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Jeremiah 51
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| 51:1
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against
them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying
wind; |
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| 51:2
And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty
her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. |
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| 51:3
Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that
lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men;
destroy ye utterly all her host. |
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| 51:4
Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are
thrust through in her streets. |
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| 51:5
For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of
hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. |
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| 51:6
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not
cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he
will render unto her a recompence. |
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| 51:7
Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth
drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are
mad. |
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| 51:8
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her
pain, if so be she may be healed. |
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| 51:9
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let
us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven,
and is lifted up even to the skies. |
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| 51:10
The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in
Zion the work of the LORD our God. |
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| 51:11
Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the
spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to
destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his
temple. |
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| 51:12
Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set
up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and
done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. |
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| 51:13
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is
come, and the measure of thy covetousness. |
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| 51:14
The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee
with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee. |
God swears to himself.
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| 51:15
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his
wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. |
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| 51:16
When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens;
and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh
lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. |
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| 51:17
Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the
graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in
them. |
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| 51:18
They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they
shall perish. |
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| 51:19
The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things:
and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name. |
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| 51:20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war:
for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; |
God wants us to be his "battle axe and weapons of war" to "break in pieces the nations"
and "destroy kingdoms."
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| 51:21
And with thee will I
break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in
pieces the chariot and his rider; |
(51:21-23)
God will "break in pieces"
nations and kingdoms, horse and rider, man and woman, old and young, young man
and maid, the shepherd and his flock, husbandman and his yoke of oxen, captain
and kings. It seems that God intends to break us all into pieces.
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| 51:22
With thee also will
I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old
and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
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| 51:23
I will also break in
pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in
pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in
pieces captains and rulers. |
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| 51:24
And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all
their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. |
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| 51:25
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which
destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and
roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. |
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| 51:26
And they shall not
take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou
shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD. |
(51:26, 29, 37, 43, 62, 64)
God says that Babylon will be
desolate and uninhabited forever. He says that only dragons will live there. But
Babylon has been dragon-free and continuously inhabited since then.
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| 51:27
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations,
prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of
Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the
horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.
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| 51:28
Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains
thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. |
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| 51:29
And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall
be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation
without an inhabitant. |
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| 51:30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in
their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned
her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. |
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| 51:31
One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to
shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, |
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| 51:32
And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with
fire, and the men of war are affrighted. |
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| 51:33
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of
Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little
while, and the time of her harvest shall come. |
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| 51:34
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me,
he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he
hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. |
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| 51:35
The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the
inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall
Jerusalem say. |
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| 51:36
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take
vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. |
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| 51:37
And Babylon shall
become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an
hissing, without an inhabitant. |
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| 51:38
They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. |
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| 51:39
In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that
they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. |
(51:39-40)
God will get the Babylonians drunk and then kill them all, leading
them "like lambs to the slaughter."
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| 51:40
I will bring them down like lambs to the
slaughter, like rams with he goats.
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| 51:41
How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised!
how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! |
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| 51:42
The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the
waves thereof. |
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| 51:43
Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein
no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. |
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| 51:44
And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth
that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any
more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. |
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| 51:45
My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his
soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. |
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| 51:46
And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard
in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another
year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. |
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| 51:47
Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven
images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain
shall fall in the midst of her. |
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| 51:48
Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for
Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the
LORD. |
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| 51:49
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall
fall the slain of all the earth. |
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| 51:50
Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the
LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. |
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| 51:51
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our
faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house. |
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| 51:52
Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment
upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan. |
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| 51:53
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify
the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith
the LORD. |
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| 51:54
A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land
of the Chaldeans: |
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| 51:55
Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great
voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is
uttered: |
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| 51:56
Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty
men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of
recompences shall surely requite. |
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| 51:57
And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her
rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not
wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. |
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| 51:58
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly
broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall
labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. |
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| 51:59
The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah,
the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into
Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet
prince. |
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| 51:60
So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon,
even all these words that are written against Babylon. |
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| 51:61
And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see,
and shalt read all these words; |
(51:61-63)
Jeremiah gave a copy of the book he had written to Seraiah and told him to read it and then tie a rock to it and
throw it in the river.
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| 51:62
Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut
it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it
shall be desolate for ever. |
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| 51:63
And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that
thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: |
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| 51:64
And thou shalt say, Thus
shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon
her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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