Chapter 51
1Thus said the LORD: Look! I am rousing against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai a destroying spirit.
2I will send strangers to Babylon, and they will scatter her and empty her land, because they surrounded her on the day of distress.
3Let the archer draw his bow against her; let him not rise in his armor, and do not spare her young men; devote her entire army to destruction.
4The slain will fall in the land of Chaldea, and those pierced through in her streets.
5For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah from his God, from the LORD of Hosts, because their land is filled with guilt before the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from the midst of Babylon, and each man save his life; do not remain in her iniquity, for it is a time of vengeance belonging to the LORD; he is the one who repays her.
7Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole land drunk; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations behave madly.
8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is broken; wail over her; take balm for her wound; perhaps she may be healed.
9We tried to heal Babylon, but she was not healed; leave her, and let each man go to his own land, for her judgment has reached to the heavens and is lifted up to the clouds.
10The LORD has brought forth our vindication; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11Sharpen the arrows; fill the shields; the LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of Madai, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.
12Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; strengthen the watch; post sentries; prepare the ambushers, for the LORD has both planned and carried out what he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13You who dwell on many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
14The LORD of Hosts has sworn by his own life: Surely I will fill you with men like locusts, and they will raise a shout against you.
15He makes the earth by his power; he establishes the world by his wisdom; and by his understanding he stretches out the heavens.
16When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens; he causes mist to rise from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for rain and brings forth wind from his storehouses.
17Every person is senseless from lack of knowledge; every metalsmith is put to shame by his idol, for his molten image is a fraud and there is no breath in them.
18They are worthless, objects of delusion; at the time of their punishment they will perish.
19Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of Hosts is his name.
20You are my war club and weapon of battle, and with you I will shatter nations and destroy kingdoms.
21With you I will shatter horse and rider; with you I will shatter chariot and its rider.
22With you I will shatter man and woman; with you I will shatter old and young; with you I will shatter youth and virgin.
23With you I will shatter shepherd and flock; with you I will shatter farmer and his team; with you I will shatter governors and officials.
24I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done to Zion before your eyes, declares the LORD.
25Look! I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD, the one who destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burned mountain.
26They will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for foundations, for you will be an everlasting desolation, declares the LORD.
27Raise a banner in the land; blow a trumpet among the nations; consecrate nations against her; summon kingdoms against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28Consecrate nations against her, the kings of Madai with her governors and all her officials and all the land under his dominion.
29The land quaked and trembled, for the purposes of the LORD have risen against Babylon to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in the strongholds; their strength has failed; they have become like women; her dwellings are set on fire; her bars are broken.
31One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to report to the king of Babylon that his city is taken from end to end.
32The fords are seized and the marshes burned with fire, and the soldiers are terrified.
33For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come.
34Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us; he has thrown us into confusion; he has set us aside as an empty vessel; he has swallowed us like a monster; he has filled his belly with our delicacies; he has rinsed us.
35May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, says the inhabitant of Zion, and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, says Jerusalem.
36Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you; I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.
37Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and hissing, without inhabitant.
38They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.
39When they are heated I will prepare their feast and make them drunk, that they may exult and sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake, declares the LORD.
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with goats.
41How Sheshak has been captured and the glory of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by the multitude of its waves.
50
Jeremiah
Judgment on Babylon and Its Final Fall (part 2)
Jeremiah 50:45-51:42
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