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Jeremiah 51 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

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The Utter Destruction of Babylon
The LORD’s Judgment on Babylon
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:1 - Thus says the LORD:

“Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,[fn]
A destroying wind.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:2 - And I will send winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:3 - Against her let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
Utterly destroy all her army.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:4 - Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
And those thrust through in her streets.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:5 - For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the LORD of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:6 - Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance;
He shall recompense her.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:7 - Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations are deranged.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:8 - Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.
Wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:9 - We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;
For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:10 - The LORD has revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:11 - Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is the vengeance of the LORD,
The vengeance for His temple.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:12 - Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the LORD has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:13 - O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:14 - The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,
And they shall lift up a shout against you.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:15 - He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:16 - When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:17 - Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:18 - They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:19 - The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The LORD of hosts is His name.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:20 - “You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:21 - With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:22 - With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:23 - With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:24 - “And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:25 - “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the LORD.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:26 - They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever,” says the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:27 - Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations against her,
Call the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:28 - Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:29 - And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:30 - The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
The bars of her gate are broken.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:31 - One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:32 - The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:33 - For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
When it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
And the time of her harvest will come.”
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:34 - “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:35 - Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:36 - Therefore thus says the LORD:

“Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:37 - Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:38 - They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:39 - In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:40 - “I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:41 - “Oh, how Sheshach[fn] is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:42 - The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:43 - Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:44 - I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:45 - “My people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:46 - And lest your heart faint,
And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:47 - Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:48 - Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:49 - As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:50 - You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
Remember the LORD afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:51 - We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:52 - “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:53 - Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the LORD.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:54 - The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:55 - Because the LORD is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:56 - Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
For the LORD is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:57 - “And I will make drunk
Her princes and wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the King,
Whose name is the LORD of hosts.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:58 - Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”
Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:59 - 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 to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:60 - So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:61 - And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words,
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:62 - “then you shall say, ‘O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:63 - “Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.
Unchecked Copy BoxJer 51:64 - “Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
NKJV Footnotes
A code word for Chaldea (Babylonia); may be translated The Midst of Those Who Rise Up Against Me
Psalm 135:7
A code word for Babylon (compare Jeremiah 25:26)
NKJV

New King James Version, © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

The text of the New King James Version (NKJV) appearing on or deriving from this or any other web page is for personal use only. Any other use of the NKJV must be in conformity with the Quotation Policy for the New King James Version. For more information about the New King James Version, the Quotation Policy, and for inquiries about permission to use the New King James Version, go to Thomas Nelson, Inc..

For more information on this translation, see the NKJV Preface.

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