heal Babylon, but she is not healed; / Forsake her, and let each one of us go to his own land; / For her judgment has reached to heaven / And has been lifted up to the clouds.

51:10 Jehovah has brought forth our righteousnesses; / Come and let us relate in Zion / The work of Jehovah our God.

51:11 Polish the arrows, / Take up the shields. Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose is against Babylon, to destroy her; for this is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance for His temple.

51:12 Lift up a standard against the walls of Babylon; / Make the watch strong. / Set the watchmen; / Prepare the ambushers; / For Jehovah has both purposed and done / What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

51:13 O you who dwell by many waters, / Abundant in treasures, / Your end has come, / The measure of your unjust gain.

51:14 Jehovah of hosts has sworn by Himself, / I will surely fill you with men like locusts, / And they will raise a shout of victory over you.

51:15 It is He who made the earth by His power, / Who established the world by His wisdom, / And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.

51:16 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, / And He causes the vapors to rise from the ends of the earth; / He makes lightning for the rain / And brings forth wind from His treasuries.

51:17 Every man is stupid, without knowledge; / Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol; / For his molten image is falsehood, / And there is no breath in them.

51:18 They are vanity, the work of delusion; / At the time of their punishment they will perish.

51:19 The Portion of Jacob is not like these; / For He is the One who formed everything, / And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; / Jehovah of hosts is His name.

51:20 He says, You are My hammer, / My weapons of war; / And with you I will shatter nations, / And with you I will destroy kingdoms,

51:21 And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider, / And with you I will shatter the chariot and its rider,

51:22 And with you I will shatter man and woman, / And with you I will shatter old man and young, / And with you I will shatter young man and virgin,

51:23 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 governors and officials.

51:24 And I will repay Babylon / And all the inhabitants of Chaldea / With all their evil which they have done / In Zion before your eyes, declares Jehovah.

51:25 Indeed, I am against you, O mountain of destruction, / Declares Jehovah, / Which destroys the whole earth; / And I will stretch out My hand upon you / And roll you down from the rocks / And make you a burning mountain.

51:26 And they will not take from you a stone for the corner / Or a stone for the foundations; / For you will be an eternal desolation, declares Jehovah.

51:27 Lift up a standard in the land; / Blow a trumpet among the nations; / Prepare the nations against her; / Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; / Appoint an officer against her; / Bring up the horses like terrifying locusts.

51:28 Prepare the nations against her, / The kings of the Medes, / Their governors and all their officials, / And all the land of their dominion.

51:29 And the land trembles and writhes, / For the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon stand, / To make the land of Babylon a waste, / Without inhabitant.

51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting; / They remain in strongholds; / Their might has failed; they have become like women. / Her dwellings are on fire; her bars are broken.

51:31 Runner runs to meet runner, / And messenger to meet messenger, / To announce to the king of Babylon / That his city has been captured from end to end.

51:32 And the crossing places have been seized, / And they burn the marshes with fire, / And the men of war are terrified.

51:33 For thus says Jehovah 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 will come to her.

51:34 Nebuchadrezzar 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 dragon; / He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; / He has washed me out.

51:35 The violence done to me and my flesh be on Babylon! / The inhabitant of Zion will say; / And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea! / Jerusalem will say.

51:36 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I will indeed plead your cause / And execute vengeance for you; / And I will dry up her sea / And make her fountain dry.

51:37 And Babylon will become a heap of ruins, / A habitation of jackals, / An astonishment and a hissing, / Without inhabitant.

51:38 They will roar together like young lions; / They will growl like lions whelps.

51:39 When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink; / And I will make them drunk, that they may be merry / And sleep an eternal sleep / And not wake up, declares Jehovah.

51:40 And I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, / Like rams with male goats.

51:41 How Sheshach has been captured, / And the praise of all the earth seized! / How Babylon has become an astonishment / Among the nations!

51:42 The sea has come up over Babylon; / She is covered with the multitude of its waves.

51:43 Her cities have become a waste, / A dry land and a desert, / A land in which no one dwells, / Through which no person passes.

51:44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon / And bring what he has swallowed out of his mouth; / And the nations will not stream unto him any longer; / Even the wall of Babylon will fall down.

51:45 Come out from the midst of her, My people, / And let each man save his life / From the burning anger of Jehovah.

51:46 And lest your heart faint / And you become afraid at the report that will be heard in the land ? / For the report will come in one year; / And after that a report in another year / And violence in the earth, / Ruler against ruler ?

51:47 Therefore indeed, days are coming, / When I will punish the idols of Babylon; / And her whole land will be put to shame, / And all her slain will fall in her midst.

51:48 And the heavens and the earth and all which is in them / Will give a ringing shout over Babylon; / For out of the north the destroyers will come against her, / Declares Jehovah.

51:49 Babylon is also to fall for the slain of Israel, / As the slain of all the earth have fallen for Babylon.

51:50 You who have escaped the sword, / Go and do not stand still; / Remember Jehovah from afar, / And let Jerusalem come up in your heart.

51:51 We have been put to shame, for we have heard reproach; / Disgrace has covered our faces; / For strangers have come / Into the holy places of the house of Jehovah.

51:52 Therefore indeed, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will punish her idols, / And throughout her land the wounded will groan.

51:53 Though Babylon mount up to the heavens, / And though she fortify the height of her strength, / Destroyers will come from Me to her, / Declares Jehovah.

51:54 The sound of a cry from Babylon, / And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

51:55 For Jehovah is destroying Babylon, / And He will cause the loud voice to perish from her. / And their waves roar like many waters; / The noise of their voice is raised.

51:56 For a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon, / And her mighty men are taken captive; / Their bows are broken into pieces; / For Jehovah is a God of recompense; / He will repay in full.

51:57 And I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, / Her governors and her officials and her mighty men; / And they will sleep an eternal sleep / And not wake up, declares the King, / Whose name is Jehovah of hosts.

51:58 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly laid bare; / Her high gates will be burned with fire. / So the peoples will have labored in vain; / And the nations, only for fire; and they will have wearied themselves.

51:59 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 quartermaster.)

51:60 And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

51:61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words;

51:62 And say, O Jehovah, You have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that nothing should dwell in it, neither man nor animal, for it will be an eternal desolation.

51:63 And as soon as you have finished reading this book, you shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,

51:64 And say, Thus Babylon will sink and will not rise up because of the evil which I will bring upon it, and they will weary themselves. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.