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Atomic Bible
Jeremiah

Chapter 51

Judgment on Babylon and more

Jeremiah 51 continues and intensifies the judgment against Babylon, portraying the empire's collapse as the LORD's deliberate answer to its violence against Zion. Babylon is shown as shattered beyond healing, her idols exposed, her warriors stunned, her waters dried, and her proud structures reduced to rubble, while in the middle of the oracle the God of Jacob is praised as Creator over against lifeless idols, and at the end Jeremiah turns the prophecy into a sign-act by having a scroll of Babylon's doom sunk into the Euphrates.

This chapter is the climax of Jeremiah's anti-Babylon prophecy. It gathers themes of vengeance for the temple, redemption for Israel, divine sovereignty over nations and idols, and the certainty of imperial downfall, while the closing symbolic act turns the written prophecy itself into a visible pledge that Babylon's power will sink and not rise again.

4 sections·562 words·~2 min read

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Jeremiah 51

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vv. 1-14

Judgment on Babylon

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T1his is what the LORD says: 2I will send strangers to Babylon 3Do not let the archer bend his bow 4And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, 5For Israel and Judah have not been abandoned 6Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives!

7Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, 8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. 9“We tried to heal Babylon, 10“The LORD has brought forth our vindication;

11Sharpen the arrows! 12Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; 13You who dwell by many waters, 14The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself:

vv. 15-19

Praise to the God of Jacob

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T15he LORD made the earth by His power; 16When He thunders, 17Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; 18They are worthless, a work to be mocked. 19The Portion of Jacob is not like these,

vv. 20-58

Babylon’s Punishment

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“20You are My war club, 21With you I shatter the horse and rider; 22With you I shatter man and woman; 23With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; 24Before your very eyes I will repay 25“Behold, I am against you, 26No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone

27“Raise a banner in the land! 28Prepare the nations for battle against her — 29The earth quakes and writhes 30The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; 31One courier races to meet another, 32The fords have been seized, 33For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; 35May the violence done to me 36Therefore this is what the LORD says: 37Babylon will become a heap of rubble, 38They will roar together like young lions; 39While they are flushed with heat, 40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

41How Sheshach has been captured! 42The sea has come up over Babylon; 43Her cities have become a desolation, 44I will punish Bel in Babylon. 45Come out of her, My people! 46Do not let your heart grow faint, 47Therefore, behold, the days are coming 48Then heaven and earth and all that is in them

49“Babylon must fall 50You who have escaped the sword, 51“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; 52“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” 53Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens 54“The sound of a cry 55For the LORD will destroy Babylon; 56For a destroyer is coming against her — 57I will make her princes and wise men drunk, 58This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

vv. 59-64

Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah

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T59his is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the quartermaster Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. 60Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon — all these words that had been written concerning Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud, 62and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain — neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’ 63When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates. 64Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’”

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  1. 01vv. 1-14Judgment on BabylonThe LORD declares that He is stirring up a destroying wind against Babylon and will send strangers to winnow and empty her land in the day of calamity. Babylon's wounded will fall throughout the Chaldean land, yet Israel and Judah have not been abandoned by their God. The exiles are urged to flee and not perish in Babylon's punishment, for Babylon—once a golden cup in the LORD's hand—has suddenly shattered beyond healing. The nations are told to prepare for her overthrow because the LORD is avenging His temple, and Babylon's great waters and treasures cannot save her from the sworn certainty of being filled with the conqueror's shout.
  2. 02vv. 15-19Praise to the God of JacobIn the middle of Babylon's doom the chapter breaks into praise of the LORD as Maker of earth, world, and heavens. His thunder commands the waters and winds, while human idol-makers are exposed as senseless, their images a fraud doomed to perish. By contrast, the Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He formed all things and Israel belongs to Him as His inheritance.
  3. 03vv. 20-58Babylon’s PunishmentThe LORD recalls how Babylon once served as His war-club to shatter nations and rulers, but now He will repay Babylon for all the evil done in Zion. Babylon the destroying mountain will be rolled down and burned out, no longer fit for even a cornerstone. Nations are summoned against her, the Medes among them; the earth writhes as Babylon's warriors sit helpless, messages race through the city, and Zion cries for redress. Babylon is told that her idols, walls, princes, wise men, warriors, horses, treasures, and waters all lie under the LORD's sword. Her revelers will be made drunk unto perpetual sleep, her sea-like multitudes will cover her with ruin, and heaven and earth will rejoice when the destroyers arrive. Exiles are urged to leave and remember the LORD from afar, and even if Babylon climbs to heaven, she cannot escape the destroyer. The section closes by declaring that her enormous walls and gates will fail, the peoples labor for fire, and the imperial boasting collapses into exhaustion.
  4. 04vv. 59-64Jeremiah’s Message to SeraiahJeremiah entrusts a scroll of Babylon's doom to Seraiah, who is traveling to Babylon with King Zedekiah. Seraiah is to read the words aloud there, confess that the LORD has promised to cut the place off forever, then tie the scroll to a stone and cast it into the Euphrates as a sign that Babylon will sink and never rise again under the disaster the LORD brings on her.
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