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Jeremiah 51 :: New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB20)

Babylon Judged for Sins against Israel

Jer 51:1

This is what the LORD says:

“Behold, I am going to stir up

[fn]The spirit of a destroyer against Babylon

And against the inhabitants of [fn]Leb-kamai.

Jer 51:2

“I will send [fn]foreigners to Babylon so that they may winnow her

And devastate her land;

For they will be opposed to her on every side

On the day of her disaster.

Jer 51:3

“Let not [fn]him who [fn]bends his bow [fn]bend it,

Nor let him rise up in his coat of armor.

Do not spare her young men;

Devote all her army to destruction.

Jer 51:4

“They will fall down [fn]dead in the land of the Chaldeans,

And pierced through in their streets.”

Jer 51:5

For neither Israel nor Judah has been [fn]forsaken

By his God, the LORD of armies,

Although their land is full of guilt

[fn]Before the Holy One of Israel.

Jer 51:6

Flee from the midst of Babylon,

And each of you save his life!

Do not perish in her [fn]punishment,

For this is the LORD’S time of vengeance;

He is going to repay to her what she deserves.

Jer 51:7

Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD,

Intoxicating all the earth.

The nations have drunk of her wine;

Therefore the nations are going insane.

Jer 51:8

Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;

Wail over her!

Bring [fn]balm for her pain;

Perhaps she may be healed.

Jer 51:9

We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;

Abandon her and let’s each go to his own country,

For her judgment has reached to heaven

And it rises to the clouds.

Jer 51:10

The LORD has brought [fn]about our vindication;

Come and let’s recount in Zion

The work of the LORD our God!

Jer 51:11

Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!

The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,

Because His plan is against Babylon to destroy it;

For it is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for His temple.

Jer 51:12

Lift up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon;

Post a strong guard,

Station [fn]sentries,

Set up an ambush!

For the LORD has both planned and performed

What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

Jer 51:13

You who live by many waters,

Abundant in treasures,

Your end has come,

The [fn]measure of your [fn]end.

Jer 51:14

The LORD of armies has sworn by Himself:

“I will certainly fill you with a [fn]population like locusts,

And they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.”

Jer 51:15

It is He who made the earth by His power,

Who established the world by His wisdom,

And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.

Jer 51:16

When He utters His voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens,

And He makes the clouds ascend from the end of the earth.

He makes lightning for the rain

And brings out wind from His storehouses.

Jer 51:17

Every person is stupid, devoid of knowledge;

Every goldsmith is put to shame by his [fn]idols,

For his cast metal images are deceitful,

And there is no breath in them.

Jer 51:18

They are worthless, a work of mockery;

At the time of their punishment they will perish.

Jer 51:19

The portion of Jacob is not like these;

For He is the [fn]Maker of everything,

And of the [fn]tribe of His inheritance;

The LORD of armies is His name.

Jer 51:20

He says, “You are My [fn]war-club, My weapon of war;

And with you I shatter nations,

And with you I destroy kingdoms.

Jer 51:21

“With you I shatter the horse and his rider,

And with you I shatter the chariot and its rider,

Jer 51:22

And with you I shatter man and woman,

And with you I shatter the old man and youth,

And with you I shatter the young man and virgin,

Jer 51:23

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 officials.

Jer 51:24

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

Jer 51:25

“Behold, I am against you, mountain of destruction

That destroys the whole earth,” declares the LORD,

“And I will stretch out My hand against you,

And roll you down from the rocky cliffs,

And I will make you a burnt out mountain.

Jer 51:26

“They will not take from you even a stone for a corner

Nor a stone for foundations,

But you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.

Jer 51:27

Lift up a signal flag in the land,

Blow a trumpet among the nations!

Consecrate the nations against her,

Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;

Appoint an officer against her,

Bring up the horses like bristly locusts.

Jer 51:28

Consecrate the nations against her,

The kings of the Medes,

[fn]Their governors and all [fn]their officials,

And every land [fn]under their control.

Jer 51:29

So the land quakes and writhes,

For the plans of the LORD against Babylon stand,

To make the land of Babylon

[fn]A desolation without inhabitants.

Jer 51:30

The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting,

They stay in the strongholds;

Their strength is [fn]exhausted,

They are becoming like women;

Their homes are set on fire,

The bars of her gates are broken.

Jer 51:31

One [fn]courier runs to meet [fn]another,

And one [fn]messenger to meet [fn]another,

To tell the king of Babylon

That his city has been captured from end to end;

Jer 51:32

The river crossing places have been seized,

And they have burned the marshes with fire,

And the men of war are terrified.

Jer 51:33

For this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor

At the time that [fn]it is tread down;

In just a little while the time of harvest will come for her.”

Jer 51:34

“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me,

He has set me down like an empty vessel;

He has swallowed me like a monster,

He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;

He has washed me away.

