HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1087
JER EM IAH 51
page 717
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
and Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
haunted by jackals.
She will be an object of horror and contempt,
a place where no one lives.
Her people will roar together like strong
lions.
They will growl like lion cubs.
And while they lie inflamed with all their
wine,
I will prepare a different kind of feast
for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
and they will never wake up again,”
says the Lord.
“I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats to be sacrificed.
“How Babylon* is fallen—
great Babylon, praised throughout the
earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
among the nations.
The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered by its crashing waves.
Her cities now lie in ruins;
she is a dry wasteland
where no one lives or even passes by.
And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon,
and make him vomit up all he has eaten.
The nations will no longer come and
worship him.
The wall of Babylon has fallen!
A Message for the Exiles
45 “Come out, my people, flee from Babylon.
Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s
fierce anger.
46 But do not panic; don’t be afraid
when you hear the first rumor of
approaching forces.
For rumors will keep coming year by year.
Violence will erupt in the land
as the leaders fight against each other.
47 For the time is surely coming
when I will punish this great city and
all her idols.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
and her dead will lie in the streets.
48 Then the heavens and earth will rejoice,
for out of the north will come destroying
armies
against Babylon,” says the Lord.
49 “Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel
and others throughout the world,
so must her people be killed.
50 Get out, all you who have escaped the
sword!
Do not stand and watch—flee while
you can!
51:41 Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon.
fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign was 593 b.c.
51:59 The
Remember the Lord, though you are
in a far-off land,
and think about your home in
Jerusalem.”
51
“We are ashamed,” the people say.
“We are insulted and disgraced
because the Lord’s Temple
has been defiled by foreigners.”
52
“Yes,” says the Lord, “but the time is
coming
when I will destroy Babylon’s idols.
The groans of her wounded people
will be heard throughout the land.
Though Babylon reaches as high as the
heavens
and makes her fortifications incredibly
strong,
I will still send enemies to plunder her.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
53
Babylon’s Complete Destruction
54 “Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon,
the sound of great destruction from
the land of the Babylonians.
55 For the Lord is destroying Babylon.
He will silence her loud voice.
Waves of enemies pound against her;
the noise of battle rings through the city.
56 Destroying armies come against Babylon.
Her mighty men are captured,
and their weapons break in their hands.
For the Lord is a God who gives just
punishment;
he always repays in full.
57 I will make her officials and wise men
drunk,
along with her captains, officers, and
warriors.
They will fall asleep
and never wake up again!”
says the King, whose name is
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
58
This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
says:
“The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled
to the ground,
and her massive gates will be burned.
The builders from many lands have worked
in vain,
for their work will be destroyed by fire!”
Jeremiah’s Message Sent to Babylon
59 The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to
Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, a staff officer, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was
during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.*
60 Jere mi ah had recorded on a scroll all the
terrible disasters that would soon come upon
Babylon—all the words written here. 61 He said