Open English Translation JER Chapter 51

51 Yahweh says this:

Listen, I’m about to stir up a destructive wind against Babylon

and against the Babylonian people.

2 ≈ I’ll send foreigners into Babylon, and they’ll shake it down and devastate its land,

because they’ll come against it from all sides on that disastrous day.

3 Don’t let the archers shoot their arrows

≈ Don’t let their soldiers put on their armour.

Don’t spare their young men—

≈ Destroy their army completely.

4 Their wounded will fall in the land of the Chaldeans.

≈ Those who’re stabbed will fall in its streets,

5 because Yisrael and Yehudah haven’t been abandoned by their god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh,

even though their[fn] own land is filled with offenses committed against Yisrael’s holy one.

6 Escape quickly from out of Babylon—each person must save themself.

Don’t die there because of their wickedness

because now is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance.

He’ll repay Babylon for everything they’ve done.

7 Babylon was like a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand that made all the world drunk—

nations drank its wine and went mad.[ref]

8 Suddenly Babylon will fall and be destroyed.

Wail for it—give it medicine for its pain—perhaps it can be healed?

9 We tried to heal Babylon, but it never recovered,

so leave it and let everyone go back to their own region,

because its guilt has reached up to the heavens—

it’s piled up to the clouds.[ref]

10 Yahweh has now decided that we’ve served our time.

Let’s go and tell everyone in Tsiyyon (Zion) what our god Yahweh has done.

11 Sharpen your arrows and strap on your shields.

Yahweh is stirring up the spirit of the kings of the Medes in his plan to destroy Babylon

because of Yahweh’s vengeance—revenge for their destruction of his temple.

12 Lift up your banner over Babylon’s walls.

Reinforce the guards. Assign watchmen.

Prepare your ambushes because Yahweh will do what he has said concerning Babylon’s inhabitants.

13 You people who live by many water supplies and who are rich with treasures, your end has come.

The thread of your life is now cut short.[ref] 14 Commander-in-chief Yahweh has made an oath by his own life:

‘I’ll fill you with men, like a swarm of locusts,

and they’ll shout out against you.’

15 He has made the earth by his power.

≈ He set the world in place by his wisdom.

≈ By his understanding he stretched out the skies.

16 When hemakes thunder, there’s the roar of waters in the skies,

≈ because he brings the mist up from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning to go with the rain

≈ and sends out wind from his storehouses.

17 All people have become ignorant—without knowledge.

Every metalworker is put to shame by his idols.

→ because his cast images are lifeless frauds.

18 They are the worthless work of mockers

who’ll perish at the time of their punishment.

19 Yisrael’s god is not like those,

because he’s the one who formed everything.

Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.

Commander-in-chief Yahweh is his name.

20 You are my sledge-hammer—my weapon for battle—

→ With you I’ll smash nations and destroy kingdoms.

21 With you I’ll smash horses and their riders.

≈ With you I’ll smash chariots and their drivers.

22 With you I’ll smash men and women.

≈ With you I’ll smash the old and the young.

≈ With you I’ll smash the young men and young women.

23 With you I’ll smash the shepherds and their flocks.

With you I will smash the plowmen and their teams of cattle.

With you I’ll smash the governors and officials.

24 I’ll repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans

for all the evil they did in Tsiyyon (Zion) as you watched.[fn]

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

25 Listen, Yahweh declares that I’m against you,

you mountain of destruction that destroys the whole earth.

I’ll stretch my hand out against you, and roll you down from the cliffs,

and turn you into a charred mountain

26 so they won’t quarry any stone from you to construct a building’s corner or foundation.

because you’ll become a permanent wasteland.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

27 Lift up a banner over the earth.

≈ Blow the trumpet across the nations.

Call the nations to attack it: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a commander to attack it.

Bring in horses like swarming locusts.

28 Prepare the nations to attack it:

The kings of the Medes and their governors,

all of their officials and all the land under their control.

29 The land will shake and writhe in agony,

since Yahweh’s plans against Babylon will be fulfilled:

→ to make Babylon into a deserted wasteland.

30 The Babylonian soldiers have given up the fight—they stay in their fortresses.

Their strength has run out—they’ve become like women.

The locking bars across its gates are broken and its homes are on fire.

31 A messenger runs across to pass the news onto another messenger,

≈ and a runner tells another runner to report to the Babylonian king

that his city has been taken over from one end to the other.

32 The fords over the river have been seized

the reed marshes have been burnt off,

and Babylon’s soldiers are terrified

33 Yes, Yisrael’s god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh, says this:

The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor—it’s time to trample it down.

