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Jeremiah 51 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:1

Jer 51:1 - This is what the LORD says:
“I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon
and the people of Babylonia.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:2

Jer 51:2 - Foreigners will come and winnow her,
blowing her away as chaff.
They will come from every side
to rise against her in her day of trouble.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:3

Jer 51:3 - Don’t let the archers put on their armor
or draw their bows.
Don’t spare even her best soldiers!
Let her army be completely destroyed.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:4

Jer 51:4 - They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians,[fn]
slashed to death in her streets.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:5

Jer 51:5 - For the LORD of Heaven’s Armies
has not abandoned Israel and Judah.
He is still their God,
even though their land was filled with sin
against the Holy One of Israel.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:6

Jer 51:6 - Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves!
Don’t get trapped in her punishment!
It is the LORD’s time for vengeance;
he will repay her in full.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:7

Jer 51:7 - Babylon has been a gold cup in the LORD’s hands,
a cup that made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank Babylon’s wine,
and it drove them all mad.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:8

Jer 51:8 - But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen.
Weep for her.
Give her medicine.
Perhaps she can yet be healed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:9

Jer 51:9 - We would have helped her if we could,
but nothing can save her now.
Let her go; abandon her.
Return now to your own land.
For her punishment reaches to the heavens;
it is so great it cannot be measured.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:10

Jer 51:10 - The LORD has vindicated us.
Come, let us announce in Jerusalem[fn]
everything the LORD our God has done.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:11

Jer 51:11 - Sharpen the arrows!
Lift up the shields![fn]
For the LORD has inspired the kings of the Medes
to march against Babylon and destroy her.
This is his vengeance against those
who desecrated his Temple.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:12

Jer 51:12 - Raise the battle flag against Babylon!
Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen.
Prepare an ambush,
for the LORD will fulfill all his plans against Babylon.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:13

Jer 51:13 - You are a city by a great river,
a great center of commerce,
but your end has come.
The thread of your life is cut.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:14

Jer 51:14 - The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has taken this vow
and has sworn to it by his own name:
“Your cities will be filled with enemies,
like fields swarming with locusts,
and they will shout in triumph over you.”

A Hymn of Praise to the LORD

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:15

Jer 51:15 - The LORD made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
With his own understanding
he stretched out the heavens.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:16

Jer 51:16 - When he speaks in the thunder,
the heavens are filled with water.
He causes the clouds to rise over the earth.
He sends the lightning with the rain
and releases the wind from his storehouses.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:17

Jer 51:17 - The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge!
The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
These idols have no breath or power.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:18

Jer 51:18 - Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!
On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:19

Jer 51:19 - But the God of Israel[fn] is no idol!
He is the Creator of everything that exists,
including his people, his own special possession.
The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

Babylon’s Great Punishment

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:20

Jer 51:20 - “You[fn] are my battle-ax and sword,”
says the LORD.
“With you I will shatter nations
and destroy many kingdoms.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:21

Jer 51:21 - With you I will shatter armies—
destroying the horse and rider,
the chariot and charioteer.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:22

Jer 51:22 - With you I will shatter men and women,
old people and children,
young men and maidens.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:23

Jer 51:23 - With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks,
farmers and oxen,
captains and officers.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:24

Jer 51:24 - “I will repay Babylon
and the people of Babylonia[fn]
for all the wrong they have done
to my people in Jerusalem,” says the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:25

Jer 51:25 - “Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth!
I am your enemy,” says the LORD.
“I will raise my fist against you,
to knock you down from the heights.
When I am finished,
you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:26

Jer 51:26 - You will be desolate forever.
Even your stones will never again be used for building.
You will be completely wiped out,”
says the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:27

Jer 51:27 - Raise a signal flag to the nations.
Sound the battle cry!
Mobilize them all against Babylon.
Prepare them to fight against her!
Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander,
and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:28

Jer 51:28 - Bring against her the armies of the nations—
led by the kings of the Medes
and all their captains and officers.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:29

Jer 51:29 - The earth trembles and writhes in pain,
for everything the LORD has planned against Babylon stands unchanged.
Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:30

Jer 51:30 - Her mightiest warriors no longer fight.
They stay in their barracks, their courage gone.
They have become like women.
The invaders have burned the houses
and broken down the city gates.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:31

Jer 51:31 - The news is passed from one runner to the next
as the messengers hurry to tell the king
that his city has been captured.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:32

Jer 51:32 - All the escape routes are blocked.
The marshes have been set aflame,
and the army is in a panic.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:33

Jer 51:33 - This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says:
“Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor,
about to be trampled.
In just a little while
her harvest will begin.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:34

Jer 51:34 - “King Nebuchadnezzar[fn] of Babylon has eaten and crushed us
and drained us of strength.
He has swallowed us like a great monster
and filled his belly with our riches.
He has thrown us out of our own country.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:35

Jer 51:35 - Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,”
say the people of Zion.
“Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,”
says Jerusalem.

