Jeremiah 51

1 Thus saith יהוה: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon (Bavel), and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against Me, a destroying wind.

2 And will send unto Babylon (Bavel) fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land; for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his armor; and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her army.

4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

5 For Yisrael hath not been forsaken, nor Judah (Yehudah) of his God (Elohim), יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot); though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Yisrael.”

6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon (Bavel), and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of יהוה’s vengeance; He will render unto her a recompence.

7 Babylon (Bavel) hath been a golden cup in יהוה’s hand, that made all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

8 Babylon (Bavel) is suddenly fallen and destroyed; howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon (Bavel), but she is not healed; forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

10 יהוה hath brought forth our righteousness. Come, and let us declare in Zion (Tsiyon) the work of יהוה our God (Elohim).

11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields! יהוה hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for His device is against Babylon (Bavel), to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of יהוה, the vengeance of His temple.

12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon (Bavel), make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for יהוה hath both devised and done that which He spake against the inhabitants of Babylon (Bavel).

13 O you that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness.

14 יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot) hath sworn by Himself, saying: “Surely I will fill you with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against you.”

15 He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by His understanding.

16 When He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.

17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 The portion of Jacob (Yaaqov) is not like them; for He is the Maker of all things, and the tribe of His inheritance. יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot) is His name.

20 You are My battle axe and weapons of war: for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms;

21 And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;

22 With you also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

23 I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces captains and rulers.

24 “And I will render unto Babylon (Bavel) and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion (Tsiyon) in your sight,” saith יהוה.

25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,” saith יהוה, “who destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out Mine hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.

26 And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shalt be desolate forever,” saith יהוה.

27 Set you 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 Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.

28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of יהוה shall be performed against Babylon (Bavel), to make the land of Babylon (Bavel) a desolation without an inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon (Bavel) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds; their might hath failed; they became as women; they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken.

31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (Bavel) that his city is taken at one end,

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus saith יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot), the God of Israel (Elohei Yisrael): “The daughter of Babylon (Bavel) is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.”

34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon (Bavel) hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

35 “The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon (Bavel),” shall the inhabitant of Zion (Tsiyon) say; “and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” shall Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) say.

36 Therefore thus saith יהוה: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

37 And Babylon (Bavel) shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake,” saith יהוה.

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

41 “How is Sheshach taken! And how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! How is Babylon (Bavel) become an astonishment among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon (Bavel): she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man passes thereby.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon (Bavel), and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon (Bavel) shall fall.

45 My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver you every man his soul from the fierce anger of יהוה.

46 And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon (Bavel); and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon (Bavel); for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north,” saith יהוה.

49 As Babylon (Bavel) hath caused the slain of Yisrael to fall, so at Babylon (Bavel) shall fall the slain of all the earth.

50 You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still! Remember יהוה afar off, and let Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) come into your mind.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Shame hath covered our faces, for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of יהוה’s house.

52 “Wherefore, behold, the days come,” saith יהוה, “that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon (Bavel) should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her,” saith יהוה.

54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon (Bavel), and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

55 Because יהוה hath spoiled Babylon (Bavel), and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered,

56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon (Bavel), and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken; for יהוה God (Elohim) of recompences shall surely requite.

57 “And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake,” saith the King, whose name is יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot).

58 Thus saith יהוה of hosts (YHWH Tsevaot): “The broad walls of Babylon (Bavel) shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.”

59 The word which Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) the prophet commanded Serayahu the son of Neriyah, the son of Maaseyah, when he went with Zedekiah (Tsidqiyahu) the king of Judah (Yehudah) into Babylon (Bavel) in the fourth year of his reign. And this Serayahu was a quiet prince.

60 So Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon (Bavel), even all these words that are written against Babylon (Bavel).

61 And Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) said to Serayahu, “When you comest to Babylon (Bavel), and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;

62 Then shalt you say, ‘O יהוה, You have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever.’

63 And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

64 And you shalt say, ‘Thus shall Babylon (Bavel) sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu).