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          DASV: Jeremiah 51    

1 This is what the LORD says:
      "Look, I will raise up against Babylon,
            and against those who live in Leb-Kamai,
            a destroying wind.
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon,
            who will winnow, blowing her away like chaff.
      They will empty her land.
      For in the day of trouble they will attack her
            from every direction.
3 Do not let the archer bend his bow,
            or let him put on his armor.
      Do not spare her young men;
            totally destroy her army.
4 They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
      and be run through by a sword in her streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken,
      by their God, the LORD of hosts,
      though their land is full of guilt
      against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Get out of Babylon,
            each person should save their own life,
      Do not be destroyed in the punishment of her iniquity.
            For it is the time of the LORD's vengeance;
      he will pay her back for what she has done.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand,
            that made all the earth drunk.
      The nations have drunk of her wine;
            resulting in the nations going mad.
8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be destroyed.
      Wail for her, get medicinal balm for her pain,
            if there is a chance that she may be healed.
9 'We tried to heal Babylon,
      but she could not be healed.
      Abandon her,
            and let each one of us go back to his own country;
            for her judgment reaches to heaven,
            and is lifted up even to the skies.'
10 The LORD has brought about our vindication;
      come, and let us declare in Zion
            the work of the LORD our God.
11 Sharpen the arrows;
            fill the quivers.
      The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
            because his plan against Babylon is to destroy it,
            for it is the vengeance of the LORD,
            vengeance for his temple.
12 Raise the flag signaling the attack of the walls of Babylon,
      reinforce the watchmen,
            post the guards,
            prepare the ambushes.
      For the LORD has planned and done what he has spoken
            concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who dwell along many waters,
      abundant in treasures,
            your end is come,
            the thread of your life is cut.

14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself, saying,
      "Surely I will fill you with soldiers,
            like a swarm of locusts;
            they will lift up victory shouts over you."
15 He has made the earth by his power;
      he has established the world by his wisdom,
      and by his understanding has stretched out the heavens.
16 When he utters his voice,
            the waters in the heavens roar.
      He causes the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth;
            he makes lightning accompany the rain,
            and brings the wind out of his storehouses.

17 Everyone is stupid and without knowledge;
      every goldsmith will be put to shame by his idols;
            for his cast images are a delusion,
            and there is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless,
            a total mockery.
      In the time of their punishment, they perish.
19 The Portion of Jacob is not like these,
            for he is the one who formed all things.
      Israel is the tribe of his inheritance,
            the LORD of hosts is his name.
20 You are my war-club, and weapon for battle.
      With you I will smash the nations;
            with you I will destroy kingdoms.
21 With you I will smash to pieces the horse and his rider;
22 with you I will smash to pieces the chariot and its rider.
      With you I will smash to pieces man and woman,
      and with you I will smash to pieces the old and the young.
      and with you I will smash to pieces the young man and woman,
23 and with you I will smash to pieces the shepherd and his flock,
      and with you I will smash to pieces the farmer and his team of oxen,
      and with you I will smash to pieces governors and rulers.
24 I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea
      for all the damage they have done in Zion
            before your eyes," says the LORD.
25 "I am against you, O destroying mountain," says the LORD,
            "you who destroy all the earth.
      I will stretch out my hand against you,
            and roll you down off cliffs,
            and will make you like a burnt mountain.
26 They will not take one of your stones for a cornerstone,
      or a rock for foundations;
      you will be a heap of ruins forever," says the LORD.

27 "Set up a signal flag in the land!
      Blow the war trumpet among the nations!
      Prepare the nations for war against her;
      summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz against her;
      appoint a commander-in-chief against her;
      cause the horses to come up like a swarm of locusts.
28 Prepare the nations against her,
      the kings of the Medes and its governors,
      and all its rulers, and all the countries they rule.
29 The land trembles and writhes in pain.
      For the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand,
            to make the land of Babylon desolate without inhabitant.
30 The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting;
            they remain in their strongholds.
      Their strength has failed;
            they have become weak as women.
      Her houses are set on fire;
            the bars of her gates are broken.
31 One runner will run to meet another,
      and one messenger to the next,
      to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken
      from one end to the other.
32 The river fords have been captured,
      and the marshes have been set on fire,
            and the warriors are terrified."

