Jeremiah 51

A destroying wind

1This is what the LORD says:
“I am stirring up a destroying wind
against Babylon and the people of Leb-kamai. 2I will send strangers against Babylon;
they will winnow her and empty her land.
They will surround her
on the day of disaster. 3Let the archer draw against the one who draws his bow,
against the one who rises in armor.
Do not spare her young men;
devote her whole army to destruction. 4They will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
pierced through in her streets. 5For Israel and Judah have not been widowed
of their God, the LORD of hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
before the Holy One of Israel. 6Flee from Babylon!
Save your lives, each of you.
Do not perish in her guilt.
This is the LORD's time for vengeance;
he is repaying her what she deserves. 7Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand,
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
that is why the nations went mad. 8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and shattered!
Wail for her.
Bring balm for her wound;
perhaps she can be healed. 9‘We tried to heal Babylon, but she was not healed.
Leave her! Let each of us go to our own land.
Her judgment reaches heaven,
rises to the clouds.’ 10The LORD has brought our vindication to light.
Come, let us tell in Zion
what the LORD our God has done. 11Polish the arrows!
Take up the shields!
The LORD has stirred the spirit of the kings of Media.
His purpose is to destroy Babylon.
This is the LORD's vengeance,
vengeance for his temple. 12Raise a signal against Babylon's walls.
Strengthen the watch; post sentries;
prepare the ambush.
The LORD has both planned and carried out
what he said against Babylon's inhabitants. 13You who dwell beside many waters,
rich in treasures,
your end has come—
the measure of your gain. 14The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:
‘I will fill you with men like locusts,
and they will raise a victory shout over you.’

The Maker and the war club

15He made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom,
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. 16When he gives voice, waters roar in heaven.
He raises clouds from the ends of the earth,
makes lightning for the rain,
and brings wind from his storehouses. 17Everyone is senseless, without knowledge;
every metalworker is ashamed of the carved image.
The cast image is a lie;
there is no breath in them. 18They are vapor, a work of delusion;
at the time of their reckoning they will perish. 19Jacob's Portion is not like these.
He is the one who forms all things,
and the tribe is his inheritance.
The LORD of hosts is his name. 20“You are my war club, my weapon of battle.
With you I shatter nations;
with you I destroy kingdoms. 21With you I shatter horse and rider;
with you I shatter chariot and driver. 22With you I shatter man and woman;
with you I shatter old and young;
with you I shatter young man and virgin. 23With you I shatter shepherd and flock;
with you I shatter farmer and team;
with you I shatter governors and deputies. 24I will repay Babylon and all who live in Chaldea for all the evil they did in Zion, before your eyes,” declares the LORD.

The destroying mountain

25“I am against you, destroying mountain,” declares the LORD,
“you who destroy the whole earth.
I will stretch out my hand against you,
roll you down from the crags,
and make you a burned-out mountain. 26No one will take from you a cornerstone
or a stone for foundations.
You will be a lasting desolation,” declares the LORD. 27Raise a signal in the land!
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Consecrate nations against her;
summon kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander against her;
bring up horses like bristling locusts. 28Consecrate nations against her:
the kings of Media, its governors and all its deputies,
and every land under their rule. 29The earth shakes and writhes,
for the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand:
to make Babylon's land a desolation,
with no one living there. 30Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting.
They stay in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
they have become women.
Her homes are set on fire;
her gate bars are broken. 31Runner meets runner,
messenger meets messenger,
to tell Babylon's king
that his city is captured from end to end. 32The crossings are seized,
the marshes burned with fire,
and the fighting men terrified. 33For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says:
“Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled.
A little longer,
and her harvest time will come.”

Zion speaks

34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me,
crushed me, left me an empty vessel.
He swallowed me like a monster,
filled his belly with my delicacies,
then cast me away. 35May the violence done to me and my flesh fall on Babylon,”
says the woman dwelling in Zion.
“May my blood fall on Chaldea's inhabitants,”
says Jerusalem. 36Therefore this is what the LORD says:
“I will plead your case
and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
and make her spring run dry. 37Babylon will become heaps of rubble,
a haunt of jackals,
a horror and an object of hissing,
with no one living there. 38Together they roar like young lions,
growl like lion cubs. 39When they are heated, I will prepare their feast
and make them drunk, so they exult.
Then they will sleep an everlasting sleep
and never wake,” declares the LORD. 40“I will bring them down like lambs to slaughter,
like rams with male goats. 41How Sheshach is captured,
the praise of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations! 42The sea has risen over Babylon;
its roaring waves cover her. 43Her towns have become a desolation,
a dry and barren land,
a land where no one lives
and no human being passes. 44I will call Bel in Babylon to account
and pull what he swallowed from his mouth.
Nations will no longer stream to him.
Even Babylon's wall has fallen.

Leave Babylon

45Come out of her, my people!
Save your lives, each of you,
from the LORD's burning anger. 46Do not lose heart or fear the reports heard in the land. One report comes one year, another the next: violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47Therefore days are coming
when I will call Babylon's carved images to account.
Her whole land will be disgraced;
all her slain will fall within her. 48Heaven and earth and everything in them
will shout for joy over Babylon,
for destroyers will come against her from the north,”
declares the LORD. 49Babylon must fall for Israel's slain,
just as the slain of all the earth
have fallen because of Babylon. 50You who escaped the sword, go on! Do not stand still.
Remember the LORD from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to mind. 51“We are ashamed, for we have heard insults;
disgrace covers our faces.
Foreigners have entered
the holy places of the LORD's house.” 52“Therefore days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will call her carved images to account,
and throughout her land the wounded will groan. 53Though Babylon climbs to heaven
and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
destroyers will come to her from me,” declares the LORD. 54A cry sounds from Babylon,
great destruction from Chaldea's land! 55For the LORD is devastating Babylon,
silencing her great voice.
Their waves roar like mighty waters;
the noise of their voices resounds. 56A destroyer has come against her, against Babylon.
Her warriors are captured;
their bows are broken.
For the LORD is a God of recompense;
he will surely repay. 57“I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
her governors, deputies, and warriors.
They will sleep an everlasting sleep
and never wake,” declares the King,
whose name is the LORD of hosts. 58This is what the LORD of hosts says:
“Babylon's broad wall will be utterly stripped away,
her high gates burned with fire.
Peoples labor for nothing,
nations wear themselves out for fire.”

The scroll in the river

59This is what Jeremiah the prophet instructed Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the officer responsible for resting places. 60Jeremiah wrote on a single scroll all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words written against Babylon. 61Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you reach Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62Then say, ‘LORD, you have declared that this place will be cut off, with no one living in it, neither human nor animal. It will be a lasting desolation.’ 63When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. 64Then say, ‘This is how Babylon will sink and never rise from the disaster I am bringing upon her. They will grow weary.’” Here end the words of Jeremiah.