1Thus said the LORD:
I am about to rouse against Babylonia
and against the dwellers of Leb-Kamai
a destroying wind.
2And I will send strangers to Babylonia and they shall scatter her,
and they shall devastate her land,
for they are all around against her
on an evil day.
3Let not the bowman bend his bow,
and let him not put on his armor,
Utterly destroy all her army.
4And the slain shall fall in the Chaldeans’ land,
and the ones run through in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah are not widowed
of their God, the LORD of Armies,
but their land was filled with guilt
before Israel’s Holy One.
6Flee from the midst of Babylonia;
do not be wiped out through her crime.
For it is vengeance time for the LORD,
requital He pays back to her.
7A golden cup was Babylonia in the LORD’s hand
From her cup the nations drank,
and so the nations maddened.
8Of a sudden Babylonia fell and was broken.
Wail over her.
perhaps she will be healed.
9We sought to heal Babylonia but she was not healed.
Leave her, and let us go each to his land.
For her judgment has touched the heavens,
and mounted to the sky.
10The LORD has brought forth our just cause.
Come and recount in Zion
the deed of the LORD our God.
11Hone the arrows,
fill the quivers!
The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of Media
for His design is against Babylonia to destroy it,
for it is the vengeance of the LORD,
12Against the walls of Babylon raise a banner,
reinforce the watch,
set out the watchmen,
ready the ambushers.
For the LORD has devised and also done
that which He spoke for Babylon’s dwellers.
13You who settle by many waters,
abundant in treasures,
your end has come,
the measure for your ill-gotten wealth.
14The LORD of Armies has sworn by Himself:
I will surely fill you with people like locusts,
and they shall raise a joyous shout over you.
15Who makes the earth through His power,
firmly founds the world through His wisdom,
and through His discernment stretches out the heavens.
16When He sounds His voice—the roar of waters in the heavens,
and He brings up the clouds from the end of the earth.
Lightning for the rain He has made,
and He brings forth the wind from His treasure stores.
17Every human is ignorant without knowledge,
every goldsmith is shamed by his idol,
for his molten image is false,
no breath is in them.
18They are emptiness, work of delusion,
at the time of their reckoning they shall perish.
19Not like these is Jacob’s Portion,
for He fashions everything,
and Israel is the tribe of His estate—
the LORD of Armies is His name.
20You were a mace for Me,
weapons of battle,
and I smashed nations with you
and laid waste kingdoms with you.
21And I smashed with you horse and rider
and smashed with you chariot and its rider.
22And I smashed with you man and woman
and smashed with you elder and lad
and smashed with you young man and virgin.
23And I smashed with you shepherd and his flock
and smashed with you farmer and his team,
and smashed with you satraps and prefects.
24And I will pay back Babylonia
and all the dwellers of Chaldea
for their evil that they did
in Zion before your eyes, said the LORD.
25Here I am against you, a destroying mountain
—said the LORD—
that destroys all the earth,
and I will stretch out My hand against you
and roll you down from the crags
and make you a burnt-out mountain.
26And they shall not take from you a cornerstone
nor a stone for the foundations,
for you shall be an everlasting desolation, said the LORD.
27Raise a banner on the earth,
sound the ram’s horn in the nations.
Marshal nations against her,
assemble kingdoms against her,
Appoint against her an officer,
bring up horses like locusts swarming.
28Marshall nations against her,
Media and her satraps and all her prefects
and all the lands of their dominion.
29And the earth shall shake and shudder,
for the LORD’s plan against Babylonia has risen,
to turn the land of Babylonia
into a desolation with no one dwelling.
30The warriors of Babylonia have ceased fighting,
Their valor is sapped, they turn into women.
They have set fire to her dwellings,
broken are her bolts.
31Runner to meet runner dashes
and herald to meet herald
to tell to the king of Babylonia
that his city is captured from end to end.
32And the forces have been seized,
and the marshes they have burned with fire,
and the men of war are panicked.
33For thus said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel:
The Daughter of Babylonia is like a threshing floor when it is trod—
in a little while her harvesttime shall come.
34Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia has devoured me, has stunned me,
set me out like an empty vessel, swallowed me like the sea monster.
He has filled his belly with my delicacies,
he has dispossessed me.
