CHAPTER 51

1 Thus saith Jehovah, — Behold, I will raise a destroying wind against Babylon, And against boasters of wisdom, my adversaries;

2 And I will send against Babylon winnowers, And they shall winnow her and empty her land; For they shall be against her around in the day of evil.

3 As to him who bends the bow, And him who raises himself up in his coat of mail, — Spare ye not her young men, Destroy all her army

4 And fall shall they wounded, in her land, And pierced through in her streets.

5 For not widowed is Israel, nor Judah By his God, by Jehovah of hosts: But rather their land is filled with sin On account of the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee ye from the midst of Babylon, And save ye, every one his life, Lest ye perish in her iniquity; For it is the time of Jehovah’s vengeance, A reward will he render to her

7 A golden cup has Babylon been In Jehovah’s hand, inebriating the whole earth; From her wine have the nations drunk, Therefore have the nations become mad.

8 Suddenly has Babylon fallen, and is broken; Howl ye for her, take rosin for her wound, It may be that she can be healed!

9 We have tried to heal Babylon, But she was not healed; Leave her, and let us depart, Every one to his own land; For to the heavens has reached her judgment And has risen up to the clouds.

10 Brought forth has Jehovah our righteousness; Come ye and let us declare in Sion The work of Jehovah our God.

11 Polish the arrows, prepare the shields, Rouse will Jehovah the spirit of the kings of Media; For as to Babylon his thought is to destroy her. For it is Jehovah’s vengeance, the vengeance of his temple.

12 On the wails of Babylon raise the standard, Increase the watch, set the watchmen, Set in order the ambushes: For as Jehovah has thought, so will he do What he hath spoken concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 Thou that dwellest among great waters, Who aboundest in treasures, Come is thine end, the measure of thy cupidity.

14 Sworn hath Jehovah by himself, — Surely I will fill thee with men as with locusts, Who will shout over thee with the vintage-shouting, —

15 (Even) he who made the earth by his power, Who hath constituted the world by his wisdom, And by his knowledge extended the heavens,

16 At whose voice there is abundance of waters in the heavens, Who raises vapors from the extremity of the earth, Who makes the lightnings and the rain, And brings out the wind from his treasures.

17 Infatuated is every man become by his knowledge, Put to shame shall be every founder by the graven image, For a lie is the molten image, And there is no breath in them:

18 Vanity are they, the work of illusions; At the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 Not like these is the portion of Jacob; For the former of all things is He, And the rod of his inheritance is Israel; Jehovah of hosts is his name.

20 A hammer hast thou been to me, weapons of war; And by thee have I broken nations in pieces, And by thee destroyed kingdoms:

21 Yea, by thee have I broken in pieces The horses and their riders, And by thee have I broken in pieces The chariots and their riders²

22 And by thee have I broken in pieces Men and women, And by thee have I broken in pieces Old men and children, And by thee have I broken in pieces Young men and maidens,

23 And by thee have I broken in pieces The shepherds and their flocks, And by thee have I broken in pieces The husbandmen and their yokes of oxen, And by thee have I broken in pieces The captains and the rulers.

24 But I will render to Babylon And to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, All the evils which they have done in Sion, Before your eyes, saith Jehovah.

25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, Which destroyest all the earth; And I will extend my hand over thee, And will roll thee down from the rocks, And will make thee a burnt mountain:

26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, Nor a stone for foundations; For perpetual wastes shalt thou be, saith Jehovah.

27 Raise a banner in the land, Sound a trumpet among the nations, Prepare the nations against her, Assemble against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Of Minni and of Ashkenaz; Set up against her a leader, Bring forth the horse as the horrible locust;

28 Prepare against her the nations, The kings of Media, her captains and her princes, And all the land of its dominion.

29 And tremble shall the land and be in pain, For confirmed as to Babylon shall be the thoughts of Jehovah: To set the land of Babylon a waste, So as to have no inhabitant.

30 Ceased have the valiant men of Babylon to fight, They sat down in their fortresses; Fail did their valor, they became women, Burnt were her dwellings, broken her bars.

