Yeremya 51

1“Yahweh says this: See, I am about to stir up a wind of destruction against Babylon 2I will send foreigners to Babylon. They will scatter her and devastate her land, 3Do not let the archers bend their bows; do not let them put on armor. 4For the wounded people will fall in the land of the Chaldeans; those who are killed will fall in her streets. 5For Israel and Judah are not forsaken by their God, by Yahweh of hosts, 6Flee from the midst of Babylon; let each man save himself. Do not perish in her iniquity. 7Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of Yahweh that made all the world drunk; 8Babylon will fall suddenly and be destroyed. 9'We wished to heal Babylon, but she is not healed. Let us all leave her and go away, 10Yahweh has declared our innocence. Come, let us tell in Zion 11Sharpen the arrows and take up the shields. Yahweh is stirring up 12Lift up a banner over Babylon's walls; make the watch strong; set up watchmen; prepare the ambushes; 13You people who live by many streams of water, you people who are rich with treasures, 14Yahweh of hosts has sworn by his own life, 'I will fill you with men, like a swarm of locusts, 15He has made the earth by his power; he set in place the world by his wisdom. 16When he thunders, there is the roar of waters in the heavens, for he brings up the mist from the ends of the earth. 17Every man has become ignorant, without knowledge. Every metalworker is put to shame by his idols. 18They are useless, the work of mockers; they will perish at the time of their punishment. 19But God, the portion of Jacob, is not like these, for he is the molder of all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; 20You are my war hammer, my weapon for battle. 21With you I will smash horses and their riders; with you I will smash chariots and their drivers. 22With you I will smash each man and woman; with you I will smash the old and the young. 23With you I will smash the shepherds and their flocks; with you I will smash the plowmen and their teams. 24For in your sight I will pay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea 25See, I am against you, mountain of destruction—this is Yahweh's declaration—which destroys the whole earth. 26So they will not take from you any stone to construct a building's corner or foundation; 27Lift up a banner over the earth. Blow the trumpet over the nations. Call the nations to attack her: 28Prepare the nations to attack her: The kings of the Medes and his governors, 29For the land will shake and be in anguish, since Yahweh's plans continue against Babylon, 30The soldiers in Babylon have stopped fighting; they stay in their strongholds. 31A messenger runs to proclaim to another messenger, and a runner tells another runner 32So the fords over the river are seized; the enemy is burning the reed marshes, 33For Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, says this: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. 34'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, 35The one who lives in Zion will say, 'May the violence done to me and my flesh be on Babylon.' 36Therefore Yahweh says this: See, I am about to plead your case and bring about vengeance for you. 37Babylon will become heaps of rubble, a den of jackals, a horror, 38The Babylonians will roar together like young lions. They will growl like lion cubs. 39When they become hot with greed, I will make a feast for them; I will make them drunk so they become happy, 40I will send them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. 41How Babylon has been captured! So the praise of all the earth is seized. 42The sea has come up over Babylon! She is covered with its roaring waves. 43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, 44So I will punish Bel in Babylon; I will bring out from his mouth what he swallowed, 45Go out from her midst, my people. Let each of you save his own life from the fury of my wrath. 46Do not let your hearts be timid or fear the news that is heard in the land, 47Therefore, see, days are coming when I will punish the carved idols of Babylon. 48Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them will rejoice over Babylon. 49As Babylon has made the killed of Israel fall, 50Survivors of the sword, go away! Do not stay still. 51We are ashamed, for we have heard insults; reproach has covered our faces, 52Therefore, see, days are coming—this is Yahweh's declaration—when I will punish her carved idols, 53For even if Babylon went up to the heavens or fortified her highest fortresses, 54A shout of distress came from Babylon, a great collapse from the land of the Chaldeans. 55For Yahweh is destroying Babylon. He is causing her loud voice to perish. 56For the destroyers have come against her—against Babylon!—and her warriors have been captured. 57For I will make her princes, her sages, her officials, and her soldiers drunk, 58Yahweh of hosts says this: The thick walls of Babylon will be completely demolished, 59This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah 60For Jeremiah had written in a scroll about all the disaster that was going to come on Babylon—all these words that were written about Babylon. 61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you go to Babylon, then you will see and you will read these words aloud. 62Then you will say, 'Yahweh, you yourself have declared that you would destroy this place, and that no man or animal will live in it, and it will be desolate forever.' 63Then when you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.