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The Blue Letter Bible

Jeremiah 51 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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The Utter Destruction of Babylon

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:1

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:1 - Thus says the LORD:
“Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
against Babylon,
against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai,[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:2

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:2 - and I will send to Babylon winnowers,
and they shall winnow her,
and they shall empty her land,
when they come against her from every side
on the day of trouble.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:3

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:3 - Let not the archer bend his bow,
and let him not stand up in his armor.
Spare not her young men;
devote to destruction[fn] all her army.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:4

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:4 - They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
and wounded in her streets.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:5

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:5 - For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
by their God, the LORD of hosts,
but the land of the Chaldeans[fn] is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:6

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:6 - “Flee from the midst of Babylon;
let every one save his life!
Be not cut off in her punishment,
for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance,
the repayment he is rendering her.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:7

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:7 - Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,
making all the earth drunken;
the nations drank of her wine;
therefore the nations went mad.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:8

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:8 - Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
perhaps she may be healed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:9

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:9 - We would have healed Babylon,
but she was not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go
each to his own country,
for her judgment has reached up to heaven
and has been lifted up even to the skies.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:10

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:10 - The LORD has brought about our vindication;
come, let us declare in Zion
the work of the LORD our God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:11

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:11 - “Sharpen the arrows!
Take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:12

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:12 - “Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon;
make the watch strong;
set up watchmen;
prepare the ambushes;
for the LORD has both planned and done
what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:13

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:13 - O you who dwell by many waters,
rich in treasures,
your end has come;
the thread of your life is cut.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:14

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:14 - The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:
Surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts,
and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:15

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:15 - “It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:16

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:16 - When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:17

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:17 - Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
and there is no breath in them.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:18

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:18 - They are worthless, a work of delusion;
at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:19

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:19 - Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob,
for he is the one who formed all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
the LORD of hosts is his name.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:20

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:20 - “You are my hammer and weapon of war:
with you I break nations in pieces;
with you I destroy kingdoms;

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:21

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:21 - with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:22

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:22 - with you I break in pieces man and woman;
with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth;
with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman;

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:23

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:23 - with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team;
with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:24

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:24 - “I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:25

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:25 - “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
declares the LORD,
which destroys the whole earth;
I will stretch out my hand against you,
and roll you down from the crags,
and make you a burnt mountain.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:26

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:26 - No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
declares the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:27

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:27 - “Set up a standard on the earth;
blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her;
summon against her the kingdoms,
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her;
bring up horses like bristling locusts.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:28

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:28 - Prepare the nations for war against her,
the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
and every land under their dominion.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:29

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:29 - The land trembles and writhes in pain,
for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
without inhabitant.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:30

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:30 - The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;
they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
they have become women;
her dwellings are on fire;
her bars are broken.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:31

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:31 - One runner runs to meet another,
and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
that his city is taken on every side;

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:32

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:32 - the fords have been seized,
the marshes are burned with fire,
and the soldiers are in panic.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:33

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:33 - For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time when it is trodden;
yet a little while
and the time of her harvest will come.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:34

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:34 - “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
he has rinsed me out.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:35

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:35 - The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”
let the inhabitant of Zion say.
“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
let Jerusalem say.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:36

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:36 - Therefore thus says the LORD:
“Behold, I will plead your cause
and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
and make her fountain dry,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:37

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:37 - and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
the haunt of jackals,
a horror and a hissing,
without inhabitant.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:38

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:38 - “They shall roar together like lions;
they shall growl like lions’ cubs.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:39

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:39 - While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast
and make them drunk, that they may become merry,
then sleep a perpetual sleep
and not wake, declares the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:40

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:40 - I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and male goats.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:41

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:41 - “How Babylon[fn] is taken,
the praise of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations!

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:42

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:42 - The sea has come up on Babylon;
she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:43

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:43 - Her cities have become a horror,
a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one dwells,
and through which no son of man passes.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:44

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:44 - And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer flow to him;
the wall of Babylon has fallen.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:45

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:45 - “Go out of the midst of her, my people!
Let every one save his life
from the fierce anger of the LORD!

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:46

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:46 - Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
at the report heard in the land,
when a report comes in one year
and afterward a report in another year,
and violence is in the land,
and ruler is against ruler.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:47

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:47 - “Therefore, behold, the days are coming
when I will punish the images of Babylon;
her whole land shall be put to shame,
and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:48

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:48 - Then the heavens and the earth,
and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:49

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:49 - Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:50

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:50 - “You who have escaped from the sword,
go, do not stand still!
Remember the LORD from far away,
and let Jerusalem come into your mind:

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:51

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:51 - ‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
dishonor has covered our face,
for foreigners have come
into the holy places of the LORD’s house.’

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:52

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:52 - “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,
when I will execute judgment upon her images,
and through all her land
the wounded shall groan.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:53

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:53 - Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
and though she should fortify her strong height,
yet destroyers would come from me against her,
declares the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:54

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:54 - “A voice! A cry from Babylon!
The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:55

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:55 - For the LORD is laying Babylon waste
and stilling her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like many waters;
the noise of their voice is raised,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:56

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:56 - for a destroyer has come upon her,
upon Babylon;
her warriors are taken;
their bows are broken in pieces,
for the LORD is a God of recompense;
he will surely repay.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:57

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:57 - I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
her governors, her commanders, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:58

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:58 - “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
The broad wall of Babylon
shall be leveled to the ground,
and her high gates
shall be burned with fire.
The peoples labor for nothing,
and the nations weary themselves only for fire.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:59

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:59 - The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:60

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:60 - Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:61

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:61 - And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:62

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:62 - and say, ‘O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.’

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:63

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:63 - When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:64

Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:64 - and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
A code name for Chaldea
That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
Hebrew their land
Or he has expelled me
Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Jeremiah Chapter 51 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras