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Jeremiah 51

Babylon Judged for Sins against Israel

1

Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon And against the inhabitants of  1Leb-kamai  2The  aspirit of a destroyer.

2

"I will dispatch  1foreigners to Babylon that they may  awinnow her And may devastate her land; For on every side they will be opposed to her In the day of her calamity.

3

1Let not  2him who  3 abends his bow  3bend it,  1Nor let him rise up in his  bscale-armor; So do not spare her young men; Devote all her army to destruction.

4

"They will fall down  1slain in the land of the Chaldeans, And  apierced through in their streets."

5

For  aneither Israel nor Judah has been  1forsaken By his God, the LORD of hosts, Although their land is  bfull of guilt  2Before the Holy One of Israel.

6

 aFlee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not be  1 bdestroyed in her  2punishment, For this is the  cLORD'S time of vengeance; He is going to  drender recompense to her.

7

Babylon has been a golden  acup in the hand of the LORD, Intoxicating all the earth. The  bnations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the nations are  cgoing mad.

8

Suddenly  aBabylon has fallen and been broken;  bWail over her!  cBring  1balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.

9

We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; Forsake her and  alet us each go to his own country, For her judgment has  breached to heaven And  1towers up to the very skies.

10

The LORD has  abrought  1about our vindication; Come and let us  brecount in Zion The work of the LORD our God!

11

 aSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, Because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it; For it is the  bvengeance of the LORD, vengeance for His temple.

12

 aLift up a  1signal against the walls of Babylon; Post a strong guard, Station  2sentries, Place men in ambush! For the LORD has both  bpurposed and performed What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13

O you who  adwell by many waters, Abundant in  btreasures, Your end has come, The  1measure of your  2 cend.

14

The  aLORD of hosts has sworn by Himself: "Surely I will fill you with a  1population like  blocusts, And they will cry out with  2shouts of victory over you."

15

It is  aHe who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, And by His understanding He  bstretched out the heavens.

16

When He utters His  avoice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the  bclouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain And brings forth the  cwind from His storehouses.

17

 aAll mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his  1idols, For his molten images are  bdeceitful, And there is no breath in them.

18

They are  aworthless, a work of mockery; In the time of their punishment they will perish.

19

The  aportion of Jacob is not like these; For the  1Maker of all is He, And of the  2tribe of His inheritance; The  bLORD of hosts is His name.

20

He says, "You are My  1 awar-club, My weapon of war; And with you I  bshatter nations, And with you I destroy kingdoms.

21

"With you I  ashatter the horse and his rider, And with you I shatter the  bchariot and its rider,

22

And with you I shatter  aman and woman, And with you I shatter old man and  byouth, And with you I shatter young man and virgin,

23

And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock, And with you I shatter the farmer and his team, And with you I shatter governors and prefects.

24

"But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of  aChaldea for  ball their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes," declares the LORD.

25

"Behold,  aI am against you,  bO destroying mountain, Who destroys the whole earth," declares the LORD, "And I will stretch out My hand against you, And roll you down from the crags, And I will make you a  cburnt out mountain.

26

"They will not take from you even a stone for a corner Nor a stone for foundations, But you will be  adesolate forever," declares the LORD.

27

 aLift up a  1signal in the land, Blow a trumpet among the nations! Consecrate the nations against her, Summon against her the  bkingdoms of  cArarat, Minni and  dAshkenaz; Appoint a marshal against her, Bring up the  ehorses like bristly locusts.

28

Consecrate the nations against her, The kings of the Medes,  1Their governors and all  1their  2prefects, And every land of  3their dominion.

29

So the  aland quakes and writhes, For the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, To make the land of Babylon  1A  bdesolation without inhabitants.

30

The  amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They stay in the strongholds;  bTheir strength is  1exhausted, They are becoming  blike women; Their dwelling places are set on fire, The  cbars of her gates are broken.

31

One  1 acourier runs to meet  1another, And one  2 bmessenger to meet  2another, To tell the king of Babylon That his city has been captured from end to end;

32

The fords also have been seized, And they have burned the marshes with fire, And the men of war are terrified.

33

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a  athreshing floor At the time  1it is stamped firm; Yet in a little while the time of  bharvest will come for her."

34

"Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has  adevoured me and crushed me, He has set me down like an  bempty vessel; He has  cswallowed me like a monster, He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; He has washed me away.

35

"May the  aviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon," The  1inhabitant of Zion will say; And, "May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," Jerusalem will say.

36

Therefore thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am going to  aplead your case And  bexact full vengeance for you; And  cI will dry up her  1sea And make her fountain dry.

37

aBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An  bobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

38

"They will roar together like  ayoung lions, They will growl like lions' cubs.

39

"When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And  amake them drunk, that they may become jubilant And may  bsleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up," declares the LORD.

40

"I will bring them down like  1lambs  ato the slaughter, Like rams together with male goats.

41

"How  1 aSheshak has been captured, And  bthe praise of the whole earth been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

42

"The  1 asea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.

43

"Her cities have become an  aobject of horror, A parched land and a desert, A land in which  bno man lives And through which no son of man passes.

44

aI will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will make what he has swallowed  bcome out of his mouth; And the nations will no longer  cstream to him. Even the  dwall of Babylon has fallen down!

45

aCome forth from her midst, My people, And each of you  bsave yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD.

46

"Now  aso that your heart does not grow faint, And you are not afraid at the  breport that will be heard in the land-- For the report will come  1one year, And after that  2another report in  2another year, And violence will be in the land With  cruler against ruler--

47

Therefore behold, days are coming When I will punish the  aidols of Babylon; And her whole land will be  bput to shame And all her slain will fall in her midst.

48

"Then  aheaven and earth and all that is in them Will shout for joy over Babylon, For  bthe destroyers will come to her from the north," Declares the LORD.

49

 aIndeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel, As also for Babylon  bthe slain of all the earth have fallen.

50

You  awho have escaped the sword, Depart! Do not stay!  bRemember the LORD from afar, And let Jerusalem  1come to your mind.

51

 aWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach; Disgrace has covered our faces, For  baliens have entered The holy places of the LORD'S house.

52

"Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will punish her  aidols, And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.

53

"Though Babylon should  aascend to the heavens, And though she should fortify  1her lofty stronghold, From  bMe destroyers will come to her," declares the LORD.

54

The  asound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55

For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon, And He will make her loud  1noise vanish from her. And their  awaves will roar like many waters; The tumult of their voices  2sounds forth.

56

For the  adestroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men will be captured, Their  bbows are shattered; For the LORD is a God of  crecompense, He will fully repay.

57

"I will  amake her princes and her wise men drunk, Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men, That they may sleep a  bperpetual sleep and not wake up,"  cDeclares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58

Thus says the LORD of hosts, "The broad  awall of Babylon will be completely razed And her high  bgates will be set on fire; So the peoples will  ctoil for nothing, And the nations become  dexhausted only for fire."

59

The  1message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of  aNeriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with  bZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.)

60

So Jeremiah  awrote in a single  1scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.

61

Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud,

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and say, `You, O LORD, have  1promised concerning this place to  acut it off, so that there will be  bnothing dwelling in it,  2whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.'

63

"And as soon as you finish reading this  1scroll, you will tie a stone to it and  athrow it into the middle of the Euphrates,

64

and say, `Just so shall Babylon sink down and  anot rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become  bexhausted.' "  cThus far are the words of Jeremiah.



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(Produced: Sat Dec 22 11:23:50 2007)

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