Jeremiah 51
1 This is what Yahweh says: “I will inspire/motivate [an army] to destroy Babylon [like a powerful] wind [MET], and [also] to destroy the people of Babylonia.
Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.
2 I will send a foreign army to come to get rid of Babylonia [like a strong wind] that blows away chaff. They will attack from every direction on that day of disaster.
And I will send unto Babylon strangers, that shall fan her, and they shall empty her land; for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
3 [I will tell them, ] ‘Do not allow the archers [of Babylon] to [have time to] put on their armor or draw their bows. Do not spare the young men of Babylon. Completely destroy their army.’
Let the archer bend his bow against her, and let him lift himself up against her in his coat of mail; and spare ye not her young men, destroy ye utterly all her host.
4 Their soldiers will fall dead in Babylonia; [they will die after being] wounded in the streets.
And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.
5 [I, ] the Commander of the armies of angels, the Israelis’ God, have not abandoned Israel and Judah. [Even though] their land was full of people who sinned against [me], the Holy God of Israel, I am still their God.
For Israel is not widowed, nor Judah, of his God, of the LORD of hosts; for their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6 [You people of Israel and Judah, ] flee from Babylon! Run away from there! Do not stay there and be killed when I punish [the people of Babylon]! It will be the time when I will get revenge; I will do to them what they deserve.
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life, be not cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; He will render unto her a recompense.
7 Babylon has been [like] [MET] a gold cup in my hand, [a cup that is full of wine] that caused people all over the earth [who drank some of it to become] drunk. [It is as though] the [rulers of] the nations drank the wine from Babylon, and it caused them to become crazy.
Babylon hath been a golden cup in LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are mad.
8 But suddenly Babylon will be conquered. [You foreigners who live in Babylon, ] weep for its people. Give them medicine for their wounds; perhaps they can be healed.”
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed, wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9 We [foreigners] would have [tried to] heal them, but [now] they cannot be healed. [So we will not try to help them; ] we will abandon them, and return to our own lands, because [it is as though] the punishment they are receiving is so great that it reaches up to the clouds in sky, [so great that no one can measure it].
We would have healed Babylon, 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 Yahweh has (vindicated us/shown that we were right); [so] let’s proclaim in Jerusalem everything that Yahweh our God has done [for us].
The LORD hath brought forth our victory; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11 [You enemy soldiers, ] sharpen your arrows! Lift up your shields, [because] Yahweh has incited your kings of Media [and Persia to march with their armies] to Babylon and to destroy it. That is how Yahweh will get revenge on [those foreigners who entered] his temple [in Jerusalem] and defiled it.
Make bright the arrows, fill the quivers, the LORD hath roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because His device is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of His temple.
12 Lift up a battle flag close to the walls of Babylon! (Reinforce the/Appoint more) guards, and tell the watchmen to stand [in their positions]! Prepare an ambush, because Yahweh is about to accomplish all that he has planned to do to the people of Babylon.
Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for the LORD hath both devised and done that which He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 Babylon is [a city] near the great [Euphrates] River, a city in which there are many rich people, but it is time for Babylon to be finished; the time [for the city] to exist is ended.
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy covetousness.
14 The Commander of the armies of angels has solemnly promised, using his own name, “Your cities will be filled with your enemies; I will cause them to be like [SIM] a swarm of locusts; and they will shout triumphantly [when they conquer your city].”
The LORD of hosts hath sworn by Himself: Surely I will fill thee with men, as with the canker-worm, and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
15 Yahweh created the earth by his power; he established it by his wisdom, and he stretched out the sky by his understanding.
He that hath made the earth by His power, that hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discernment;
16 When he speaks loudly, there is thunder in the sky; he causes clouds to form in every part of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and releases the winds from his storehouses.
At the sound of His giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings at the time of the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasuries;
17 People are senseless, and they know very little [HYP]; those who make idols are [always] disappointed, because their idols [do nothing for them]. The images/statues that they make are not real [gods]; they are lifeless.
Every man is proved to be brutish, for the knowledge — every goldsmith is put to shame by the graven image — that his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 Idols are worthless; they deserve to be ridiculed; there will be a time when they will [all] be destroyed.
They are vanity, a work of delusion; in the time of their visitation they shall perish,
19 But the God whom [we] Israelis [worship] is not like those [idols]; he is the one who created everything [that exists]; [we], the people of Israel, belong to him; his name is ‘the Commander of the armies of angels’.
The portion of Jacob is not like these; for He is the former of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; the LORD of hosts is His name.
