Jeremiah 51:21-41

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁵ I am against you, O destroying mountain,
            says the Lord,
    that destroys the whole earth;
I will stretch out my hand against you
    and roll you down from the crags
    and make you a burned-out mountain.^(C)
26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
    and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
    says the Lord.^(D)

²⁷ Raise a standard in the land;
    blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her;
    summon against her the kingdoms,
    Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her;
    bring up horses like bristling locusts.^(E)
28 Prepare the nations for war against her,
    the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
    and every land under their dominion.
²⁹ The land trembles and writhes,
    for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
    without inhabitant.^(F)
30 The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
    they have become women;
her buildings are set on fire;
    her bars are broken.^(G)
31 One runner runs to meet another,
    and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
    that his city is taken from end to end:^(H)
32 the fords have been seized,
    the marshes have been burned with fire,
    and the soldiers are in panic.^(I)
33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
    at the time when it is trodden;
yet a little while
    and the time of her harvest will come.^(J)

³⁴ “King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
    he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
    he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his belly with my delicacies;
    he has spewed me out.^(K)
35 May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,”
    the inhabitants of Zion shall say.
“May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
    Jerusalem shall say.^(L)
36 Therefore thus says the Lord:
I am going to defend your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,^(M)
37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    a den of jackals,
an object of horror and of hissing,
    without inhabitant.^(N)

³⁸ Like lions they shall roar together;
    they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹ When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink
    and make them drunk, until they become merry
and then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and never wake, says the Lord.^(O)
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats.^(P)

⁴¹ How Sheshach^[a] is taken;
    the pride of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    an object of horror among the nations!^(Q)