51:1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against
Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that
rise against me, a destroying wind;
51:2 And will send to Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and
shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be
against her on all sides.
51:3 Against [him that] bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and
against [him that] lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and
spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
51:4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and
[they that are] thrust through in her streets.
51:5 For Israel [hath] not [been] forsaken, nor Judah by his
God, by the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with
sin against the Holy One of Israel.
51:6 Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his
soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this [is] the time of
the LORD'S vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
51:7 Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that
made all the earth drunken: the nations have drank of her wine;
therefore the nations are mad.
51:8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her;
take balm for her pain, it may be she may be healed.
51:9 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 to heaven, and is lifted [even] to the
skies.
51:10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and
let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
51:11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath
raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his purpose
[is] against Babylon, to destroy it; because it [is] the
vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
51:12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the
watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for
the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spoke against
the inhabitants of Babylon.
51:13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
treasures, thy end is come, [and] the measure of thy
covetousness.
51:14 The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, [saying], Surely
I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall
raise a shout against thee.
51:15 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.
51:16 When he uttereth [his] voice, [there is] a multitude of
waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapors to ascend from
the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and
bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
51:17 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.
51:18 They [are] vanity, the work of errors: in the time of
their visitation they shall perish.
51:19 The portion of Jacob [is] not like them; for he [is] the
former of all things: and [Israel is] the rod of his
inheritance: the LORD of hosts [is] his name.
51:20 Thou [art] my battle-ax [and] weapons of war: for with
thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I
destroy kingdoms;
51:21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his
rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and its
rider;
51:22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and
with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee
will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
51:23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his
flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and
his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains
and rulers.
51:24 And I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of
Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your
sight, saith the LORD.
51:25 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.
51:26 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.
51:27 Set ye 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 caterpillars.
51:28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of Media,
her captains, and all her rulers, and all the land of his
dominion.
51:29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose
of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the
land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne 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.
51:31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to
meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is
taken at [one] end,
51:32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have
burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
51:33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The
daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing-floor, [it is] time
to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest
shall come.
51:34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon 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.
51:35 The violence done to me and to my flesh [be] upon Babylon,
shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the
inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
51:36 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 springs dry.
51:37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for
dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
51:38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as
lions' whelps.
51:39 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 the LORD.
51:40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like
rams with he-goats.
51:41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole
earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among
the nations!
51:42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the
multitude of its waves.
51:43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness,
a land in which no man dwelleth, neither doth [any] son of man
pass by it.
51:44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth
out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed: and the nations
shall not flow together any more to him: even the wall of
Babylon shall fall.
51:45 My people, depart from the midst of her, and deliver ye
every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
51:46 And lest your heart should faint, and ye should fear for
the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both
come [one] year, and after that in [another] year [shall come]
a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
51:47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will do judgment
upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be
confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
51:48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that [is] in them,
shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come to her from
the north, saith the LORD.
51:49 As Babylon [hath caused] the slain of Israel to fall, so
at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
51:50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still:
remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your
mind.
51:51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame
hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the
sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.
51:52 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.
51:53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she
should fortify the hight of her strength, [yet] from me shall
spoilers come to her, saith the LORD.
51:54 A sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great
destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
51:55 Because the LORD hath laid waste Babylon, and destroyed
out of her the great voice; when her waves roar like great
waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:
51:56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, [even] upon Babylon,
and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is
broken: for the Lord GOD of recompenses shall surely requite.
51:57 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] the LORD of hosts.
51:58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon
shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned
with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the people
in the fire, and they shall be weary.
51:59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the
son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah
the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign.
And [this] Seraiah [was] a quiet prince.
51:60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come
upon Babylon, [even] all these words that are written against
Babylon.
51:61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou shalt come to
Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
51:62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this
place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man
nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
51:63 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 Euphrates:
51:64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon 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.
|