Major Prophets · Chapter 51 of 52

Jeremiah 51

Judgment against Babylon intensifies. God raises a destroying wind and the Medes against her, for she was a golden cup in his hand that made the whole earth drunk. Her idols are worthless against the Maker of heaven and earth. God calls his people to flee out of her midst. Jeremiah writes the doom in a book, ties it to a stone, and sinks it in the Euphrates: so Babylon will never rise.

What happens in Jeremiah 51

The LORD announces he will raise a destroying wind against Babylon and send winnowers to empty her land. Though Israel and Judah sinned, they have not been forsaken by the Holy One of Israel. Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand that made the nations drunk and mad, but now she is suddenly fallen. God contrasts the dead idols, worthless works of error, with himself, the maker of the earth and the former of all things. He calls Babylon his battle axe, yet will repay her for all the evil done in Zion.

My people, go out of her midst, he urges, and deliver your souls. The chapter closes with a vivid sign act: Jeremiah writes all Babylon's coming evils in a book and commands Seraiah, traveling to Babylon, to read it aloud, bind a stone to it, and cast it into the Euphrates, declaring that thus Babylon will sink and not rise from the disaster God brings.

Jeremiah 51 in context

This continues the great oracle against Babylon. The golden cup pictures Babylon as intoxicating the nations with her dominance before God shatters it. The call to flee out of her midst addresses the exiles. The closing sign act, sinking the written prophecy in the Euphrates, dramatizes the certainty of Babylon's fall.

Revelation later draws heavily on this chapter's imagery in describing the fall of a final Babylon.

Main themes of Jeremiah 51

Jeremiah 51 (KJV)

1Thus 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; 2And 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. 3Against 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. 4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. 5For 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. 6Flee 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. 7Babylon 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. 8Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. 9We 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. 10The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. 11Make 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. 12Set 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. 13O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. 14The 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. 15He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. 16When 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. 17Every 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. 18They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 19The 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. 20Thou 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; 21And 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; 22With 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; 23I 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. 24And 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. 25Behold, 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. 26And 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. 27Set 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. 28Prepare 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. 29And 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. 30The 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. 31One 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, 32And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. 33For 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. 34Nebuchadrezzar 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. 35The 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. 36Therefore 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. 37And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. 38They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps. 39In 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. 40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. 41How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! 42The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. 43Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. 44And 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. 45My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46And 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. 47Therefore, 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. 48Then 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. 49As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 50Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house. 52Wherefore, 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. 53Though 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. 54A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 55Because 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: 56Because 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. 57And 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. 58Thus 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. 59The 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. 60So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 62Then 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. 63And 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: 64And 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.

Verses to carry from Jeremiah 51

“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.”Jeremiah 51:7

“My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.”Jeremiah 51:45

“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:”Jeremiah 51:63

Reflection

What Babylon has intoxicated you, some dazzling power or comfort that quietly makes you forget the living God? God's word to his people is clear: come out of her, and deliver your soul. Turn from what perishes to the Maker who has no rival, and take refuge in Christ, who gathers his people out of a sinking world into himself.

A prayer from Jeremiah 51