Jeremias 51

1 The LORD says:

2 I will send to Babylon strangers, who will winnow her.

3 Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow,

4 They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,

5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God,

6 "Flee out of the middle of Babylon!

7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,

8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed!

9 "We would have healed Babylon,

10 ‘The LORD has produced our righteousness.

11 "Make the arrows sharp!

12 Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon!

13 You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures,

14 The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself, saying,

15 "He has made the earth by his power.

16 When he utters his voice,

17 "Every man has become stupid and without knowledge.

18 They are vanity,

19 The portion of Jacob is not like these,

20 "You are my battle axe and weapons of war.

21 With you I will break in pieces

22 With you I will break in pieces

23 With you I will break in pieces

24 "I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight," says the LORD.

25 "Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain," says the LORD,

26 They won’t take a cornerstone from you,

27 "Set up a standard in the land!

28 Prepare against her the nations,

29 The land trembles and is in pain;

30 The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting,

31 One runner will run to meet another,

32 So the passages are seized.

33 For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says:

34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me.

35 May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!"

36 Therefore the LORD says:

37 Babylon will become heaps,

38 They will roar together like young lions.

39 When they are inflamed, I will make their feast,

40 "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

41 "How Sheshach is taken!

42 The sea has come up on Babylon.

43 Her cities have become a desolation,

44 I will execute judgement on Bel in Babylon,

45 "My people, go away from the middle of her,

46 Don’t let your heart faint.

47 Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgement on the engraved images of Babylon;

48 Then the heavens and the earth,

49 "As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,

50 You who have escaped the sword, go!

51 "We are confounded

52 "Therefore behold, the days come," says the LORD,

53 Though Babylon should mount up to the sky,

54 "The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,

55 For the LORD lays Babylon waste,

56 For the destroyer has come on her,

57 I will make her princes, her wise men,

58 The LORD of Armies says:

59 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 chief quartermaster.

60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,

62 and say, ‘LORD, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’

63 It will be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates.

64 Then you shall say, ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.’"