Jeremiah 51:27-64 ▼

27 “Lift up a signal on the earth, blow the shofar among the nations; prepare against her the nations, summon against her the kingdoms—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint against her a general, cause to come up the horses like bristling locust!

28 Prepare against her the nations—the kings of the Medes with their governors, and all their rulers, and every land of his dominion.

29 The land will tremble and it will writhe, for every plan of YHWH against Babylon will stand, to set the land of Babylon as a desolation without one dwelling.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased from fighting; they sit in their strongholds; their might has dried up; they have become like women; they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken.

31 Runner runs to meet runner, and messenger to meet messenger, to declare to the king of Babylon that his city is captured at the extremity;

32 the fords have been seized, and the marshes they have burned with fire, and the men of war are terrified.”

33 For thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is tread; yet a little while and will come the time of the harvest for her!”

34 “He has devoured me, he has crushed me—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he has made me stand as an empty vessel; he has swallowed me up like a monster, he has filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out!

35 May the violence to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the dweller of Zion, “and my blood be toward those dwelling in Chaldea”—says Jerusalem.

36 Therefore, thus says YHWH: “Behold, I will plead your case, and I will take vengeance in vengeance for you! I will dry up her sea, and I will make dry her springs;

37 Babylon will become as heaps, an abode for jackals, a horror and a hissing, without one dwelling.

38 Together like young lions they will roar; they will growl like cubs of lions.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk, so that they may rejoice, and sleep a sleep forever, and they will not awake!” A declaration of YHWH.

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

41 How Sheshach has been captured, and the praise of all the earth is seized! How Babylon has become as a desolation among the nations!

42 The sea has come up over Babylon; with the multitude of its waves she is covered.

43 Her cities have become as a desolation, a dry land and a desert, a land—none does dwell in them, any man, and no son of man passes through it.

44 And I will visit punishment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out what he has swallowed—from his mouth, and no more will flow to him the nations; indeed the wall of Babylon has fallen!

45 Go out from the midst of her, My people, and let deliver each man his soul from the burning of the anger of YHWH.

46 Do not let your⁺ heart grow faint, and do not be afraid of the report being heard in the land; for will come in one year a report, and in the year after that a report, and violence is in the land, and ruler is against ruler.

47 Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will visit punishment on the carved images of Babylon; and all her land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

48 And they will sing out over Babylon—the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, for from the north will come against her the destroyers!” A declaration of YHWH.

49 “Even Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, even as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

50 Escapees from the sword, go, do not stand still! Remember YHWH from far off, and let Jerusalem come up upon your⁺ heart.”

51 “We are put to shame, because we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come upon the holy places of the house of YHWH.”

52 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” a declaration of YHWH, “when I will visit punishment on her carved images, and in all her land the wounded will groan.

53 Though Babylon were to go up to the heavens, and though she were to gather the height of her strength, from Me would come destroyers against her!” A declaration of YHWH.

54 “The voice of a cry is from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For YHWH is destroying Babylon, and He has destroyed from her the great voice; and have sounded their waves like great waters, and has given forth their voice a roar.

56 For is coming against her, against Babylon, the destroyer, her mighty men will be captured, their bows will be broken; for the God of recompense is YHWH; He will repay in full!

57 I will make drunk her officers and her wise men, her governors, and her deputies, and her mighty men; they will sleep a sleep everlasting, and they will not wake up!” A declaration of the King—YHWH of Hosts is His name.

58 Thus says YHWH of Hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon will be completely stripped down, and her high gates will be burned with fire; the people will toil in vain, and the nations will grow weary at the abundance of the fire.”

59 The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, at his going with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the prince of quietness.

60 Jeremiah wrote down all the evil that would come upon Babylon into one scroll; all these words that were written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “In your coming to Babylon, you should see and call out all these words.

62 And you shall say, ‘O YHWH, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that there is no one remaining in it, from man even to beast, but it will be a desolation forever.’

63 And it will come to pass at your completing to call out this scroll, that you shall tie upon it a stone and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates;

64 and you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon will sink, and she will not rise from the face of the disaster that I am bringing upon her; and they shall be weary.’” Up to here are the words of Jeremiah.