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Chapter 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 up against me, a destroying wind; |
| 2 | And
will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land:
for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. |
| 3 |
Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that
lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy
ye utterly all her host. |
| 4 | Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the
Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. |
| 5 | For Israel
hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though
their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. |
| 6 | Flee
out of 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 unto
her a recompence. |
|
7 | Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand,
that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine;
therefore the nations are mad. |
|
8 | Babylon is suddenly fallen and
destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be
healed. |
| 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
unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. |
| 10 | The LORD
hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work
of the LORD our God. |
| 11 | Make bright the arrows; gather the shields:
the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is
against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the
vengeance of his temple. |
|
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 spake against the inhabitants
of Babylon. |
|
13 | O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. |
| 14 |
The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with
men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
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| 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. |
| 16 |
When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and
he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh
lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
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| 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. |
| 18 |
They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their
visitation they shall perish. |
|
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. |
| 20 | Thou art my battle axe and
weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee
will I destroy kingdoms; |
|
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
his rider; |
| 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; |
| 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. |
|
24 | 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 | Behold, I am against thee, O destroying
mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch
out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee
a burnt mountain. |
| 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. |
|
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 caterpillers. |
| 28 | Prepare
against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and
all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. |
| 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. |
|
30 | The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight,
they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as
women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. |
| 31 |
One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew
the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, |
| 32 | And that the
passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of
war are affrighted. |
| 33 | For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh
her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 37 |
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons,
an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. |
| 38 | They shall
roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. |
| 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. |
| 40 |
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he
goats. |
| 41
| How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole
earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
|
| 42 | The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of
the waves thereof. |
| 43 | Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and
a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass
thereby. |
| 44
| 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 together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
|
| 45 | My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his
soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. |
|
46 | And lest your heart faint,
and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both
come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence
in the land, ruler against ruler. |
| 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. |
| 48 |
Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall
sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith
the LORD. |
| 49
| As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at
Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. |
| 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 | 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. |
| 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. |
| 53 | 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 | A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the
land of the Chaldeans: |
| 55 | Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and
destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters,
a noise of their voice is uttered: |
| 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 recompences shall surely requite.
|
| 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. |
| 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 labour in vain, and
the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. |
| 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. |
| 60 | So
Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all
these words that are written against Babylon. |
| 61 | And Jeremiah
said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all
these words; |
|
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. |
| 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: |
| 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. |
