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.

God Promises Babylon's Destruction

1
Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind. ​
2
I will send to Babylon strangers, who shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her around.
3
Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and don’t spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army.
4
They shall fall down slain in the land of the Kasdim, and thrust through in her streets.
5
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of the LORD of Hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. ​

Flee Babylon! The Time of Vengeance

6
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; don’t be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he will render to her a recompense. ​
7
Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. ​
8
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10
The LORD has produced our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11
Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: the LORD has 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 the LORD, 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 the LORD has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13
You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness. ​
14
The LORD of Hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you.

A Hymn to the Creator God

15
He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: ​
16
when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
17
Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ​
18
They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19
The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and is the tribe of his inheritance: the LORD of Hosts is his name.

God's Battle Axe Against the Nations

20
You are my battle ax and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms; ​
21
and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
22
and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein; and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
23
and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies.
24
I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of the Kasdim for all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD. ​

The Destruction of the Destroying Mountain

25
Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says the LORD, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. ​
26
They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says the LORD.
27
Set up a standard in the land, blow the shofar 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. ​
28
Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion.
29
The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are broken. ​
31
One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:
32
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
33
For thus says the LORD 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

34
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out. ​
35
The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be on the inhabitants of the Kasdim, shall Jerusalem say.
36
Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. ​
37
Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38
They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions’ cubs.
39
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, says the LORD.
40
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
41
How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! ​
42
The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43
Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.
44
I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. ​

Final Warning and Exhortation to Escape

45
My people, go away from the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the LORD. ​
46
Don’t let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. ​
47
Therefore behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48
Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, says the LORD.
49
As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
50
You who have escaped the sword, go, don’t stand still; remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.
52
Therefore behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53
Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come to her, says the LORD. ​
54
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Kasdim!
55
For the LORD lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:
56
for the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the LORD is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.
57
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 up, says the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
58
Thus says the LORD 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

59
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 quartermaster. ​
60
Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61
Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,
62
and say, LORD, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one shall dwell therein, neither man nor animal, but that it shall be desolate forever.
63
It shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: ​
64
and you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on 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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