KJ3 Literal Translation
Jeremiah 51
The severe judgment of Jehovah against Babylon in revenge of Israel. Jeremiah delivers the book of this prophecy to Seraiah, to be cast into Euphrates, in token of the perpetual sinking of Babylon.
1Behold, I am stirring up a destroying wind against Babylon and against those living in the heart of those who rose against Me.
2And I will send aliens to Babylon who will sift her and shall empty her land. For in the day of evil they shall be against her all around.
3Treading the one treading does not tread his bow, and not himself go up in his armor. And do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her hosts.
4So the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, yea, pierced through in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah have not become widowed ones by his God, by Jehovah of Hosts, though their land was filled with guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from the midst of Babylon; yea, each man deliver his soul. Do not be silenced in her iniquity. For it is the time of the vengeance of Jehovah. He will complete a recompense to her.
7Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations act madly.
8Suddenly Babylon has fallen, and it is broken. Wail for her, take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.
9We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go, each man into his own country. For her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the clouds.
10Jehovah has brought forth our righteousness; come and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
11Polish the arrows, fill the shields; Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple.
12Lift up the banner to Babylon's walls, make the watch strong; set up the watches, prepare the ambushes. For Jehovah has both planned and has done that which He spoke against those sojourning in Babylon.
13O you residing upon many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
14Jehovah of Hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they shall lift up a shout against you.
15He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
16When He gives His voice, a multitude of waters is in the heavens, and He causes the mists to go up from the end of the earth. He makes lightnings for rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasuries.
17Every man is brutish in knowledge, every refiner is put to shame by idols. For his molten image is a lie, and no breath is in them.
18They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Former of all things, and He is the rod of His inheritance, Jehovah of Hosts is His name.
20You are My war club and weapons of war, for with you I will shatter nations and with you I will destroy kingdoms.
21And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider, and with you I will shatter the chariot and his charioteer.
22And I will shatter man and woman with you, and with you I will shatter old and young, and with you I will shatter the young man and the virgin.
23And I will shatter the shepherd and his flock with you. And I will shatter the farmer and his team with you, and with you I will shatter heads and rulers.
24And I will give to Babylon, and to all those living in Chaldea all the evil that they have done in Zion, before your eyes, a statement of Jehovah.
25Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, a statement of Jehovah, who destroys all the earth. And I will stretch out My hand on you, and will roll you down from the rocks, and I will make you a burned mountain;
26and they shall not take a stone from you for a corner, or a stone for foundations, but you shall be a waste forever, a statement of Jehovah.
27Lift up a banner in the land. Blow a rams' horn among the nations; consecrate nations against her. Make hear the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her, set an official against her. Cause the horses to come up like rough locusts.
28Consecrate nations against her, with the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her rulers, and all the land of his dominion.
29And the land trembles and writhes in pain. For every purpose of Jehovah shall rise against Babylon, to set up the land of Babylon a waste without one living in it.
30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting. They have dwelt in strongholds; their might has withered; they became women; they have burned their houses, her bars are broken.
31A runner shall run to meet a runner, and a herald to meet a herald, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end,
32and that the fords are captured. And they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war are terrified.
33For so says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to tread her; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come.
34Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has devoured us. He has crushed us. He has set us up as an empty vessel. He has swallowed us like a jackal. He has filled his belly with delicacies. He has cast me out.
35The violence done to me and to my flesh is on Babylon, the one living in Zion shall say. And Jerusalem shall say, My blood shall be on those living in Chaldea.
36So Jehovah says this: Behold, I will contend for your cause and avenge for your vengeance, and I will dry up her sea and make her well dry.
37And Babylon shall become heaps, a home for jackals, a horror and a hissing, without one living in it.
38They shall roar together like lions, they shall growl like lions' cubs.
39In their heat, I will set their feasts, and I will make them drunk so that they exult and sleep a never-ending sleep and never awaken, a statement of Jehovah.
40I shall bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41How Sheshach is captured! And how the praise of all the earth is seized! How Babylon has become a ruin among the nations!
42The sea has come up over Babylon, she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43Her cities have become a ruin, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, and not does a son of man pass by it.
44And I will visit Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. And the nations shall not flow together any more to him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45My people, go out of her midst, and each man deliver his soul from the burning anger of Jehovah.
46And lest your heart faint, and you fear the report that shall be heard in the land, the report shall come in a year. And after that the report shall come in another year, and there shall be violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47So behold, the days come that I will visit on the idols of Babylon. And all her land shall be shamed, and all pierced in her shall fall in her midst.
48Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for Babylon. For the plunderers shall come to her from the north, a statement of Jehovah.
49As Babylon is to fall for the pierced of Israel, so for Babylon the pierced of all the earth shall fall.
50You who have escaped the sword, go away. Do not stand still. Remember Jehovah afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your heart.
51We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach, dishonor has covered our faces. For aliens have come into the holy places of the house of Jehovah.
52So, behold, the days are coming, a statement of Jehovah, that I will visit on her idols, and through all her land the pierced shall groan.
53Though Babylon should go up to the heavens, and though she should fortify her strong heights, ones devastating shall come from Me to her, a statement of Jehovah.
54A sound of a cry from Babylon, and great ruin from the land of Chaldeans!
55For Jehovah is devastating Babylon, and the great voice will perish out of her. And her waves will roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is given.
56Because ones devastating has come on her, on Babylon, and is capturing her mighty men, their bows are shattered; for Jehovah the God of recompenses repaying shall repay.
57And I will make her rulers drunk, also her wise ones, her governors, and her prefects, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a never-ending sleep, and not awaken, a statement of the King whose name is Jehovah of Hosts.
58So says Jehovah of Hosts, Baring, the broad walls of Babylon shall be laid bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. And the peoples shall labor as for vanity, and a people as for fire; and they shall be weary.
59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign; and Seraiah. a leader of quietness.
60And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that should come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon and shall see and shall cry all these words,
62then you shall say, O Jehovah, You have spoken against this place to cut it off so that not one living shall be in it, from man to animal, but it shall be a ruin forever.
63And it shall be, when you have finished crying out this book, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.
64And you shall say, In this way Babylon shall sink and shall not rise from the evil that I am bringing on it, and they shall be weary. So far are the words of Jeremiah.
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