Jer 51:35

“May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”

The [fn]inhabitant of Zion will say;

And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

Jerusalem will say.

Jer 51:36

Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“Behold, I am going to plead your case

And take vengeance for you;

And I will dry up her [fn]sea

And make her fountain dry.

Jer 51:37

“Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,

An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

Jer 51:38

“They will roar together like young lions,

They will growl like lions’ cubs.

Jer 51:39

“When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet

And make them drunk, so that they may rejoice in triumph,

And may sleep a perpetual sleep

And not wake up,” declares the LORD.

Jer 51:40

“I will bring them down like [fn]lambs to the slaughter,

Like rams together with male goats.

Jer 51:41

“How [fn]Sheshak has been captured,

And the praise of the whole earth has been seized!

How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

Jer 51:42

“The [fn]sea has come up over Babylon;

She has been engulfed by its roaring waves.

Jer 51:43

“Her cities have become an object of horror,

A dry land and a desert,

A land in which no one lives

And through which no [fn]one of mankind passes.

Jer 51:44

“I will punish Bel in Babylon,

And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth;

And the nations will no longer stream toward him.

Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!

Jer 51:45

“Come out from her midst, My people,

And each of you save yourselves

From the fierce anger of the LORD.

Jer 51:46

“Now, so that your heart does not grow faint,

And you are not afraid at the report that will be heard in the land

For the report will come in [fn]one year,

And after that [fn]another report in [fn]another year,

And violence will be in the land

With ruler against ruler

Jer 51:47

Therefore behold, days are coming

When I will punish the idols of Babylon;

And her whole land will be put to shame.

And all her slain will fall in her midst.

Jer 51:48

“Then heaven and earth and everything that is in them

Will shout for joy over Babylon,

Because the destroyers will come to her from the north,”

Declares the LORD.

Jer 51:49

Indeed, Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,

As the slain of all the earth have also fallen for Babylon.

Jer 51:50

You who have escaped the sword,

Go! Do not stay!

Remember the LORD from far away,

And let Jerusalem [fn]come to your mind.

Jer 51:51

We are ashamed because we have heard rebuke;

Disgrace has covered our faces,

Because strangers have entered

The holy places of the LORD’S house.

Jer 51:52

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,

“When I will punish her idols,

And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.

Jer 51:53

“Though Babylon ascends to the heavens,

And though she fortifies [fn]her lofty stronghold,

Destroyers will come from Me to her,” declares the LORD.

Jer 51:54

The sound of an outcry from Babylon,

And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Jer 51:55

For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon,

And He will make her loud [fn]noise vanish from her.

And their waves will roar like many waters;

The clamor of their voices [fn]sounds forth.

Jer 51:56

For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,

And her warriors will be captured,

Their bows shattered;

For the LORD is a God of retribution,

He will fully repay.

Jer 51:57

“I will make her leaders and her wise men drunk,

Her governors, her officials, and her warriors,

So that they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,”

Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of armies.

Jer 51:58

This is what the LORD of armies says:

“The broad wall of Babylon will be completely demolished,

And her high gates will be set on fire;

So the peoples will labor for nothing,

And the nations become exhausted only for fire.”

Jer 51:59

The [fn]command that Jeremiah the prophet [fn]gave Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (And Seraiah was quartermaster.)

Jer 51:60Jeremiah wrote [fn]on a single scroll all the disaster which would come against Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.
Jer 51:61Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud,
Jer 51:62and say, ‘You, LORD, have [fn]promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing living in it, [fn]whether man or animal; but it will be a permanent desolation.’
Jer 51:63“And as soon as you finish reading this [fn]scroll, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,
Jer 51:64and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again, because of the disaster that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’” To this point are the words of Jeremiah.
NASB20 Footnotes
Or a destroying wind
Cryptic name for Chaldea; or the heart of those who rise up against Me
Some ancient versions winnowers
I.e., the Chaldean defender
Lit step(s) on; MT in order to string
Lit step(s) on; MT in order to string
Lit killed; or wounded
Lit widowed
Lit From
Or penalty for wrongdoing
Or balsam resin
Lit forth
Or watchmen
Lit cubit
Lit being cut off
Or mankind
Or images
Lit Fashioner
Or scepter; cf. Num 24:17
Lit shatterer
Lit her
Lit her
Lit of his dominion
Or An object of horror
Lit dried up
Lit runner
Lit runner
Lit announcer
Lit announcer
Lit of treading it
Lit inhabitress
Or broad river
Or young rams
Cryptic name for Babylon
Or broad river
Lit son of man
Lit the
Lit the
Lit the
Lit come upon your heart
Lit the height of her strength
Or voice
Lit is given
Lit word
Lit commanded
Or in...book
Lit spoken
Lit from man even to beast
Or book
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Jeremiah Chapter 51 — Additional Translations: