51 6 Why Babylon is destroyed. 41 The vain confidence of the Babylonians. 43 The vanity of idolaters. 59 Jeremiah giveth his book to Seraiah.
1 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up against Babel, and against the inhabitants [a]that lift up their heart against me, a destroying [b]wind,
2 And will send unto Babel fanners that shall fan her, and shall empty her land, for in the day of trouble they shall be against her on every side.
3 Also to the bender that bendeth his bow, and to him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine, will I say, Spare not her young men, but destroy all her host.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel hath been no [c]widow, nor Judah from his God, from the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the holy one of Israel.
6 ¶ [d]Flee out of the midst of Babel, and deliver every man his soul: be not destroyed in her iniquity: for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance: he will render unto her a recompense.
7 Babel hath been as a golden cup in the [e]Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken, the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore do the nations [f]rage.
8 (A)Babel is suddenly fallen, and destroyed: howl for her, bring balm for her sore, if she may be healed.
9 We would have cured Babel, but she could not be healed: forsake her, and let [g]us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment is come up into heaven, and is lifted up to the clouds.
10 The Lord hath brought forth our [h]righteousness: come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Make bright the arrows: [i]gather the shields: the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the King of the Medes: for his purpose is against Babel to destroy it, because it is the [j]vengeance of the Lord, and the vengeance of his Temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babel, make the watch strong: set up the watchmen: prepare the scouts: for the Lord hath both devised, and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babel.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many [k]waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, even the [l]end of thy covetousness.
14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by [m](B)himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars, and they shall cry and shout against thee.
15 (C)He hath made the earth by his power, and established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his discretion.
16 He giveth by his voice the multitude of waters in the heaven, and he causeth the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth, he turneth lightnings to rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
17 Every man is a beast by his own [n]knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his melting is but falsehood, and there is no breath therein.
18 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their [o]visitation they shall perish.
19 The [p]portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his Name.
20 Thou art mine [q]hammer, and weapons of war: for with thee will I break the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms,
21 And by thee will I break horse and horseman, and by thee will I break the chariot and him that rideth therein.
22 By thee also will I break man and woman, and by thee will I break old and young, and by thee will I break the young man and the maid.
23 I will also break by thee the shepherd and his flock, and by thee will I break the husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and by thee will I break the dukes and princes.
24 And I will render unto Babel, and to all the inhabitants of the Chaldeans all their evil, that they have done in Zion, even in your sight, saith the Lord.
25 Behold, I come unto thee, O destroying [r]mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the [s]rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations: but thou shalt be destroyed forever, saith the Lord.
27 Set up a standard in the land: blow the trumpets among the nations: prepare the nations against her: call up the kingdoms of [t]Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz against her, appoint the prince against her, cause horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the dukes thereof, and the princes thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for the device of the Lord shall be performed against Babel, to make the land of Babel waste without an inhabitant.
30 The strong men of Babel have ceased to fight: they have remained in their holds: their strength hath failed, and they were like women: they have burnt her dwelling places, and her bars are broken.
31 A post shall run to meet the post, and a messenger to meet the messenger, to show the King of Babel, that his city is taken on a [u]side thereof,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds burnt with fire, and the men of war troubled.
33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, The daughter of Babel is like a threshingfloor: the time of her threshing is come: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest [v]shall come.
34 Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babel hath [w]devoured me, and destroyed me: he hath made me an empty vessel: he swallowed me up like a dragon: and filled his belly with my delicates, and hath cast me out.
35 The spoil of me, and that which was left of me, is brought unto Babel, shall the inhabitant of Zion say: and my blood unto the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will maintain thy [x]cause, and take vengeance for thee, and I will dry up the sea, and dry up her springs.
37 And Babel shall be as heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions, and yell as the lion’s whelps.
39 In their [y]heat I will make them feasts, and I will make them drunken that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams and goats.
41 How is [z]Sheshach taken! and how is the glory of the whole earth taken! how is Babel become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The [aa]sea is come up upon Babel: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are desolate: the land is dry and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth the son of man pass thereby.
44 I will also visit Bel in Babel, and I will bring out of his mouth, that which [ab]he hath swallowed up, and the nations shall run no more unto him, and the wall of Babel shall fall.
45 My people, go out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce wrath of the Lord,
46 Lest your heart even faint, and ye fear the rumor that shall be heard in the land: the rumor shall come this year, and after that in the other [ac]year shall come a rumor, and cruelty in the land, and ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will visit the images of Babel, and the whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heaven and [ad]the earth, and all that is therein, shall rejoice for Babel: for the destroyers shall come unto her from the North, saith the Lord.
49 As Babel caused the [ae]slain of Israel to fall, so by Babel the slain of all the earth did fall.
50 Ye that [af]have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are [ag]confounded because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces, for strangers are come into the Sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.
52 Wherefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will visit her graven images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Babel should mount up to [ah]heaven, and though she should defend her strength on high, yet from me shall her destroyers come, saith the Lord.
54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babel, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55 Because the Lord hath laid Babel waste, and destroyed from her the great voice, and her waves shall roar like great waters, and a sound was made by their noise:
56 Because the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babel, and her strong men are taken, their bows are broken: for the Lord God that recompenseth, shall surely recompense.
57 And I will [ai]make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her dukes, and her nobles, and her strong men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose Name is the Lord of hosts.
58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, The [aj]thick wall of Babel shall be broken, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, for they shall be weary.
59 The word which Jeremiah the Prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babel, in the [ak]fourth year of his reign, and this Seraiah was a peaceable Prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babel, even all these things that are written against Babel.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest unto Babel, and shalt see and shalt read all these words,
62 Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to destroy it, that none should remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it should be desolate forever.
63 And when thou hast made an end of reading this book, thou shalt bind a [al]stone to it, and cast it in the midst of Euphrates,
64 And shalt say, Thus shall Babel be drowned and shall not rise from the evil, that I will bring upon her: and they shall [am]be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 51:1 Or, of the land that riseth up.
- Jeremiah 51:1 The Medes and Persians that shall destroy them as the wind doth the chaff.
- Jeremiah 51:5 Though they were forsaken for a time, yet they were not utterly cast off as though their husbands were dead.
- Jeremiah 51:6 He showeth that there remaineth nothing for them that abide in Babylon, but destruction, Jer. 17:6 and 48:6.
- Jeremiah 51:7 By whom the Lord poured out the drink of his vengeance, to whom it pleased him.
- Jeremiah 51:7 For the great afflictions that they have felt by the Babylonians.
- Jeremiah 51:9 Thus the people of God exhort one another to go to Zion and praise God.
- Jeremiah 51:10 In approving our cause and punishing our enemies.
- Jeremiah 51:11 Or, fill, or multiply.
- Jeremiah 51:11 For the wrong done to his people and to his Temple, Jer. 50:28.
- Jeremiah 51:13 For the land of Chaldea was full of rivers, which ran into Euphrates.
- Jeremiah 51:13 Or, measures.
- Jeremiah 51:14 Hebrew, his soul.
- Jeremiah 51:17 Read Jer. 10:14.
- Jeremiah 51:18 When God shall execute his vengeance.
- Jeremiah 51:19 That is, the true God of Israel is not like to these idols: for he can help when all things are desperate.
- Jeremiah 51:20 He meaneth the Medes and Persians, as he did before call the Babylonians his hammer, Jer. 50:23.
- Jeremiah 51:25 Not that Babylon stood on a mountain, but because it was strong and seemed invincible.
- Jeremiah 51:25 From thy strongholds and fortresses.
- Jeremiah 51:27 By these three nations he meaneth Armenia the higher, Armenia the lower, and Scythia: for Cyrus had gathered an army of divers nations.
- Jeremiah 51:31 By turning the course of the river one side was made open and the reeds that did grow in the water were destroyed, which Cyrus did by the counsel of Gobria and Gabatha Belshazzar’s captains.
- Jeremiah 51:33 When she shall be cut up and threshed.
- Jeremiah 51:34 This is spoken in the person of the Jews bewailing their state and the cruelty of the Babylonians.
- Jeremiah 51:36 Thus the Lord esteemed the injury done to his Church, as done to himself, because their cause is his.
- Jeremiah 51:39 When they are inflamed with surfeiting and drinking, I will feast with them, alluding to Belshazzar’s banquet, Dan. 5:2.
- Jeremiah 51:41 Meaning, Babel, as Jer. 25:26.
- Jeremiah 51:42 The great army of the Medes and Persians.
- Jeremiah 51:44 That is, his gifts and presents which he had received as part of the spoil of other nations, and which the idolaters brought unto him from all countries.
- Jeremiah 51:46 Meaning, that Babylon should not be destroyed all at once, but little by little should be brought to nothing: for the first year came the tidings, the next year the siege, and in the third year it was taken: yet this is not that horrible destruction which the prophets threatened in many places: for that was after this when they rebelled and Darius overcame them by the policy of Zopyrus, and hanged three thousand gentlemen besides the common people.
- Jeremiah 51:48 All creatures in heaven and earth shall rejoice, and praise God for the destruction of Babylon the great enemy of his Church.
- Jeremiah 51:49 Babylon did not only destroy Israel, but many other nations.
- Jeremiah 51:50 Ye that are now captives in Babylon.
- Jeremiah 51:51 He showeth how they should remember Jerusalem by lamenting the miserable affliction thereof.
- Jeremiah 51:53 For the walls were two hundred foot high.
- Jeremiah 51:57 I will so astonish them by afflictions that they shall not know which way to turn them.
- Jeremiah 51:58 The thickness of the wall was fifty foot thick.
- Jeremiah 51:59 This was not in the time of his captivity, but seven years before, when he went either to gratulate Nebuchadnezzar, or to entreat of some matters.
- Jeremiah 51:63 St. John in his Revelation alludeth to this place, when he saith that the Angel took a millstone and cast it into the sea: signifying thereby the destruction of Babylon, Rev. 18:21.
- Jeremiah 51:64 They shall not be able to resist, but shall labor in vain.