31 A runner to meet a runner ran, And a messenger to meet a messenger, To announce to the king of Babylon That taken was the city at its extremity;

32 And the fords were taken, And the pools were burnt with fire, And the men of war were broken in pieces.

33 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, — The daughter of Babylon shall be like a threshing-floor, (Come will) the time of treading her; Yet a little while and come will her harvest.

34 Devoured me, broken me in pieces, Hath Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon; He hath set me an empty vessel, He hath swallowed me like a dragon, He hath filled his belly with my delicacies, He hath cast me off.

35 My plunder and my flesh be on Babylon, Shall the inhabitant of Sion say; My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea, Shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, — Behold, I will plead thy cause, And avenge thy vengeance, For I will make dry her sea, And will dry up her fountain:

37 And Babylon shall become heaps An habitation of dragons, A wonder and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

38 They will roar as lions, They will roar as whelps of lions.

39 In their heat will I make their feasts, And make them drunk, that they may exult And sleep a perpetual sleep, And not awake, saith Jehovah.

40 I will bring them as lambs to the slaughter, As rams and he-goats.

41 How has Sheshach been taken! And captured, the praise of the whole land! How has Babylon become a waste among nations!

42 Come up over Babylon has the sea, With the multitude of its waves is she covered.

43 Her cities shall be a waste, And a land of desert, and a land of drought, Pass through it shall no man, And dwell in it shall no son of man.

44 And I will visit Bel in Babylon; And I will draw what he hath swallowed out of his month: And flow to him together shall nations no more: Even the wall of Babylon hath fallen.

45 Go out from the midst of her, my people, And save ye, every one his life, From the indignation of Jehovah’s wrath.

46 And let not faint be your heart, And fear ye not the rumor heard in the land; Come in one year shall a rumor, And afterwards in another year, a rumor; — And violence shall be in the land, And a ruler after a ruler.

47 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, That I will visit the images of Babylon; And her whole land shall be ashamed, And all her slain, they shall fall in the midst of her.

48 And rejoice over Babylon shall heaven and earth, And all the things that are in them; When from the north shall come to her Destroyers, saith Jehovah.

49 As Babylon made to fall the slain of Israel, So for Babylon they shall fall, the slain of all the land.

50 Ye who have escaped from the sword, Depart, stand not still; From afar remember Jehovah, And let Jerusalem come to your minds.

51 We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach; Shame hath covered our faces, because strangers came Into the sanctuaries of the house of Jehovah.

52 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah, That I will visit her graven images, And in the whole land groan shall the wounded.

53 Though Babylon ascended into heaven, And though in the height she fortified her strength, From me would come to her wasters, saith Jehovah.

54 The voice of a cry from Babylon! And a great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For Jehovah will lay waste Babylon, And will destroy from her the voice of boasting: And sound shall their waves like great waters, Sent forth shall be the sound of their voice.

56 For come to her, to Babylon, is a waster, And taken are her valiant men, Broken is their bow; For the God of retributions is Jehovah, Recompensing he will recompense.

57 And I will inebriate her princes and her wise men, And her captains, and her rulers, and her valiant men: And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, And shall not awake, saith the King, Whose name is Jehovah of hosts.

58 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — The wall of Babylon, though wide, Shall yet surely be demolished; And her gates, though high, Shall yet be consumed with fire: Thus labored have the people for nothing, And the nations for the fire, and wearied themselves.

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, the son of Neraiah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went for Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon, in the fourth year of

60 his reign; and Seraiah was a quiet prince: and Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all

61 These words which had been written against Babylon; and Jeremiah said to Seraiah, — “When thou comest to Babylon and hast seen it, then read

62 All these words, and say, — ‘O Jehovah, thou hast spoken against this place, to destroy it, so that there should be no inhabitant in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall become perpetual desolations.’

63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt tie a stone

64 To it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and shalt say, — ‘Thus sink shall Babylon, and shall not rise from the evil which I shall bring on her, though they may weary themselves.’ Thus far the words of Jeremiah.