The LORD’s Vengeance on Babylon

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:36

Jer 51:36 - This is what the LORD says to Jerusalem:
“I will be your lawyer to plead your case,
and I will avenge you.
I will dry up her river,
as well as her springs,

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:37

Jer 51:37 - and Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
haunted by jackals.
She will be an object of horror and contempt,
a place where no one lives.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:38

Jer 51:38 - Her people will roar together like strong lions.
They will growl like lion cubs.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:39

Jer 51:39 - And while they lie inflamed with all their wine,
I will prepare a different kind of feast for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
and they will never wake up again,”
says the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:40

Jer 51:40 - “I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats to be sacrificed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:41

Jer 51:41 - “How Babylon[fn] is fallen—
great Babylon, praised throughout the earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
among the nations.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:42

Jer 51:42 - The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered by its crashing waves.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:43

Jer 51:43 - Her cities now lie in ruins;
she is a dry wasteland
where no one lives or even passes by.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:44

Jer 51:44 - And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon,
and make him vomit up all he has eaten.
The nations will no longer come and worship him.
The wall of Babylon has fallen!

A Message for the Exiles

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:45

Jer 51:45 - “Come out, my people, flee from Babylon.
Save yourselves! Run from the LORD’s fierce anger.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:46

Jer 51:46 - But do not panic; don’t be afraid
when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces.
For rumors will keep coming year by year.
Violence will erupt in the land
as the leaders fight against each other.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:47

Jer 51:47 - For the time is surely coming
when I will punish this great city and all her idols.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
and her dead will lie in the streets.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:48

Jer 51:48 - Then the heavens and earth will rejoice,
for out of the north will come destroying armies
against Babylon,” says the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:49

Jer 51:49 - “Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel
and others throughout the world,
so must her people be killed.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:50

Jer 51:50 - Get out, all you who have escaped the sword!
Do not stand and watch—flee while you can!
Remember the LORD, though you are in a far-off land,
and think about your home in Jerusalem.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:51

Jer 51:51 - “We are ashamed,” the people say.
“We are insulted and disgraced
because the LORD’s Temple
has been defiled by foreigners.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:52

Jer 51:52 - “Yes,” says the LORD, “but the time is coming
when I will destroy Babylon’s idols.
The groans of her wounded people
will be heard throughout the land.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:53

Jer 51:53 - Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens
and makes her fortifications incredibly strong,
I will still send enemies to plunder her.
I, the LORD, have spoken!

Babylon’s Complete Destruction

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:54

Jer 51:54 - “Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon,
the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:55

Jer 51:55 - For the LORD is destroying Babylon.
He will silence her loud voice.
Waves of enemies pound against her;
the noise of battle rings through the city.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:56

Jer 51:56 - Destroying armies come against Babylon.
Her mighty men are captured,
and their weapons break in their hands.
For the LORD is a God who gives just punishment;
he always repays in full.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:57

Jer 51:57 - I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
along with her captains, officers, and warriors.
They will fall asleep
and never wake up again!”
says the King, whose name is
the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:58

Jer 51:58 - This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says:
“The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground,
and her massive gates will be burned.
The builders from many lands have worked in vain,
for their work will be destroyed by fire!”

Jeremiah’s Message Sent to Babylon

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:59

Jer 51:59 - The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, a staff officer, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:60

Jer 51:60 - Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon—all the words written here.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:61

Jer 51:61 - He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:62

Jer 51:62 - Then say, ‘LORD, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.’

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:63

Jer 51:63 - When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River.

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Unchecked Copy Box Jer 51:64

Jer 51:64 - Then say, ‘In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.’”
This is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.

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See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NLT Footnotes

(51:1)

Hebrew of Leb-kamai, a code name for Babylonia.

(51:3)

The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.

(51:4)

Or Chaldeans; also in 51:54.

(51:10)

Hebrew Zion; also in 51:24.

(51:11)

Greek version reads Fill up the quivers.

(51:19)

Hebrew the Portion of Jacob. See note on 5:20.

(51:20)

Possibly Cyrus, whom God used to conquer Babylon. Compare Isa 44:28; 45:1.

(51:24)

Or Chaldea; also in 51:35.

(51:34)

Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.

(51:41)

Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon.

(51:59)

The fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign was 593 B.C.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

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

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