Jeremiah
Chapter 51
1 God says, “Look, I will send a destructive wind against Babylon and those living there who turn against me.”
2 God will send to Babylon people who will scatter her, and will empty her land; for in the time of trouble, they will surround her completely.
3 Let the archer aim at the one who shoots, and at the one who wears armor. Do not spare the young men; completely destroy every soldier.
4 The killed will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and those stabbed will lie in her streets.
5 God has not abandoned Israel or Judah, even though their land was full of sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Run away from Babylon, save yourselves; don’t get destroyed by her sins. This is the time for God’s revenge; he will pay her back.
7 Babylon was like a gold cup in God’s hand that made the whole world drunk. The countries drank her wine, so now they are crazy.
8 Babylon has quickly fallen and is destroyed: cry for her; bring medicine for her pain, maybe she can be healed.
9 We wanted to heal Babylon, but it cannot be healed. Leave it, and let’s all go back to our own countries. Its punishment is great, reaching up to the sky.
10 God has shown us to be right: come, and let us tell in Zion what God has done.
11 Sharpen the arrows; collect the shields: God has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for His plan is to destroy Babylon; it is God’s revenge, the revenge for His temple.
12 Raise the flag on Babylon’s walls, strengthen the guard, place the lookouts, and get the traps ready: for God has planned and carried out what he said against the people of Babylon.
13 You who live by many waters, rich in treasures, your time has ended, and so has your greed.
14 God has sworn, saying, “I will surely fill you with people, like swarms of caterpillars, and they will raise a loud cheer against you.”
15 God made the earth with His power, set up the world with His wisdom, and spread out the sky with His knowledge.
16 When God speaks, many waters form in the sky; He makes steam rise from the earth’s edges, creates lightning with rain, and releases the wind from His storehouses.
17 Everyone acts foolish with their own knowledge; every craftsman is ashamed of their idols. The metal idols they make are lies, and there’s no life in them.
18 They are worthless, made by mistake; when they are judged, they will be destroyed.
19 Jacob’s share is not like others; for he made everything: and Israel is the tribe he chose to inherit: God of all is his name.
20 You are my battle axe and instruments of war: with you I will smash nations, and with you I will ruin kingdoms.
21 I will break the horse and its rider with you; I will break the chariot and its rider with you.
22 I will also smash men and women with you; I will break old and young with you; and I will smash young men and girls with you.
23 I will also crush the shepherd and his sheep with you; with you, I will crush the farmer and his oxen; and with you, I will crush leaders and rulers.
24 I will pay back Babylon and everyone in Chaldea for all the bad things they did in Zion, as you saw, says God.
25 Look, I am against you, you destructive mountain, says God, who ruins the whole earth. I will reach out my hand against you, push you off the cliffs, and turn you into a burned mountain.
26 No one will use any of your stones for corners or bases; you will be empty forever, says God.
27 Put up a sign in the country, sound the horn among the nations, get the nations ready to fight against her, gather the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz against her; choose a leader to face her; make the horses come like hairy locusts.
28 Get the nations ready to fight against her, with the kings of Media, their captains, all their leaders, and all the countries they control.
29 The land will shake and be full of sadness because God’s plans will happen to Babylon, making it empty and without people.
30 The strong men of Babylon stopped fighting, stayed in their forts, lost their strength, acted like women, set her homes on fire, and her gates are broken.
31 A messenger will run to meet another, and one will meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that part of his city has been captured.
32 The paths are blocked, the tall grass is burned, and the soldiers are scared.
33 For this is what God of all, the God of Israel, says: The city of Babylon is like a place where grain is crushed. It is time to crush her; soon her time for harvest will come.
34 The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, has destroyed me; he has beaten me down; he has left me empty; he has swallowed me like a monster; he has stuffed himself with my treasures; he has thrown me away.
35 Let the people of Zion say that the harm done to me and my body will come back on Babylon, and let Jerusalem say that my blood will be on the people of Chaldea.
36 So this is what God says: “Look, I will fight for you and get revenge for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.”
37 Babylon will turn into ruins, a home for wild creatures, a place of amazement, and be deserted.
38 They will roar together like lions; they will cry out like young lions.
39 In their excitement, I will give them parties, make them drunk so they can be happy, sleep forever, and never wake up, says God.
40 I will make them go down like lambs to be killed, like rams and male goats.
41 Sheshach is captured! The whole earth’s praise is seized! How has Babylon become a shocking sight to nations!
42 The sea has risen over Babylon; she is overwhelmed by its many waves.
43 Her cities are deserted, a dry and empty land, a place where no one lives and no one travels through.
44 I will punish the god Bel in Babylon, and I will make him give back what he took. Then, nations will no longer worship him, and Babylon’s wall will collapse.
45 My people, leave from inside her and save yourselves from God’s fierce anger.
46 So your heart doesn’t lose courage, and you don’t fear the news that will spread in the country; news will come one year, and then the next year more news, along with violence in the country, leader fighting against leader.
47 So, look, days are coming when I will judge Babylon’s idols; her entire land will be in panic, and all her killed will fall within her.
48 The sky and the earth, and everything in them, will sing for Babylon; because destroyers will come to her from the north, says God.
49 Just as Babylon made many in Israel die, so at Babylon many from all over the world will die.
50 You who have escaped the sword, go, don’t stop; remember God from far away, and think of Jerusalem.
51 We are ashamed because we have faced insults; our faces are covered with shame because outsiders have entered God’s holy places.
52 So, look, the time is coming, says God, when I will judge her idols, and throughout her land the injured will moan.
53 Even if Babylon goes up to the sky and strengthens her high places, destroyers will still come to her from me, says God.
54 A cry of distress comes from Babylon, and much ruin from the land of the Chaldeans.
55 Because God has ruined Babylon and silenced her loud voice; when her waves roar like big waters, the sound of their roar is heard.
56 Because the destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon, and her strong men are captured, every one of their bows is broken: for God will surely repay.
57 I will make her leaders, wise people, commanders, officials, and strong men drunk; they will sleep forever and never wake up, says the King named God of all.
58 God says; Babylon’s wide walls will be completely destroyed, and her tall gates will burn; the people will work for nothing, and tire themselves out.
59 The message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah, Neriah’s son and Maaseiah’s grandson, was when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in Zedekiah’s fourth year as king. Seraiah was a peaceful leader.
60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the bad things that would happen to Babylon, all these words written against it.
61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you go to Babylon and see and read all these words;
62 Then you will say, O God, you have declared that this place will be completely destroyed, so that no one will live here, not people or animals, and it will be empty forever.
63 When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.
64 You will say, “Babylon will fall and not rise again because of the disaster I will cause: and people will be tired.” These are Jeremiah’s words.