Jeremiah 51
The full text of Jeremiah 51 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 This is what the LORD says:
"See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her
and to devastate her land.
They will oppose her on every side
in the day of her disaster.
3 Let not the archer string his bow,
nor let him put on his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
completely destroy her army.
4 They will fall down slain in Babylon,
fatally wounded in her streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
by their God, the LORD of hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
before the Holy One of Israel.
6 "Flee from Babylon!
Run for your lives!
Do not be destroyed because of her sins.
It is time for the LORD's vengeance;
he will pay her what she deserves.
7 Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD's hand;
she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore they have gone mad.
8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
perhaps she can be healed.
9 "We would have healed Babylon,
but she cannot be healed;
let us leave her and each go to our own land,
for her judgment reaches to the skies,
it rises as high as the heavens."
10 "The LORD has vindicated us;
come, let us tell in Zion
what the LORD our God has done."
11 "Sharpen the arrows,
take up the shields!
The LORD has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
The LORD will take vengeance,
vengeance for his temple.
12 Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon!
Reinforce the guard,
station the watchmen,
prepare an ambush!
The LORD will carry out his purpose,
his decree against the people of Babylon.
13 You who live by many waters
and are rich in treasures,
your end has come,
the time for you to be destroyed.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:
I will fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts,
and they will shout in triumph over you.
15 "He made the earth by his power;
he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17 "Every man is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idol.
The images he makes are a fraud;
they have no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
19 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the Maker of all things,
including the people of his inheritance —
the LORD of hosts is his name.
20 "You are my war club,
my weapon for battle —
with you I shatter nations,
with you I destroy kingdoms,
21 with you I shatter horse and rider,
with you I shatter chariot and driver,
22 with you I shatter man and woman,
with you I shatter old man and youth,
with you I shatter young man and young woman,
23 with you I shatter shepherd and flock,
with you I shatter farmer and oxen,
with you I shatter governors and officials.
24 "But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia
for all the wrong they have done in Zion,
before your very eyes,
declares the LORD.
25 "I am against you, you destroying mountain,
you who destroy the whole earth,
declares the LORD.
I will stretch out my hand against you,
roll you off the cliffs,
and make you a burned-out mountain.
26 No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
nor any stone for a foundation,
for you will be desolate forever,
declares the LORD.
27 Lift up a banner in the land!
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations for battle against her;
summon against her these kingdoms:
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander against her;
send up horses like a swarm of locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for battle against her —
the kings of the Medes,
their governors and all their officials,
and all the countries they rule.
29 The land trembles and writhes,
for the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand —
to lay waste the land of Babylon
so that no one will live there.
30 Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting;
they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Her dwellings are set on fire;
the bars of her gates are broken.
31 One courier follows another
and messenger follows messenger
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his entire city is captured,
32 the river crossings seized,
the marshes set on fire,
and the soldiers terrified.
33 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;
the time to harvest her will soon come."
34 "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us,
he has thrown us into confusion,
he has made us an empty jar.
Like a serpent he has swallowed us
and filled his stomach with our delicacies,
and then has vomited us out.
35 May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon, say the inhabitants of Zion.
May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia, says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore, this is what the LORD says:
"See, I will defend your cause
and avenge you;
I will dry up her sea
and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,
a place where no one lives.
38 Her people all roar like young lions,
they growl like lion cubs.
39 But while they are aroused,
I will set out a feast for them
and make them drunk,
so that they shout with laughter —
then sleep forever and not awake,
declares the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats.
41 "How Sheshach will be captured,
the pride of the whole earth seized!
How desolate Babylon will be
among the nations!
42 The sea will rise over Babylon;
its roaring waves will cover her.
43 Her towns will be desolate,
a dry and desert land,
a land where no one lives,
through which no one travels.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon
and make him vomit out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
And the wall of Babylon will fall.
45 "Come out of her, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors spread in the land;
one rumor comes this year, another the next,
rumors of violence in the land
and of ruler against ruler.
47 For the time will surely come
when I will punish the idols of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced
and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy over Babylon,
for out of the north
destroys will attack her,
declares the LORD.
49 Babylon must fall because of Israel's slain,
just as the slain in all the earth
have fallen because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
leave and do not linger!
Remember the LORD in a distant land,
and call Jerusalem to mind.
51 "We are disgraced,
for we have been insulted
and shame covers our faces,
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the LORD's house."
52 "But days are coming,
declares the LORD,
when I will punish her idols,
and throughout her land
the wounded will groan.
53 Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens
and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
I will send destroyers against her,
declares the LORD.
54 "The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.
55 The LORD will destroy Babylon;
he will silence her noisy din.
Waves of enemies will rage like great waters;
the roar of their voices will resound.
56 A destroyer will come against Babylon;
her warriors will be captured,
and their bows will be broken.
For the LORD is a God of retribution;
he will repay in full.
57 "I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep forever and not awake,
declares the King,
whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 This is what the LORD of hosts says:
"Babylon's thick wall will be leveled
and her high gates set on fire;
the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,
the nations' labor is only fuel for the flames."
59 The message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign.
60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon — all that had been recorded concerning Babylon.
61 He said to Seraiah, 'When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.
62 Then say: "LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever."
63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.
64 Then say, 'So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.'"
The words of Jeremiah end here.
Translation notes (24)
- Jeremiah 51:1a The Hebrew phrase Leb Kamai is an atbash cipher, which is a reversed alphabet code, for Kasdim, meaning Chaldea or Babylon. This coded reference may have been used for political safety, similar to 'Sheshach' for Babel in Jeremiah 25:26.
