51 I, the LORD, am
sending a wind
to destroy the people of Babylonia
and Babylon, its capital.
2Foreign soldiers will come from every
direction,
and when the disaster is over,
Babylonia will be empty and worthless.
3I will tell these soldiers,
"Attack quickly,
before the Babylonians can string their bows
or put on their armor.
Kill their best soldiers and destroy their army!"
4Their troops will fall wounded in the
streets of Babylon.
5Everyone in Israel and Judah is
guilty.
But I, the LORD All-Powerful,
their holy God,
have not abandoned them.
6Get out of Babylon! Run for
your lives!
If you stay, you will be killed
when I take revenge on the city
and punish it for its sins.
7Babylon was my golden cup,
filled with the wine of my anger.
The nations of the world got drunk on this wine
and went insane.
8But suddenly, Babylon will fall
and be destroyed.
I, the LORD, told the foreigners
who lived there,
"Weep for the city! Get medicine for its wounds;
maybe they will heal."
9The foreigners answered, "We
have already tried
to treat Babylon's wounds, but they would not heal.
Come on, let's all go home to our own countries.
Nothing is left in Babylonia; everything is
destroyed."
10The people of Israel said,
"Tell everyone in Zion!
The LORD has taken revenge
for what Babylon did to us."
The LORD Wants Babylon
Destroyed
11I, the LORD,
want Babylon destroyed,
because its army destroyed my temple.
So, you kings of Media, sharpen your arrows
and pick up your shields.
12Raise the signal flag and attack the
city walls.
Post more guards. Have soldiers watch the city
and set up ambushes.
I have made plans to destroy Babylon,
and nothing will stop me.
13People of Babylon, you live
along the Euphrates River
and are surrounded by canals.
You are rich, but now the time has come
for you to die.
14I, the LORD
All-Powerful, swear by my own life
that enemy soldiers will fill your streets
like a swarm of locusts.
They will shout and celebrate their victory.
A Hymn of Praise
(Jeremiah 10.12-16)
15God used his wisdom and power
to create the earth and spread out the heavens.
16The waters in the heavens roar
at his command.
He makes clouds appear;
he sends the wind from his storehouse
and makes lightning flash in the rain.
17People who make idols are
stupid!
They will be disappointed,
because their false gods cannot breathe.
18Idols are merely a joke, and
when the time is right,
they will be destroyed.
19But the LORD,
Israel's God, is all-powerful.
He created everything,
and he chose Israel to be his very own.
God's Hammer
The LORD said:
20Babylonia, you were my hammer;
I used you to pound nations and break kingdoms,
21to shatter cavalry and
chariots,
22as well as men and women,
young and old,
23shepherds and their flocks, farmers
and their oxen,
and governors and leaders.
24But now, my people will watch,
while I repay you for what you did to Zion.
25You destroyed the nations and
seem strong as a mountain,
but I am your enemy.
I might even grab you and roll you off a cliff.
When I am finished, you'll only be a pile
of scorched bricks.
26Your stone blocks won't be
reused
for cornerstones or foundations,
and I promise that forever you will be a desert.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
The Nations Will Attack Babylon
The LORD said:
27Signal
the nations to get ready to attack.
Raise a flag and blow a trumpet.
Send for the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Choose a commander;
let the cavalry attack like a swarm of locusts.
28Tell the kings and governors, the
leaders and the people
of the kingdoms of the Medes to prepare for war!
29The earth twists and turns in
torment,
because I have decided to make Babylonia a desert
where no one can live,
and I won't change my mind.
30The Babylonian soldiers have
lost their strength
and courage.
They stay in their fortresses, unable to fight,
while the enemy breaks through the city gates,
then sets their homes on fire.
31One messenger after another
announces to the king,
"Babylon has been captured!
32The enemy now controls the
river crossings!
The marshes are on fire!
Your army has panicked!"
33I am the LORD
All-Powerful, the God of Israel,
and I make this promise
"Soon Babylon will be leveled and packed down
like a threshing place at harvest time."
Babylonia Will Pay!
34The people of Jerusalem say,
"King Nebuchadnezzar made us panic.
That monster stuffed himself with us and our treasures,
leaving us empty
he gobbled down what he wanted and spit out the rest.
35The people of Babylonia harmed some
of us
and killed others.
Now, LORD, make them
pay!"
The LORD Will Take Revenge on
Babylon
36My people, I am on your side,
and I will take revenge on Babylon.
I will cut off its water supply, and its streamn
will dry up.
37Babylon will be a pile of rubble
where only jackalso live.
People will laugh, but they will be afraid
to walk among the ruins.
38The Babylonians roar and growl like
young lions.
39And since they are hungry, I
will give them a banquet.
They will celebrate, get drunk, then fall asleep,
never to wake up!
40I will lead them away to die,
like sheep, lambs, and goats being led to the butcher.
41All nations now praise
Babylon, but when it is captured,
those same nations will be horrified.
42Babylon's enemies will rise like
ocean waves
and flood the city.
43Horrible destruction will
strike the nearby towns.
The land will become a barren desert,
where no one can live or even travel.
44I will punish Marduk, the god
of Babylon,
and make him vomit up everything he gobbled down.
Then nations will no longer bring him gifts,
and Babylon's walls will crumble.
The LORD Offers Hope to His
People
45Get out of Babylon, my people,
and run for your lives,
before I strike the city in my anger!
46Don't be afraid or lose hope,
though year after year
there are rumors of leaders fighting for control
in the city of Babylon.
47The time will come when I will
punish
Babylon's false gods.
Everyone there will die,
and the whole nation will be disgraced,
48when an army attacks from the
north
and brings destruction.
Then the earth and the heavens and everything in them
will celebrate.
49Babylon must be overthrown,
because it slaughtered the people of Israel
and of many other nations.
50My people, you escaped death
when Jerusalem fell.
Now you live far from home, but you should trust me
and think about Jerusalem.
Leave Babylon! Don't stay!
51You feel ashamed and
disgraced,
because foreigners have entered my sacred temple.
52Soon I will send a war to
punish Babylon's idols
and leave its wounded people moaning everywhere.
53Although Babylon's walls reach
to the sky,
the army I send will destroy that city.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
Babylon Will Be Destroyed
The LORD said:
54Listen to the cries for help
coming from Babylon.
Everywhere in the country the sounds of destruction
can be heard.
55The shouts of the enemy, like
crashing ocean waves,
will drown out Babylon's cries as I level the city.
56An enemy will attack and
destroy Babylon.
Its soldiers will be captured and their weapons broken,
because I am a God who takes revenge against nations
for what they do.
57I, the LORD
All-Powerful, the true King, promise
that the officials and advisors,
the governors and leaders and the soldiers of Babylon
will get drunk, fall asleep, and never wake up.
58The thick walls of that city
will be torn down,
and its huge gates burned.
Everything that nation worked so hard to gain
will go up in smoke.
Jeremiah Gives Seraiah a Scroll
59During Zedekiah's fourth year as
king of Judah, he went to Babylon. And Baruch's brother Seraiah went along as
the officer in charge of arranging for places to stay overnight.
60Before they left, I wrote on a
scroll all the terrible things that would happen to Babylon. 61I
gave the scroll to Seraiah and said:
When you get to Babylon, read this scroll aloud,
62then pray, "Our LORD, you promised to
destroy this place and make it into a desert where no people or animals will
ever live."
63When you finish praying, tie the
scroll to a rock and throw it in the Euphrates River. Then say,
64"This is how Babylon will sink when the LORD
destroys it. Everyone in the city will die, and it won't have the strength to
rise again."
Return
to the Shofar