In a little while, the time will come for it to be harvested.

34 The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar has devoured me.

He’s driven me into confusion and made me into an empty pot.

≈ Like a monster, he’s swallowed me—filled his stomach with my delicacies,

→ and then he spat me out.

35 The one who lives in Tsiyyon (Zion) will say,

‘May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon.’

Yerushalem (Jerusalem) will say,

‘May my blood be on Chaldea’s inhabitants.’

36 Therefore Yahweh says this:

Listen, I’m about to plead your case and bring about vengeance for you

because I’ll dry up Babylon’s river and make its springs run dry.

37 Babylon will become heaps of rubble without any inhabitants—

a den of jackals, a horror, and something to whistle at.

38 The Babylonians will roar together like young lions.

≈ They will growl like lion cubs.

39 When they become hot with greed, I’ll make a feast for them

≈ and I’ll get them drunk so they can celebrate.

→ Then they’ll enter into permanent sleep and not wake up.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

40 I’ll send them down to the slaughter,

like lambs, rams, and male goats.

41 Wow, Babylon (Heb. Sheshak) has been captured.

≈ The city praised by the whole world has been seized.

Wow, Babylon has become a horror among the nations.

42 The sea has come up over Babylon.

It’s been covered by its violent waves.

43 Its cities have become a wasteland, a dry, wilderness region—

an area that no one lives in, and no human being even passes through.

44 I’ll punish Babylon’s god Bel

and I’ll pull what he swallowed back out of his mouth,

Then the nations will no longer go streaming to him to placate him.

What’s more, Babylon’s walls will fall.

45 Come out from Babylon, my people.

Each of you should save their own life from Yahweh’s furious anger.

46 Don’t be discouraged or afraid due to the report that’s heard in the land,

as there’ll be a report one year and the again the year after.

There’ll be violence will in the world—ruler will be against ruler.

47 Therefore, listen, the time is coming when I’ll punish the Babylon’s carved idols.

People across their country will be ashamed,

and their slaughtered soldiers will all fall right there in their country.

48 Then the heavens and the earth, and everyone in them will celebrate over Babylon’s fall

because destroyers from the north will come for it[ref]

That is Yahweh’s declaration. 49 As Babylon has made Yisrael’s slain warriors fall,

so too their slain will fall in Babylon.[ref]

50 You all who escaped from being killed in war, go away—don’t stay still.

Remember Yahweh even though you’re all far away.

≈ Start bringing Yerushalem (Jerusalem) to mind.

51 We’re ashamed because we’ve heard insults—

≈ our feeling of being disgraced can be seen on our faces,

because foreigners have entered the sacred places in Yahweh’s house.

52 So Yahweh declares:

Listen, the time is coming when I’ll punish Babylon’s carved idols,

and their wounded people will groan across that entire region.

53 Yes, even if Babylon built tall towers or fortified their highest fortresses,

destroyers that I’ve sent would still go there.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

54 A cry of distress came from Babylon—

terrible destruction from the land of the Chaldeans

55 because Yahweh is about to destroy Babylon.

He’s causing its loud voice to die away.

Their enemies roar like violent ocean waves—

their noise becomes very prominent

56 because a destroyer has come against it, against Babylon,

and their soldiers have been captured.

Their weapons are shattered because Yahweh is a god of vengeance—

he’ll definitely repay them fully.

57 I’ll make its princes, advisors, officials, and its soldiers drunk,

and they will sleep in a permanent stupor and never wake up.

That is the king’s declaration—Commander-in-chief Yahweh is his name.

58 Commander-in-chief Yahweh says this:

Babylon’s thick walls will be completely demolished,

and its tall gates will be set on fire.

The peoples coming to their aid will waste their time trying—

everything that the nations try to do for it will be burnt up.

59 This is the message that the prophet Yirmeyah (Jeremiah) commanded Serayah (son of Neriyah, son of Mahseyah)

when he went with Yehudah’s King Tsidkiyah (Zedekiah)to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign.

Now Seraiah was a chief officer,

60 and Yirmeyah had written on a scroll about all the disaster that was going to come to Babylon—

all these messages that were written about Babylon.

61 Then Yirmeyah told Serayah, “When you go to Babylon, ensure that you read these messages aloud 62 and then pray, ‘Yahweh, you yourself have declared that you would destroy this place, and then that no man or animal will live in it and it’ll be desolate forever.’ 63 Then when you’ve finished reading out this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.[ref] 64 Say, ‘Babylon will sink like that. It won’t ever recover from the disaster that I’m sending against it, and they’ll become irrelevant’

Yirmeyah’s messages end here.