< Jeremiah 51 >
1 Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.
2 And I will send strangers to Babylon, who 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 who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. And spare ye not her young men. Destroy ye 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 Jehovah 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 Jehovah's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah'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 each one into his own country. For her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 Jehovah has brought forth our righteousness. Come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
11 Make sharp the arrows. Hold firm the shields. Jehovah 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 Jehovah, 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 Jehovah has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O thou who dwell upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end has come, the measure of thy covetousness.
14 Jehovah of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men as with the canker-worm, and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
15 He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he has 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 has become brutish, 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. Jehovah of hosts is his name.
20 Thou are my battle-axe and weapons of war. And with thee I will break in pieces the nations, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms,
21 and with thee I will break in pieces the horse and his rider,
22 and with thee I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides in it, and with thee I will break in pieces man and woman, and with thee I will break in pieces the old man and the youth, and with thee I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin,
23 and with thee I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, and with thee I will break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and with thee I will 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 Jehovah.
25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, says Jehovah, which destroys all the earth. And I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shall be desolate forever, says Jehovah.
27 Set ye 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, the governors of it, and all the deputies of it, and all the land of their dominion.
29 And the land trembles and is in pain, for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have 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 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 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 stomach with my delicacies. He has cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, the inhabitant of Zion shall say. And, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, Jerusalem shall say.
36 Therefore thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee. 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 Jehovah.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41 How Sheshach is taken, and the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
42 The sea has come up upon Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, nor 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 ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves each man from the fierce anger of Jehovah.
46 And let not your heart faint. Neither fear ye for the news that shall be heard in the land. For news shall come one year, and after that in another year, news, 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 Jehovah.
49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
50 Ye who have escaped the sword, go ye; do not stand still. Remember Jehovah 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 have come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's house.
52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, 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 destroyers shall come to her, says Jehovah.
54 The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For Jehovah lays Babylon waste, and destroys the great voice out of her, and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered.
56 For the destroyer has come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken. Their bows are broken in pieces. For Jehovah is a God of recompenses; he will surely requite.
57 And I will make drunk her rulers 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 Jehovah of hosts.
58 Thus says Jehovah 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 would come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou come to Babylon, then see that thou read all these words.
62 And say, O Jehovah, thou have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever.
63 And it shall be, when thou have made an end of reading this book, that thou shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.
64 And thou shall say, Thus Babylon shall 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.