33 For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says:
      "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
            at the time when it has been trampled out;
            yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come.
34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me,
      he has crushed me,
            he has made us like an empty jar,
      like a sea monster he has swallowed me up,
            he has filled his belly with my delicacies;
      he has spit me out.
35 May the violence done to me and to my relatives
      be repaid on Babylon,"
            the inhabitants of Zion will say.
      "May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,"
            Jerusalem will say.

36 Therefore this is what the LORD says:
      "I will plead your case,
            and will avenge you.
      I will dry up her sea,
            and make her fountain dry.
37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble,
      a dwelling-place for jackals,
            an object of horror,
      and ridicule hissing, without inhabitant.
38 They will roar together like young lions;
      they will growl like lion cubs.
39 When they are excited, I will make their feast,
      and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice,
      and fall into a perpetual sleep never to wake up,"
            says the LORD.
40 "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
      like rams and male goats.
41 O how Sheshach has been captured!
      The praise of the whole earth seized!
      How has Babylon become an object of horror
      among the nations!
42 The sea has flooded over Babylon;
      she has been covered by its roaring billows.
43 Her cities have become an object of horror,
      a desert wasteland,
      a land wherein no one lives,
            neither does anybody even pass by.
44 I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon,
            and I will make him vomit up what he has swallowed down.
      The nations will not flow into him anymore;
            the wall of Babylon will fall.
45 My people, get out of her.
      Each of you save yourselves
            from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 Do not lose heart,
      neither fear the rumor heard in the land;
      for rumors will come one year,
      and then another the next year.
      There will be violence in the land,
            ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore the days will come,
      when I will execute judgment
      on the carved images of Babylon.
      Her whole land will be disgraced;
            and all her slain will fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heavens and the earth,
      and all who are in them,
            will shout for joy over Babylon.
      For the destroyers will attack her from the north," says the LORD.

49 Babylon will fall for the slain of Israel who have fallen,
      just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
            leave, do not stick around.
      Remember the LORD from a distant land,
            and let Jerusalem come to mind.
51 We are disgraced, because we have heard the insults;
      shame has covered our faces,
      for foreigners have come
      into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.

52 "Therefore, the days are coming," says the LORD,
            that I will execute judgment on her carved images.
      The wounded throughout her land will groan.
53 Though Babylon attempts to climb up to heaven,
      and though she fortifies the towering heights,
      yet from me destroyers will come against her," says the LORD.

54 The sound of cries come from Babylon,
      and the uproar of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the LORD is laying Babylon waste,
            and silencing her loud noise.
      Their waves roar like many waters;
            the noise of their voice resounds.
56 For the destroyer is come against her,
            even against Babylon.
      Her warriors are captured,
            their bows are broken in pieces.
      For the LORD is a God who punishes fairly;
            he will surely repay in full.
57 "I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
            also her governors, rulers, and her warriors.
      They will fall into a perpetual sleep never to wake up,"
            says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

58 This is what the LORD of hosts says:
      "The broad walls of Babylon will be totally demolished.
            Her high gates will be burned.
      The peoples toil for nothing,
            and the nations weary themselves only for the fire."

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. Now Seraiah was a chief of staff.
60 Jeremiah wrote on a scroll all the disasters that
were to come on Babylon--all these words that are written
concerning Babylon.
61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon,
make sure you read all these words,
62 and say, 'O LORD, you have spoken concerning this place,
to destroy it, so that no one will live there, neither
human nor animal, but it will be desolate forever.'
63 When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a
stone to it, and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates
River.
64 Then say, 'This is how Babylon will sink, and will
never rise again because of the disaster I will bring
on her, and they will be exhausted.'"

These end the words of Jeremiah.

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