CHAPTER 51
1Thus said the LORD:
I am about to rouse against Babylonia
and against the dwellers of Leb-Kamai
a destroying wind.
2And I will send strangers to Babylonia and they shall scatter her,
and they shall devastate her land,
for they are all around against her
on an evil day.
3Let not the bowman bend his bow,
and let him not put on his armor,
Utterly destroy all her army.
4And the slain shall fall in the Chaldeans’ land,
and the ones run through in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah are not widowed
of their God, the LORD of Armies,
but their land was filled with guilt
before Israel’s Holy One.
6Flee from the midst of Babylonia;
do not be wiped out through her crime.
For it is vengeance time for the LORD,
requital He pays back to her.
7A golden cup was Babylonia in the LORD’s hand
From her cup the nations drank,
and so the nations maddened.
8Of a sudden Babylonia fell and was broken.
Wail over her.
perhaps she will be healed.
9We sought to heal Babylonia but she was not healed.
Leave her, and let us go each to his land.
For her judgment has touched the heavens,
and mounted to the sky.
10The LORD has brought forth our just cause.
Come and recount in Zion
the deed of the LORD our God.
11Hone the arrows,
fill the quivers!
The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of Media
for His design is against Babylonia to destroy it,
for it is the vengeance of the LORD,
12Against the walls of Babylon raise a banner,
reinforce the watch,
set out the watchmen,
ready the ambushers.
For the LORD has devised and also done
that which He spoke for Babylon’s dwellers.
13You who settle by many waters,
abundant in treasures,
your end has come,
the measure for your ill-gotten wealth.
14The LORD of Armies has sworn by Himself:
I will surely fill you with people like locusts,
and they shall raise a joyous shout over you.
15Who makes the earth through His power,
firmly founds the world through His wisdom,
and through His discernment stretches out the heavens.
16When He sounds His voice—the roar of waters in the heavens,
and He brings up the clouds from the end of the earth.
Lightning for the rain He has made,
and He brings forth the wind from His treasure stores.
17Every human is ignorant without knowledge,
every goldsmith is shamed by his idol,
for his molten image is false,
no breath is in them.
18They are emptiness, work of delusion,
at the time of their reckoning they shall perish.
19Not like these is Jacob’s Portion,
for He fashions everything,
and Israel is the tribe of His estate—
the LORD of Armies is His name.
20You were a mace for Me,
weapons of battle,
and I smashed nations with you
and laid waste kingdoms with you.
21And I smashed with you horse and rider
and smashed with you chariot and its rider.
22And I smashed with you man and woman
and smashed with you elder and lad
and smashed with you young man and virgin.
23And I smashed with you shepherd and his flock
and smashed with you farmer and his team,
and smashed with you satraps and prefects.
24And I will pay back Babylonia
and all the dwellers of Chaldea
for their evil that they did
in Zion before your eyes, said the LORD.
25Here I am against you, a destroying mountain
—said the LORD—
that destroys all the earth,
and I will stretch out My hand against you
and roll you down from the crags
and make you a burnt-out mountain.
26And they shall not take from you a cornerstone
nor a stone for the foundations,
for you shall be an everlasting desolation, said the LORD.
27Raise a banner on the earth,
sound the ram’s horn in the nations.
Marshal nations against her,
assemble kingdoms against her,
Appoint against her an officer,
bring up horses like locusts swarming.
28Marshall nations against her,
Media and her satraps and all her prefects
and all the lands of their dominion.
29And the earth shall shake and shudder,
for the LORD’s plan against Babylonia has risen,
to turn the land of Babylonia
into a desolation with no one dwelling.
30The warriors of Babylonia have ceased fighting,
Their valor is sapped, they turn into women.
They have set fire to her dwellings,
broken are her bolts.
31Runner to meet runner dashes
and herald to meet herald
to tell to the king of Babylonia
that his city is captured from end to end.