20 Yahweh says [about the army of Babylonia] (OR, [about a nation that will attack Babylonia)], “You have been [like] [MET] my battle-axe and war-club; with your [power] I have shattered nations and destroyed [many] kingdoms.
Thou art My maul and weapons of war, and with thee will I shatter the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
21 With your [power] I have shattered armies [of other nations]: I destroyed [their] horses and their riders, [their] chariots and [their] chariot-drivers.
And with thee will I shatter the horse and his rider, and with thee will I shatter the chariot and him that rideth therein;
22 With your [power] I shattered men and women, old people and children, young men and young women.
And with thee will I shatter man and woman, and with thee will I shatter the old man and the youth, and with thee will I shatter the young man and the maid;
23 With your [power] I shattered shepherds and their flocks [of sheep], farmers and their oxen, governors and [their] officials.”
And with thee will I shatter the shepherd and his flock, and with thee will I shatter the husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and with thee will I shatter governors and deputies.
24 But, Yahweh [also] says, “[Soon] I will repay/punish [you] people in Babylon and in the rest of Babylonia for all the evil things that you have done in Jerusalem.
And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion, in your sight; saith the LORD.
25 [Babylonia is] [APO] like [MET] a great mountain [from which bandits descend] to (plunder/steal things from) people all over the earth. But I, Yahweh, am the enemy of you [people of Babylonia]. I will raise my fist to strike you. I will knock you down from the cliffs and cause you to be [only] a huge pile of burned rubble.
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out My hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 Your [city] will be abandoned forever; [even] the stones in your [city] will never [again] be used for buildings. [Your city will be completely destroyed].”
And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.
27 [Tell] the nations to lift up a battle flag! [Tell them to] shout the battle-cry! Gather all their armies to fight against Babylon! Prepare the nations to attack Babylon. Summon [the armies of] the kingdoms [north of Babylonia]—from Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander for them, and bring [a great number of] horses; [there must be a huge number of horses]; that [huge number] will resemble [SIM] a swarm of locusts.
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the horn among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm.
28 Prepare the [armies of other nations], armies that will be led by the kings of Media [and Persia], their governors and [their] officials.
Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
29 [When they attack Babylon, it will be as though] the earth will shake and writhe [in pain], because [those armies] will accomplish everything that Yahweh has planned to do to Babylon; they will destroy it completely, [with the result that] no one will live there [again].
And the land quaketh and is in pain; for the purposes of the LORD are performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30 [When their enemies attack], the strongest warriors in Babylon will not fight. They will remain in their barracks, without any strength. They will be as timid/weak as [SIM] women. [The enemy soldiers] will burn the buildings in the city and pull down the bars [of the city gates].
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might hath failed, they are become as women; her dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken.
31 Messengers will go quickly, one after another, to tell the king that his city has been captured.
One post runneth to meet another, and one messenger to meet an other, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter;
32 The places at which people can cross the river [to escape from the city] will be blocked. The dry reeds in the marshes/swamps will be set on fire, and the soldiers of Babylon will be terrified.
And the fords are seized, and the castles they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says; “Babylon is like [SIM] wheat on the ground where it is about to be threshed by [animals] tramping on it. Very soon [their enemies] will trample on [the city of] Babylon [MET].”
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.
34 [The army of] Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, has attacked and crushed us [Israeli people], and we have no strength [left]. [It is as though] they have swallowed us like a [great] monster that filled its belly with all our tasty parts, and then has spit out [what it did not like].
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath set me down as an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his maw with my delicacies; he hath washed me clean.
35 [So] the people of [PRS] Jerusalem say [to Yahweh], “Cause the people of Babylon to suffer like they caused us to suffer! Cause the people of Babylonia to be punished for killing [MTY] our people!”
'The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon', shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and: 'My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea', shall Jerusalem say.
36 And this is what Yahweh replies to the people of Jerusalem: “I will [be like your lawyer to] defend you, and I will avenge you. I will dry up the river in Babylon and [all] the springs of water.
Therefore thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a place where jackals/wolves live. It will become a place that people are horrified about and will ridicule; it will be a place where no one lives.
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38 The people of Babylon will [all] roar like young lions; they will growl like baby lions.
They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' whelps.
39 But while they are extremely hungry, I will prepare a [different kind of] feast for them. [It is as though] I will cause them to drink wine until they are very drunk, [with the result that] they will fall asleep. But they will never wake up from that sleep!
