Jeremiah 51

pag-aaral

   

1 Thus says Jehovah; Behold, I will stir·​·up against Babylon, and to those who dwell in the heart of those who rise·​·up against Me, a destroying wind;

2 and will send unto Babylon winnowers, that shall winnow her, and shall exhaust her land; for in the day of evil they shall be against her all around.

3 Toward him that bends, the bender bends his bow, and brings· himself ·up in his siron*; and pity ye not her young·​·men; doom ye all her army.

4 And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust·​·through in her streets.

5 For Israel and Judah are· not ·as·​·widows to their God, to Jehovah of Armies; for their land* was·​·filled with guilt against the Holy·​·One of Israel.

6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and cause· every man his soul ·to·​·escape; be· not ·still* in her iniquity; for this is the time of Jehovah’s vengeance; He will pay unto her a recompense.

7 Babylon has been a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, intoxicating all the earth; the nations were made·​·drunk of her wine; therefore the nations rave.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and broken; howl for her; take balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forsake her, and let us go, a man to his own land: for her judgment reaches to the heavens, and is lifted·​·up even·​·to the higher·​·clouds.

10 Jehovah has brought forth our justice; come, and let us recount in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.

11 Purify the arrows; gather the shields; Jehovah has stirred·​·up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for His purpose is against Babylon, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple.

12 Lift·​·up the standard toward the walls of Babylon, make· the guard ·firm, raise·​·up the guardsmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah has even purposed and done that which He spoke against those who dwell in Babylon.

13 O thou who abidest on many waters, with many treasures, thine end has come, and the measure* of thy gain.

14 Jehovah of Armies has promised by His soul, saying, Surely I will·​·fill thee with man, as with the grub; and they shall answer with hedad* against thee.

15 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched·​·out the heavens by His understanding.

16 For the voice which He gives, there is a crowd of waters in the heavens, and He causes the mist to go·​·up from the end of the earth; He makes lightnings for rain, and brings·​·out the wind from His treasuries.

17 Every man is made·​·brutish by his knowledge; every refiner is shamed by the graven image; for his molten image is falsity, and the spirit is not in them.

18 They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 The part of Jacob is not as these; but He is the former of all, and the scepter of His inheritance; Jehovah of Armies is His name.

20 Thou art for Me a shattering hammer*, weapons of war; and by thee will I shatter nations, and by thee will I destroy kingdoms;

21 and by thee will I shatter the horse and his rider; and by thee will I shatter the chariot and his rider;

22 and by thee will I shatter man and woman; and by thee will I shatter an elder and a lad; and by thee will I shatter a young·​·man and a virgin;

23 I will also shatter by thee the shepherd and his flock*; and I will shatter by thee the farmer and his pair of oxen; and I will shatter by thee governors and dukes.

24 And I will repay Babylon and all those who dwell in Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes, says Jehovah.

25 Behold, I am against thee, O mountain of destruction, says Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch·​·out My hand on thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will put thee for a mountain burning·​·up.

26 And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; for desolations of eternity thou shalt be, says Jehovah.

27 Lift ye up a standard in the land, sound the shophar* among the nations, sanctify the nations against her, cause to hear against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint an emperor against her; cause the horse to come·​·up as the bristling grub.

28 Sanctify against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the dukes thereof, and all the land which he rules.

29 And the land shall quake and travail; for the thoughts of Jehovah shall be performed* against Babylon, to set the land of Babylon for a desolation with no·​·one dwelling there.

30 The heroes of Babylon have stopped fighting, they have sat in forts; their might has shrunken; they became as women*; they have kindled her habitations; her bars are broken.

31 A runner shall run to meet a runner, and he who tells to meet another who tells, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is captured from the edge,

32 and that the crossings are occupied, and the pond·​·rush they have burned·​·up with fire, and the men of war are vexed.

33 For thus says Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is as a threshing·​·floor, it is time to tread her; yet a·​·little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has routed me, he has placed me as an empty vessel, he has swallowed· me ·up as a whale, he has filled his stomach from my pleasures, he has purged himself of me.

35 The violence done to me and to my kin be on Babylon, shall she who dwells in Zion say; and my blood on those who dwell in Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy plea, and avenge thy vengeance; and I will waste her sea, and dry·​·up her springs.

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, an abode of dragons, a desolation, and a hissing, with none dwelling there.

38 They shall roar together like young·​·lions; they shall yell as lions’ whelps.

39 In their heat I will set their feasts, and I will make· them ·drunk, so·​·that they may triumph, and sleep an eternal sleep, and not awake, says Jehovah.

40 I will bring· them ·down as lambs to the butchering, as rams with he-goats.

41 How is Sheshach captured, and the praise of the whole earth occupied! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the noise of the waves thereof.

43 Her cities are a desolation, an arid land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwells, neither does any son of man cross into them.

44 And I will visit Bel in Babylon, and I will bring·​·forth from his mouth what he swallowed·​·up; and the nations shall not flow·​·together to him any·​·more; even the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 Go· ye ·out from her midst, My people, and deliver each·​·man his soul from the fierce anger of Jehovah.

46 And lest your heart be·​·soft, and you fear for the report that shall be heard in the land; a report shall both come one year, and after·​·that in another year shall come a report, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will visit* upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be·​·ashamed, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing·​·aloud for Babylon; for the devastators shall come unto her from the north, says Jehovah.

49 Even as Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, even so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.

50 You who have been delivered from the sword shall walk; you shall not stand; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come·​·up upon your heart.

51 We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach; humiliation has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah’s house.

52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will visit* upon her graven images; and in all her land the slain shall groan.

53 If Babylon should go·​·up to the heavens, and if she should fortify the height of her strength, from Me shall devastators come for her, says Jehovah.

54 A voice of a cry comes from Babylon, and great breaking from the land of the Chaldeans:

55 for Jehovah has devastated Babylon, and made· the great voice ·perish from her; and their waves make·​·a·​·noise as many waters, an uproar of their voice is given;

56 because the devastator is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are captured,* their bows are·​·dismayed; for Jehovah God of recompenses repaying shall he repay.

57 And I will make·​·drunk her princes, and her wise men, her governors, and her dukes, and her heroes; and they shall sleep an eternal sleep, and not awake, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of Armies.

58 Thus says Jehovah of Armies: The wide walls of Babylon overturning shall be overturned, and her tall gates shall be kindled with fire; and they shall toil, the peoples in so·​·much emptiness, and the nations in so·​·much fire, and they shall faint.

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 Babylon in the fourth year of his reign, and Seraiah was prince of Menuhah*;

60 and Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that should come to Babylon, even all these words that are written to Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words,

62 then shalt thou say, O Jehovah, Thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut· it ·off, that there shall not be any dwelling in it, from man even·​·to beast, that it shall be eternally desolate.

63 And it shall be, when thou hast completed reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

64 and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon drown, and shall not rise from before the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall faint; until, behold, the words of Jeremiah.

   

Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.