The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000.
The Book of the Prophet JeremiahJeremiah 51
The LORD‘s Judgment on Babylon | |
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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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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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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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Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chalde’ans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. |
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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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¶ 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 recompense. |
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Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD‘s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; Rev. 17.2-4 ; 18.3 therefore the nations are mad. |
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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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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, Rev. 18.5 and is lifted up even to the skies. |
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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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¶ 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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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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O thou that dwellest upon many waters, Rev. 17.1 abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. |
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The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall lift up a shout against thee. |
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¶ 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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When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapors 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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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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They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. |
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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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¶ 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; |
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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; |
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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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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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And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chalde’a all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. |
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¶ 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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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. |
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¶ 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 Ar’arat, Minni, and Ash’chenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. |
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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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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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The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken. |
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One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, |
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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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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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¶ Nebuchadrez’zar 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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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 Chalde’a, shall Jerusalem say. |
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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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And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant. |
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They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps. |
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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. |
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I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. |
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¶ 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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The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. |
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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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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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¶ 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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And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. |
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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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Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: Rev. 18.20 for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD. |
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As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. Rev. 18.24 |
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¶ 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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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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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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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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¶ A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chalde’ans: |
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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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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 recompenses shall surely requite. |
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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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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 labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. |
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¶ The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Serai’ah the son of Neri’ah, the son of Ma-asei’ah, when he went with Zedeki’ah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Serai’ah was a quiet prince. |
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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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And Jeremiah said to Serai’ah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; |
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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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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 Euphra’tes: |
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and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise Rev. 18.21 from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. ¶ Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. |
Published by The American Bible Society
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