- Jeremiah 51:3a This Hebrew verse is a battle command addressed to the attacking force, instructing them to ensure that none of Babylon's defenders are able to resist.
- Jeremiah 51:6a Cf. Isa 48:20; Rev 18:4 — 'Come out of her!' The call to flee Babylon before judgment falls. The righteous must not be caught in Babylon's destruction.
- Jeremiah 51:7a Heb. kôs zāhāb bab̄el bᵉyad-YHWH — 'a golden cup in the LORD's hand'; Babylon was the instrument of divine wrath dispensed to the nations. Cf. 25:15-29; Rev 17:4.
- Jeremiah 51:8a Heb. pit'om nāp̄ᵉlāh bābel watiššāber — 'suddenly fell Babylon and was shattered'; the suddenness of Babylon's fall (cf. Rev 18:10,17,19 'in one hour'). The balm of Gilead (8:22) offered too late.
- Jeremiah 51:11a The Hebrew refers to the kings of the Medes, a northern power that partnered with Persia to overthrow Babylon in 539 BC. This detail reflects historical precision. See also Jeremiah 25:25 and 51:28.
- Jeremiah 51:13a Heb. šōkᵉnāh ʿal-mayim rabbîm — 'you who dwell on many waters'; Babylon's canal system and rivers (Euphrates) = its engineering pride and agricultural wealth. Rev 17:1 echoes.
- Jeremiah 51:14a This Hebrew verse contains a divine self-oath, where God declares, 'I have sworn by my very self' (bî nišbaʿtî YHWH ṣᵉbāʾôt). The comparison to a locust swarm signifies an uncountable army.
- Jeremiah 51:20a The Hebrew phrase maṭṭēpôṣ lî means 'my hammer' or 'my war-club.' Commentators debate whether the 'you' being addressed refers to Babylon, as God's former instrument, or to Israel, as God's future instrument; both interpretations have been argued.
- Jeremiah 51:25a The Hebrew phrase hāhar hammaššḥît means 'the destroying mountain,' comparing Babylon to a volcano that devastates everything. The phrase 'I am against you' is a common divine judgment formula, and rolling off cliffs signifies permanent removal.
- Jeremiah 51:27a The Hebrew mentions Ararat (Armenia), Minni (Mannea in Northwest Iran), and Ashkenaz (possibly the Scythians), which were kingdoms from the north mobilized against Babylon. This provides historical precision regarding the anti-Babylonian coalition.
- Jeremiah 51:34a Here, Israel or Judah speaks, saying 'he swallowed us like a serpent,' using the image of a serpent or dragon to represent Babylon, similar to Revelation 12-13. The empty jar imagery can be seen in Jeremiah 48:11-12.
- Jeremiah 51:36a The Hebrew phrase wᵉhōbaštî 'et-yammāh means 'I will dry up her sea,' indicating that Babylon's great Euphrates River and canal system would be drained. Historically, Cyrus the Great diverted the Euphrates to enter Babylon.
- Jeremiah 51:39a The Hebrew suggests that the feast was a trap, as Babylon was feasting while the city was falling. This resonates with the historical account in Daniel 5, where King Belshazzar's feast occurred on the very night Babylon was captured during a festival.
- Jeremiah 51:41a Heb. Sheshach = atbash for Babel (cf. 25:26). 'Pride of the whole earth' — Babylon at its height was the wonder of the ancient world. Cf. Rev 18:10.
- Jeremiah 51:42a Heb. the sea rising over Babylon — the cosmic flood-chaos imagery. Cf. Rev 18:21 ('thrown into the sea').
- Jeremiah 51:44a The Hebrew describes Bel, also known as Marduk, being forced to vomit, symbolizing the nations and wealth he had 'swallowed,' just as Israel was 'swallowed' in verse 34. This represents a divine mockery of Babylon's chief deity.
- Jeremiah 51:45a Heb. ṣᵉʾû mittôkāh ʿammî — 'go out of her, my people!'; cf. Isa 48:20; 52:11; Rev 18:4. The call to exodus from Babylon as a new Exodus.
- Jeremiah 51:48a Cf. Rev 18:20 ('Rejoice over her, you heavens!'). The cosmic celebration of Babylon's fall: heaven and earth both rejoice.
- Jeremiah 51:56a The Hebrew phrase 'ēl gᵉmûlôt YHWH means 'God of recompenses.' This describes God's retributive character, applying the principle of an eye for an eye to Babylon.
- Jeremiah 51:58a Heb. cf. Hab 2:13 — nearly identical verse. The nations' labor building Babylon's walls will go up in flames. The futility of human work against divine purpose.
- Jeremiah 51:59a This event occurred in 593 BC, during the fourth year of King Zedekiah's reign. Seraiah, who was Baruch's brother and both were sons of Neriah ben Mahseiah, was sent to Babylon with a written oracle.
- Jeremiah 51:63a Heb. the stone-sinking sign-act: the scroll weighted and sunk = the irrevocability of the judgment. Cf. Rev 18:21 (the millstone thrown into the sea = Babylon's irreversible fall).
- Jeremiah 51:64a The Hebrew word ûp̄āšû means 'and they will be weary.' The closing colophon, which is a concluding statement, says 'the words of Jeremiah end here,' marking the editorial conclusion of the book of Jeremiah before the historical appendix of chapter 52.
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