35The outrage against me and my flesh be upon Bablyonia
says the dweller of Zion,
and my blood be upon the dwellers of Chaldea,
says Jerusalem.
36Therefore thus said the LORD:
I am about to take up your cause
and will exact vengeance for you,
and dry up her fount.
37And Babylonia shall turn into heaps of ruins,
a den of jackals,
desolation and target of hissing
with no one dwelling.
38Together they shall roar like lions,
39In their heat I will set out their drink
and make them drunk so that they be merry,
and they shall sleep an eternal sleep,
and they shall not awake, said the LORD.
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
and like rams with he-goats.
41“How has Sheshak been taken and caught,
the praise of all the earth!
How has she become a desolation,
Babylonia among the nations.
42The sea has gone up over Babylonia,
in the surge of its waves she is covered.
43Her towns have become a desolation,
parched land and desert,
a land where no man dwells,
and no human passes through it.”
44And I will reckon with the Daughter of Babylonia
and take what she has swallowed from her mouth,
and nations shall no longer flow to her,
the very wall of Babylon has fallen.
45Go out from her midst, O my people,
and each man, save your life
from the smoldering wrath of the LORD.
46And lest your heart quail and you fear for the rumor heard in the land, and the rumor shall come that year and afterward in the next year a rumor, and outrage is in the land, and ruler against ruler.
47Therefore, look, days are coming
when I will reckon with the idols of Babylonia,
and all her land shall be shamed,
and all her slain shall fall within her.
48And they shall cry for joy over Babylon,
the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.
For from the north shall come against her the ravagers, said the LORD.
49Babylonia, too, shall fall
O slain of Israel,
yes, as before Babylonia did fall
the slain of all the earth.
50Fugitives of the sword,
go, do not stand.
Recall from afar the LORD
and let Jerusalem come to mind.
51We were shamed, for we heard reproach,
disgrace had covered our face.
For strangers came
against the sacred places of the house of the LORD.
52Therefore, look, days are coming, said the LORD,
when I will reckon with her idols
and through all her land those being slain shall groan.
53Though Babylonia go up to the heavens,
and though she bolster her stronghold on high,
from Me shall come ravagers, said the LORD.
54Hark! screaming from Babylonia,
and a great shattering from the land of the Chaldeans!
55For the LORD is ravaging Babylonia,
has put an end to her great voice.
And their waves roar like mighty waters,
the din of their sound rings out,
56for the ravager has come against her, against Babylonia.
and her warriors are captured,
their bows are shattered,
for a God of requital is the LORD,
He surely shall pay back.
57And I will make her nobles and her sages, her satraps and her prefects drunk, and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep and not awake, said the King, LORD of Armies is His name. 58Thus said the LORD of Armies: the walls of broad Babylon shall surely be razed and her high gates shall be set on fire. And peoples shall strive for naught, and nations against the fire, and shall be wearied.
59The word with which Jeremiah the prophet charged Seriah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylonia in the fourth year of his reign. And Seriah was minister of tribute. 60And Jeremiah wrote down in a single scroll all the harm that would come upon Babylonia, all these words written concerning Babylonia. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylonia and see, you shall read aloud all these words. 62And you shall say, ‘LORD, You Yourself spoke concerning this place to cut it off, so there should be in it no human dweller nor even a beast, for it should be an everlasting desolation.’ 63And it shall be, when you finish reading aloud this book, you shall tie it to a stone and fling it into the Euphrates. 64And you shall say, ‘So shall Babylonia sink and not rise because of the harm that I am about to bring upon her.’ And they shall be wearied.”
Thus far the words of Jeremiah.
CHAPTER 51 NOTES
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1. Leb-Kamai. This ostensible name is actually a cipher for Chaldea based on the simple system of substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the second-to-last letter for the second, and so forth. The same cipher is manifested in verse 41, where “Sheshak” stands in for Bavel, “Babylon.” No one has satisfactorily explained why ciphers should be used in a text that, after all, constantly refers to Babylonia and Chaldea by their actual names.
3. Let not the bowman . . . / let him not put on. The Masoretic Text has a puzzling vocalization of the initial word in these clauses, ʾel, “to,” but many Hebrew manuscripts and several ancient versions show ʾal, “let not.” The idea is that resistance on the part of the Babylonians is futile.
and spare not her young men. This clause equally begins with ʾal, but the verb now is second-person plural, so the prophecy turns from the Babylonians to their attackers.
