Jeremiah51

Jeremiah 51 prophesies the utter destruction of Babylon by the LORD, who will raise up nations like the Medes against her. God declares vengeance for Babylon's pride, idolatry, and oppression of Israel, promising to make her a perpetual desolation. The chapter concludes with a symbolic act of casting a scroll into the Euphrates, signifying Babylon's irreversible fall.
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God Promises Babylon's Destruction

1
Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind. ​
2
And I will send unto Babylon strangers, that shall winnow her; and they 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 coat of mail: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
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And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.
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For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. ​

Flee Babylon! The Time of Vengeance

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Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense. ​
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Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. ​
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Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail 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, and is lifted up even to the skies.
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Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
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Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Jehovah hath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple. ​
12
Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both purposed and done that which he spake concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy covetousness. ​
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Jehovah of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with the canker-worm; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.

A Hymn to the Creator God

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He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens. ​
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When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries.
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Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ​
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They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
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The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

God's Battle Axe Against the Nations

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Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: and 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;
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and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
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and with thee will I break in pieces 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 governors and deputies.
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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 Jehovah. ​

The Destruction of the Destroying Mountain

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Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out my 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 Jehovah.
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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 Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm. ​
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Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the land of their dominion.
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And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
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The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might hath failed; they are become as women: her dwelling-places are set on fire; 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 on every quarter:
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and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
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For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her. ​

Zion's Vengeance and Babylon's Fall

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Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath, like a monster, swallowed me up, he hath filled his maw with my delicacies; 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 be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
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Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. ​
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And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
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They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions’ whelps.
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When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith Jehovah.
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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 the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation 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 become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
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And I will execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. ​

Final Warning and Exhortation to Escape

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My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah. ​
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And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye for the tidings that shall be heard in the land; for tidings shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come tidings, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. ​
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Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute 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 heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her from the north, saith Jehovah.
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As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
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Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah’s house.
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Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will execute 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 destroyers come unto her, saith Jehovah. ​
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The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
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For Jehovah layeth Babylon waste, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:
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for the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.
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And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
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Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary. ​

The Symbolic Prophecy of the Sinking Scroll

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The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief chamberlain. ​
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And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
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And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou read all these words,
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and say, O Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, 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 the Euphrates: ​
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and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Study Notes for Jeremiah 51

Verse 1

The phrase 'destroying wind' (Hebrew: *ruah mekhashim*) refers to a devastating, divinely-sent force (likely the Medo-Persian army) that will completely sweep away Babylon, emphasizing the judgment’s thoroughness.

Verse 5

Despite Israel and Judah's overwhelming sin, God reaffirms the covenant relationship, contrasting Babylon’s inevitable destruction with the preservation and faithfulness of the LORD toward His people.

Verse 6

This command to the exiles ensures that God's people are separated from the wicked nation before the judgment falls, underscoring the necessity of spiritual and physical separation from the world’s destructive systems.

Verse 7

Babylon is pictured as a 'golden cup'—beautiful, wealthy, and powerful—which God used as an instrument to administer wrath (intoxication) to the surrounding nations. Its destruction signifies the end of its global role.

Verse 11

The prophecy specifically identifies the agents of Babylon's downfall: the Medes. Historically, the Medes allied with the Persians under Cyrus the Great to conquer the city in 539 BC.

Verse 13

To 'dwellest upon many waters' refers both literally to Babylon’s location on the Euphrates River and its extensive network of canals, which provided both defense and immense agricultural wealth.

Verse 15

This section (vv. 15–19, nearly identical to Jer. 10:12–16) is a hymn contrasting the supreme power of the Creator God, who controls the cosmos, with the utter futility of the idols worshiped by Babylon.

Verse 17

The contrast emphasizes that human wisdom applied to idolatry ('every man is brutish by his knowledge') results only in confusion and the worship of lifeless images.

Verse 20

The identity of the 'battle axe' is debated; it may refer to the Medes/Persians, or prophetically to Israel, who, though oppressed, will ultimately be used by God to destroy kingdoms and empires (cf. Isa. 41:15).

Verse 24

The central reason for Babylon's destruction is divine recompense for the evil they inflicted upon Zion, affirming that God sees and avenges the suffering of His covenant people.

Verse 25

Babylon is metaphorically called a 'destroying mountain' because of its perceived height, invincibility, and the way it crushed surrounding nations. God promises to reduce it to a desolate heap.

Verse 27

The call goes out to the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz (located in the region of modern Armenia/Turkey) to join the campaign, showing God’s orchestration of distant nations for His purpose.

Verse 30

The mighty men of Babylon are struck with panic and demoralization, a common biblical description of military failure where formerly valiant warriors lose all will to fight.

Verse 33

The imagery shifts to agriculture: Babylon is a 'threshingfloor' ready for judgment. The 'harvest' metaphor indicates that the period of patient waiting is over, and the time for final separation and reckoning is at hand.

Verse 34

This is Zion’s voice, lamenting the devastation Nebuchadnezzar inflicted. The imagery of being swallowed like a dragon (*tannin*) emphasizes the thoroughness of Babylon’s greedy consumption.

Verse 36

God promises to 'dry up her sea and make her springs dry,' likely referencing the method by which Cyrus historically captured Babylon by diverting the Euphrates River and entering through the dry riverbed.

Verse 41

'Sheshach' is a cryptic name for Babylon, derived using the *atbash* cipher (substituting the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the first, etc.). It emphasizes the certainty of the prophecy while perhaps concealing the name.

Verse 44

The judgment culminates in the punishment of Bel (also known as Marduk), the chief god of Babylon. God promises to make the idol vomit up the spoils it had 'swallowed,' demonstrating Yahweh’s absolute supremacy over false deities.

Verse 45

This repetition of the command to 'go ye out' (cf. v. 6) stresses the urgency for the exiles to leave the doomed city, linking their physical escape with spiritual deliverance from God’s wrath.

Verse 46

The warning speaks of gradual, escalating instability ('rumour... and violence'), assuring the exiles that the final collapse will not happen without warning, allowing them time to flee.

Verse 53

Babylon's immense fortifications (its 'height of her strength') are meaningless against God's determined judgment. Human strength, even the greatest built defenses, cannot withstand divine decree.

Verse 58

The 'broad walls' refer to the massive defensive walls of Babylon, a symbol of its impregnability. Their destruction signifies the complete and irreversible end of the empire.

Verse 59

Seraiah, the quartermaster (*sar menucha*), traveled to Babylon around 594 BC with King Zedekiah. This historical appendix seals the prophecy through a symbolic, enacted ritual.

Verse 63

Binding the scroll to a stone and casting it into the Euphrates symbolizes the absolute finality of Babylon’s downfall, ensuring that it will sink and never rise again from the evil God brings upon it.

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