Bible Gateway passage: Jeremiah 51:36-58 - English Standard Version (2024)

³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, ^(A)I will plead your cause
and take vengeance for you.
^(B)I will dry up her sea
and ^(C)make her fountain dry,
³⁷and Babylon shall become ^(D)a heap of ruins,
^(E)the haunt of jackals,
^(F)a horror ^(G)and a hissing,
without inhabitant.

^38(H)“They shall roar together ^(I)like lions;
they shall growl like lions' cubs.
^39(J)While they are inflamed ^(K)I will prepare them a feast
and ^(L)make them drunk, that they may become merry,
^(M)then sleep a perpetual sleep
and not wake, declares the Lord.
⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and male goats.

⁴¹“How ^(N)Babylon^[a] is taken,
^(O)the praise of the whole earth ^(P)seized!
How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations!
^42(Q)The sea has come up on Babylon;
she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
⁴³Her cities have become a horror,
^(R)a land of drought and a desert,
^(S)a land in which no one dwells,
and through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴And I will punish ^(T)Bel in Babylon,
and ^(U)take out of his mouth ^(V)what he has swallowed.
^(W)The nations shall no longer flow to him;
^(X)the wall of Babylon has fallen.

⁴⁵“Go out of the midst of her, ^(Y)my people!
Let every one save his life
from ^(Z)the fierce anger of the Lord!
⁴⁶Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
^(AA)at the report heard in the land,
^(AB)when a report comes in one year
and afterward a report in another year,
and violence is in the land,
^(AC)and ruler is against ruler.

⁴⁷“Therefore, behold, the days are coming
when ^(AD)I will punish the images of Babylon;
^(AE)her whole land shall be put to shame,
and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
^48(AF)Then the heavens and the earth,
and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
^(AG)for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the Lord.
⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
^(AH)just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

^50(AI)“You who have escaped from the sword,
go, do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
^51(AJ)‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
^(AK)dishonor has covered our face,
^(AL)for foreigners have come
into the holy places of the Lord's house.’

⁵²“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when ^(AM)I will execute judgment upon her images,
^(AN)and through all her land
the wounded shall groan.
⁵³Though Babylon should ^(AO)mount up to heaven,
and though she should ^(AP)fortify her strong height,
yet destroyers would come from me against her,
declares the Lord.

^54(AQ)“A voice! A cry from Babylon!
The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵For the Lord is laying Babylon waste
and stilling her mighty voice.
^(AR)Their waves roar like many waters;
the noise of their voice is raised,
⁵⁶for a destroyer has come upon her,
upon Babylon;
her warriors are taken;
their bows are broken in pieces,
^(AS)for the Lord is a God of recompense;
he will surely repay.
^57(AT)I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
^(AU)her governors, her commanders, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
declares ^(AV)the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

⁵⁸“Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The broad ^(AW)wall of Babylon
shall be leveled to the ground,
^(AX)and her high gates
shall be burned with fire.
^(AY)The peoples labor for nothing,
and ^(AZ)the nations weary themselves only for fire.”

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