5. For Israel and Judah are not widowed. The Hebrew ʾalman—this masculine form appears only here, although the feminine ʾalmanah, “widow,” is very common—should be construed as an adjective. That is, Israel is the bride and God the husband, as in Jeremiah’s opening prophecy in chapter 1. The masculine form is dictated by the fact that either “Israel” or “Judah” can be treated as a masculine noun.
6. Flee from the midst of Babylonia. While some interpreters understand this imperative differently, it is probably an injunction to the exiles to flee the land of their captivity as it is about to be devastated.
each man, save your life. Though the Hebrew actually says “his life,” the imperative verb requires the second person for idiomatic coherence in English.
7. A golden cup was Babylonia. The gold, as many commentators have noted, invokes Babylonia’s fabled wealth.
making all the earth drunk. The contents of the golden cup are evidently terrifying—Babylonia has delivered a cup of the wine of destruction to the nations, driving them into a frenzy.
8. Take balm for her hurt. As the next verse makes clear, this is ironic.
11. the vengeance for His temple. This is a recurring note in Jeremiah. Although Babylonia may have served as God’s instrument in punishing Judah, it bears the indelible guilt of having destroyed God’s own house, and for this it will pay a severe price.
12. the walls of Babylon. As elsewhere, this translation distinguishes between Babylonia, the nation, and Babylon, the city. Given the reference to the city walls here, “Babylon” seems more appropriate. The Hebrew Bavel can mean either.
13. many waters. Babylon was located on the banks of the Euphrates, and also had canals and smaller streams as well as an artificial lake.
your ill-gotten wealth. The Hebrew betsaʿ has the literal sense of “slice” or “cut” but strongly suggests illegitimate profits.
14. a joyous shout. This is the cry heydad called out or chanted by grape-treaders. Here it is the invading armies treading on the Babylonians in a harvest of blood.
16. the roar of waters. One should keep in mind that in the Hebrew cosmology, there are waters above the visible “slab,” raqiʿa, of the sky, and when it rains, as in the Flood story, they come down through the open casements of the heavens.
19. Jacob’s Portion. This is an ad hoc epithet for God, stressing His intimate connection with Israel.
20. You were a mace for Me. Elsewhere in Prophetic poetry, powerful empires figure as God’s “rod,” but here that metaphor is intensified in the image of the smashing battle-mace.
21. horse and rider / . . . chariot and its rider. These phrases are a reminiscence of the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15), in which Pharaoh’s horses and riders are destroyed by God.
23. shepherd . . . / farmer . . . / satraps and prefects. The swathe of destruction perpetrated by the Babylonian king swept all the way from ordinary peasants to high government officials.
25. a destroying mountain. Though the image of an inert mountain as an agent of destruction may seem a little strange, the mountain is meant to invoke the massive solidity and towering stature of the Babylonian empire.
a burnt-out mountain. This seems to imply that the “destroying mountain” was a volcano—now extinct.
26. And they shall not take from you a cornerstone. The rocky mountain is useless even as a quarry for building stones.
27. Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. These are kingdoms to the far north, in Asia Minor and northwestern Iran. Ashkenaz would later be taken up as the designation for the lands where the Jews settled along the Rhine, although that of course is not its biblical meaning.
30. they sit in the strongholds. The clear implication is that they are afraid to go out to the battlefield.
31. Runner to meet runner dashes / and herald to meet herald. The dramatic effect of this structure of repetition is to convey a sense of frantic rushing to and fro by the messengers bringing news of the disaster that is engulfing Babylonia.
32. the marshes they have burned with fire. There were marshes along the Euphrates with bushes growing that could be set on fire by the invaders.
33. in a little while her harvesttime shall come. This second verset moves from a simile (“like a threshing floor,” which is to say, stomped upon) to an implied but directly related metaphor: the harvesttime for Babylonia is the harvest of death and destruction.
34. Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonia has devoured me. The poem now switches from the report of Babylonia’s destruction to the cry of dismay of Zion, devastated by the Babylonians and now eager to see the unfolding devastation of their hated enemies.
sea monster. This is an allusion to the fearsome sea monster (tanin) of Canaanite mythology.