32And the forces have been seized,
and the marshes they have burned with fire,
and the men of war are panicked.
33For thus said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel:
The Daughter of Babylonia is like a threshing floor when it is trod—
in a little while her harvesttime shall come.
34Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia has devoured me, has stunned me,
set me out like an empty vessel, swallowed me like the sea monster.
He has filled his belly with my delicacies,
he has dispossessed me.
35The outrage against me and my flesh be upon Bablyonia
says the dweller of Zion,
and my blood be upon the dwellers of Chaldea,
says Jerusalem.
36Therefore thus said the LORD:
I am about to take up your cause
and will exact vengeance for you,
and dry up her fount.
37And Babylonia shall turn into heaps of ruins,
a den of jackals,
desolation and target of hissing
with no one dwelling.
38Together they shall roar like lions,
39In their heat I will set out their drink
and make them drunk so that they be merry,
and they shall sleep an eternal sleep,
and they shall not awake, said the LORD.
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
and like rams with he-goats.
41“How has Sheshak been taken and caught,
the praise of all the earth!
How has she become a desolation,
Babylonia among the nations.
42The sea has gone up over Babylonia,
in the surge of its waves she is covered.
43Her towns have become a desolation,
parched land and desert,
a land where no man dwells,
and no human passes through it.”
44And I will reckon with the Daughter of Babylonia
and take what she has swallowed from her mouth,
and nations shall no longer flow to her,
the very wall of Babylon has fallen.
45Go out from her midst, O my people,
and each man, save your life
from the smoldering wrath of the LORD.
46And lest your heart quail and you fear for the rumor heard in the land, and the rumor shall come that year and afterward in the next year a rumor, and outrage is in the land, and ruler against ruler.
47Therefore, look, days are coming
when I will reckon with the idols of Babylonia,
and all her land shall be shamed,
and all her slain shall fall within her.
48And they shall cry for joy over Babylon,
the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.
For from the north shall come against her the ravagers, said the LORD.
49Babylonia, too, shall fall
O slain of Israel,
yes, as before Babylonia did fall
the slain of all the earth.
50Fugitives of the sword,
go, do not stand.
Recall from afar the LORD
and let Jerusalem come to mind.
51We were shamed, for we heard reproach,
disgrace had covered our face.
For strangers came
against the sacred places of the house of the LORD.
52Therefore, look, days are coming, said the LORD,
when I will reckon with her idols
and through all her land those being slain shall groan.
53Though Babylonia go up to the heavens,
and though she bolster her stronghold on high,
from Me shall come ravagers, said the LORD.
54Hark! screaming from Babylonia,
and a great shattering from the land of the Chaldeans!
55For the LORD is ravaging Babylonia,
has put an end to her great voice.
And their waves roar like mighty waters,
the din of their sound rings out,
56for the ravager has come against her, against Babylonia.
and her warriors are captured,
their bows are shattered,
for a God of requital is the LORD,
He surely shall pay back.
57And I will make her nobles and her sages, her satraps and her prefects drunk, and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep and not awake, said the King, LORD of Armies is His name. 58Thus said the LORD of Armies: the walls of broad Babylon shall surely be razed and her high gates shall be set on fire. And peoples shall strive for naught, and nations against the fire, and shall be wearied.
59The word with which Jeremiah the prophet charged Seriah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylonia in the fourth year of his reign. And Seriah was minister of tribute. 60And Jeremiah wrote down in a single scroll all the harm that would come upon Babylonia, all these words written concerning Babylonia. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylonia and see, you shall read aloud all these words. 62And you shall say, ‘LORD, You Yourself spoke concerning this place to cut it off, so there should be in it no human dweller nor even a beast, for it should be an everlasting desolation.’ 63And it shall be, when you finish reading aloud this book, you shall tie it to a stone and fling it into the Euphrates. 64And you shall say, ‘So shall Babylonia sink and not rise because of the harm that I am about to bring upon her.’ And they shall be wearied.”