| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