36. take up your cause. This is a frequently used idiom of legal advocacy.
I will drain her sea / and dry up her fount. There is, of course, no actual sea in Babylonia, but the reference may be to its artificial lake. “Fount” appears to be a collective image for all the many water sources of Babylonia.
37. target of hissing. “Target” is merely implied.
38. growl. The Hebrew verb naʿar appears only here, but the parallelism compels a sense like “growl.” In later Hebrew, this would be the verb used for a donkey’s braying, but lions do not bray.
39. In their heat. There is debate about the reference of “heat,” but the probable sense is sexual or quasisexual: they are filled with imperative desire for strong drink.
and make them drunk so that they be merry. The drunken merriment proves to be illusory: the cup God offers them is lethal, as the next line of poetry spells out. What would ordinarily be a wine-induced slumber or stupor turns out to be the sleep of death.
42. The sea has gone up over Babylonia. In verse 36, Babylonia’s literal body of water was drained. Now, in what may be a deliberate poetic counterpoint, we have a metaphorical sea, representing Babylonia’s enemies, which overwhelms the country. The metaphorical character of this sea of invaders is underscored in the next verse when the whole country is turned into “parched land and desert.”
44. and take what she has swallowed from her mouth. The clear implied image is of Babylonia as a beast of prey. “What she has swallowed” would be both the captive Judahites and the temple treasures that the Babylonians looted and brought back to their land.
45. each man, save your life. See the comment on verse 6.
46. the rumor shall come that year and afterward in the next year a rumor. The repetitive structure conveys a sense of panicked upheaval. Babylonia is convulsed; ruler strives against ruler; rumors of disaster abound.
50. Fugitives of the sword, / go, do not stand. This urging of the exiles to flee Babylonia as it is enveloped by bloody destruction is of a piece with the imperative in verse 6 and verse 45.
52. those being slain shall groan. The Hebrew appears to say “the slain shall groan,” but dead men do not groan, so a reference to those in the throes of dying is inevitable.
53. Though Babylonia go up to the heavens. The formulation is reminiscent of the mockery of the king of Babylonia in Isaiah 14. There, too, he is said to aspire to mount to the heavens in his overweening arrogance.
55. has put an end to her great voice. This would be the boastful or imperious voice of the once dominant Babylonia.
their waves. The referent of this metaphor of destruction is spelled out here: “they” are “the ravagers.”
57. drunk, and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep. Sleep, of course, is one effect of drunkenness, but here the sleep is everlasting because the chalice is a chalice of poison.
58. nations against the fire, and shall be wearied. The formulation is a little odd, but the context makes its meaning clear: peoples will exhaust themselves trying to save Babylonia, but the fires they try to put out will be too much for them.
59. Seraiah son of Neriah. The patronymic tells us that he is the brother of Jeremiah’s loyal secretary Baruch.
minister of tribute. The received text reads sar menuḥah, which would mean “minister of rest,” but the more likely reading is sar minḥah, the minister appointed to oversee the payment of tribute, minḥah.
61. read aloud all these words. Jeremiah has remained in Judah, and then is forced to join the group of Judahites that goes down to Egypt. He thus is obliged to send Seraiah as his spokesman to read out loud his written words that he, as prophet, would ordinarily have delivered orally himself.
62. LORD, You Yourself spoke concerning this place. The sentence Seraiah is enjoined to say is a kind of authentication of the written words he has read out: it is God Himself Who has pronounced this message of the destruction of Babylon.
63. you shall tie it to a stone and fling it into the Euphrates. This is the last in the series of symbolic-predictive acts that punctuate the Book of Jeremiah. In this case, the meaning of the act is crystal-clear.
64. And they shall be wearied. Many scholars think that these words—actually, a single word in the Hebrew—are an inadvertent scribal duplication of the last word of verse 58. It is also possible that the repetition is deliberate, intended to mark an envelope structure between the end of that final prophecy of destruction and the end of the collection of the prophecies of Jeremiah.
Thus far the words of Jeremiah. This is a formal indication of the conclusion of Jeremiah’s book. The single chapter that follows is not ascribed to him. It is no longer “the words of Jeremiah” but instead a narrative report of the fall of Jerusalem—a dire event repeatedly predicted by Jeremiah—that replicates, with minor variations, 2 Kings 24:18–25:30.