Jeremiah 51 :: New English Translation (NET)

Babylon Judged for Sins against Israel

Jer 51:1The LORD says, "I will cause a destructive wind to blow against Babylon and the people who inhabit Babylonia.

Jer 51:2I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. They will winnow her and strip her land bare. This will happen when they come against her from every direction, when it is time to destroy her.

Jer 51:3

Jer 51:3Do not give her archers time to string their bows or to put on their coats of armor. Do not spare any of her young men. Completely destroy her whole army.

Jer 51:4

Jer 51:4Let them fall slain in the land of Babylonia, mortally wounded in the streets of her cities.

Jer 51:5

Jer 51:5"For Israel and Judah will not be forsaken by their God, the LORD who rules over all. For the land of Babylonia is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

Jer 51:6

Jer 51:6Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the LORD to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done.

Jer 51:7

Jer 51:7Babylonia had been a gold cup in the LORD's hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. So they have all gone mad.

Jer 51:8

Jer 51:8But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed!

Jer 51:9

Jer 51:9Foreigners living there will say, 'We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let's leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.'

Jer 51:10

Jer 51:10The exiles from Judah will say, 'The LORD has brought about a great deliverance for us! Come on, let's go and proclaim in Zion what the LORD our God has done!'

Jer 51:11

Jer 51:11"Sharpen your arrows! Fill your quivers! The LORD will arouse a spirit of hostility in the kings of Media. For he intends to destroy Babylonia. For that is how the LORD will get his revenge - how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians' destruction of his temple.

Jer 51:12

Jer 51:12Give the signal to attack Babylon's wall! Bring more guards! Post them all around the city! Put men in ambush! For the LORD will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon.

Jer 51:13

Jer 51:13"You who live along the rivers of Babylon, the time of your end has come. You who are rich in plundered treasure, it is time for your lives to be cut off.

Jer 51:14

Jer 51:14The LORD who rules over all has solemnly sworn, 'I will fill your land with enemy soldiers. They will swarm over it like locusts. They will raise up shouts of victory over it.'

Jer 51:15

Jer 51:15He is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place, by his understanding he spread out the heavens.

Jer 51:16

Jer 51:16When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.

Jer 51:17

Jer 51:17All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.

Jer 51:18

Jer 51:18They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

Jer 51:19

Jer 51:19The LORD, who is the portion of the descendants of Jacob, is not like them. For he is the one who created everything, including the people of Israel whom he claims as his own. He is known as the LORD who rules over all.

Jer 51:20

Jer 51:20"Babylon, you are my war club, my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. I used you to destroy kingdoms.

Jer 51:21

Jer 51:21I used you to smash horses and their riders. I used you to smash chariots and their drivers.

Jer 51:22

Jer 51:22I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women.

Jer 51:23

Jer 51:23I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders."

Jer 51:24

Jer 51:24"But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans," says the LORD.

Jer 51:25

Jer 51:25The LORD says, "Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth. I will unleash my power against you; I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain.

Jer 51:26

Jer 51:26No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever," says the LORD.

Jer 51:27

Jer 51:27"Raise up battle flags throughout the lands. Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle. Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia. Call for these kingdoms to attack her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander to lead the attack. Send horses against her like a swarm of locusts.

Jer 51:28

Jer 51:28Prepare the nations to do battle against her. Prepare the kings of the Medes. Prepare their governors and all their leaders. Prepare all the countries they rule to do battle against her.

Jer 51:29

Jer 51:29The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. For the LORD will carry out his plan. He plans to make the land of Babylonia a wasteland where no one lives.

Jer 51:30

Jer 51:30The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. They will be as frightened as women. The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down.

Jer 51:31

Jer 51:31One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon. One messenger after another will come bringing news. They will bring news to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured.

Jer 51:32

Jer 51:32They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified.

Jer 51:33

Jer 51:33For the LORD God of Israel who rules over all says, 'Fair Babylon will be like a threshing floor which has been trampled flat for harvest. The time for her to be cut down and harvested will come very soon.'

Jer 51:34

Jer 51:34"King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon devoured me and drove my people out. Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me. He filled his belly with my riches. He made me an empty dish. He completely cleaned me out."

Jer 51:35

Jer 51:35The person who lives in Zion says, "May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives." Jerusalem says, "May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people."

Jer 51:36

Jer 51:36Therefore the LORD says, "I will stand up for your cause. I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. I will dry up their sea. I will make their springs run dry.

Jer 51:37

Jer 51:37Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives.

Jer 51:38

Jer 51:38The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey. They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat.

Jer 51:39

Jer 51:39When their appetites are all stirred up, I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up," says the LORD.

Jer 51:40

Jer 51:40"I will lead them off to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats."

Jer 51:41

Jer 51:41"See how Babylon has been captured! See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

Jer 51:42

Jer 51:42The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves.

Jer 51:43

Jer 51:43The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them.

Jer 51:44

Jer 51:44I will punish the god Bel in Babylon. I will make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not come streaming to him any longer. Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall."

Jer 51:45

Jer 51:45"Get out of Babylon, my people! Flee to save your lives from the fierce anger of the LORD!

Jer 51:46

Jer 51:46Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler."

Jer 51:47

Jer 51:47"So the time will certainly come when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst.

Jer 51:48

Jer 51:48Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Babylon. For destroyers from the north will attack it," says the LORD.

Jer 51:49

Jer 51:49"Babylon must fall because of the Israelites she has killed, just as the earth's mortally wounded fell because of Babylon.

Jer 51:50

Jer 51:50You who have escaped the sword, go, do not delay. Remember the LORD in a faraway land. Think about Jerusalem.

Jer 51:51

Jer 51:51'We are ashamed because we have been insulted. Our faces show our disgrace. For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms in the LORD's temple.'

Jer 51:52

Jer 51:52Yes, but the time will certainly come," says the LORD, "when I will punish her idols. Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.

Jer 51:53

Jer 51:53Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky and fortifies her elevated stronghold, I will send destroyers against her," says the LORD.

Jer 51:54

Jer 51:54Cries of anguish will come from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

Jer 51:55

Jer 51:55For the LORD is ready to destroy Babylon, and put an end to her loud noise. Their waves will roar like turbulent waters. They will make a deafening noise.

Jer 51:56

Jer 51:56For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God who punishes; he pays back in full.

Jer 51:57

Jer 51:57"I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, and warriors. They will fall asleep forever and never wake up," says the King whose name is the LORD who rules over all.

Jer 51:58

Jer 51:58This is what the LORD who rules over all says, "Babylon's thick wall will be completely demolished. Her high gates will be set on fire. The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed."

Jer 51:59

Jer 51:59This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.)

Jer 51:60

Jer 51:60Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon - all these prophecies written about Babylon.

Jer 51:61

Jer 51:61Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies.

Jer 51:62

Jer 51:62Then say, 'O LORD, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!'

Jer 51:63

Jer 51:63When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.

Jer 51:64

Jer 51:64Then say, 'In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.'" The prophecies of Jeremiah end here.

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Jeremiah Chapter 51 — Additional Translations:

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Jeremiah 51 :: New English Translation (NET)

Babylon Judged for Sins against Israel

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Jeremiah Chapter 51 — Additional Translations:

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