With their poison I will prepare their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may be convulsed, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
40 I will bring them down to a place where they will be slaughtered, like [SIM] [someone who takes] lambs or rams or goats [to where they will be slaughtered for sacrifices].
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41 People all over the earth [now] (honor/praise) Babylon; they say that it is a great city. But I will cause it to become a [place about which people of all] nations are horrified.
How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The [enemies of Babylon] will cover the city [like] huge waves of the sea [DOU].
The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 The towns in Babylonia will become ruins, Babylonia will become a dry desert area. It will be a land in which no one lives and which no one walks through.
Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel, [the god that the people] of Babylon [worship], and I will cause the people to give back what they have stolen [MET]. [People of other] nations will no longer come to [worship] Bel. And the walls of Babylon will collapse.”
And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up, and the nations shall not flow any more unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 [Yahweh also says, ] “My people, come out of Babylon! Run away from there! Run, because [I], Yahweh, am extremely angry [MTY] [with the people of Babylon, and I will get rid of them]!
My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 Do not be discouraged/worried [IDM] or afraid when you hear reports [about what is happening in Babylon]. People will report rumors like that every year, rumors about violent things being done in the land, and rumors about leaders fighting against each other.
And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye, for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; for a rumour shall come one year, and after that in another year a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 But it will soon be the time for me to get rid of the idols in Babylon. [People all over] the land will be ashamed [because of being defeated]; and the corpses of their [soldiers] will lie in the streets.
Therefore behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be ashamed; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then all [the angels in] heaven and all the [people on] [PRS] the earth will rejoice, because from the north will come [armies] that will destroy Babylon.
Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.
49 Like [the soldiers of Babylon] killed the people of Israel and [also] killed others all over the world [HYP], [the people of] Babylon must also be killed.
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
50 You [Israeli people] who have not been killed [MTY], get out of Babylon! Do not wait! [Even though you are in a land] far away [from Israel], think about Yahweh, and think about Jerusalem!”
Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 [The Israeli people say], “We are ashamed. We are completely disgraced [DOU], because foreigners have entered Yahweh’s temple [and (defiled it/caused it to become unfit for worship)].”
'We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach, confusion hath covered our faces; for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.'
52 Yahweh replies, “[That is true], but there will soon be a time when I will destroy the idols in Babylon, and throughout Babylonia there will be wounded people who will groan.
Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Even if [the walls around] Babylon could extend up to the sky, and if its walls/fortifications were extremely strong, I will send [armies] that will destroy the city. [That will surely happen because I, ] Yahweh, have said it.”
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.
54 Listen to [the people of] Babylon crying [for help]! And listen to the sounds of things being destroyed all over Babylonia!
Hark! a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 Yahweh will be destroying Babylon. He will cause the loud noises in the city to cease.
For the LORD spoileth Babylon, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is uttered;
56 Enemy troops will surge against the city like [SIM] a great wave. They will capture the city’s mighty soldiers and break their weapons. [That will happen] because Yahweh is a God who punishes [his enemies] justly; he will punish them as they deserve.
For the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are shattered; for the LORD is a God of recompenses, He will surely requite.
57 The king, the Commander of the armies of angels says, “I will cause the city officials and wise men, the army captains and soldiers [in Babylon] to become drunk. They will fall asleep, but they will never wake up [again]!”
And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 Yahweh also says, “The thick walls around Babylon will be flattened to the ground. The city gates will be burned. People [from other countries] will work hard [to save the city], but it will be (in vain/useless), because everything [that they have built] will be destroyed by fire.”
Thus saith the LORD of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labour for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.
59 Seraiah was the man who made arrangements for the King of Babylon [whenever he traveled]. He was the son of Neraiah and grandson of Mahseiah. When he was about to go to Babylon with King Zedekiah, after Zedekiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years, the prophet Jeremiah gave him a message.
The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was quartermaster.
60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the disasters that he had written about, disasters that would soon occur in Babylon.
And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61 He said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, read [aloud] everything that I have written [on this scroll].
And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: 'When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou read all these words,
62 Then pray, ‘Yahweh, you said that you will thoroughly destroy Babylon, with the result that people and animals will no [longer] live there. You said that it will be desolate forever.’
and say: O LORD, Thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
63 [Then], when you have finished reading [what I have written on] the scroll, tie it to a [heavy] stone and throw it into the Euphrates [River].
And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates;
64 Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon [and its people] will disappear and never exist again, because of the disasters that Yahweh will cause to occur there’” That is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.
and thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.' Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
