Jeremiah 51

Jeremiah 51

1-19 Destruction of Babylon

1-2 I will stir up a destructive wind against Babylon. winnowers will empty her land, coming from everywhere.

3-4 Don't give Babylon's soldiers a chance to defend themselves; do not spare her young men, but utterly destroy them.

5 I have not forsaken Israel and Judah, even though they are full of guilt.

6 Flee from Babylon; do not perish for her guilt.

7-8 Babylon was the LORD's golden cup, and the nations went mad with her wine, but now she is fallen.

9-10 We tried unsuccessfully to heal Babylon, and now we must forsake her and go back to our own country, for the LORD has vindicated us. It appears the the Jews in exile tried to have a good influence on their Babylonian neighbors, but to no avail.

11-12 God has stirred up the Medes to defeat Babylon; it is his plan.

13-14 The LORD will put an end to your life by the river and your treasures, filling up your city with troops like swarms of locusts.

15-16 The LORD is the Creator. When he speaks, all the powers of the earth listen. If God has complete power over the elements of the earth, which we can't control, how much more control does he have over us?

17-19 The work of the goldsmiths are worthless, delusional. Not like the LORD of hosts, who formed all things. "Israel is the tribe of his inheritance."

20-23 The Creator's Instrument

20-23 With you I smash nations, armies, men and women, shepherds, farmers and governors. Commentaries don't agree about who "you" refers to. I tend to think, because of the violent language, that he's speaking of the way he used Babylon to mete out justice, particularly because of verses 24 and 25, "I will repay Babylon.., O destroying mountain."

24-55 The Doom of Babylon

24-26 I will repay Babylon for all the wrong they have done in Zion. You will be like a burned-out mountain, with not even a stone left that can be used to rebuild.

27-29 I will raise up the nations around her to war against her – Ararat, Minni, (Upper and Lower Armenia), Ashkenoz (Phrygia and Bithynia) and the kings of the Medes – she will tremble and writhe.

30-33 Babylon's warriors will give up fighting; they will tell their king his city has been taken; she will be like a threshing floor trodden underfoot.

34-35 The inhabitants of Jerusalem will tell how King Nebuchadnezzar devoured and crushed them.

36-37 The LORD will defend their cause and take vengeance on Babylon for their sakes.

38-40 Babylon will become drunk with her own power; then she'll sleep and never wake up.

41-43 Babylon will become the horror of the nations, covered by a sea, a deserted land where no one can live.

44 I will make Bel (principal Babylonian god) disgorge what he has swallowed (treasures of other nations that have been offered to this god).

45-46 Come out of her, my people; do not be fainthearted or fearful.

47-49 I will punish the images of Babylon, using destroyers from the north. She will fall for the slain of Israel, as the slain of the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

50-51 You who have survived the sword, remember Jerusalem and the dishonor her holy places have suffered.

52-53 Therefore I will punish Babylon's idols. She can't build a fortress too high nor too strong for me to overcome.

54-56 Listen! Babylon is crashing, for a destroyer has come against her; the LORD will recompense in full.

57 I will makes her officials and wise men so drunk they will never wake up.

58 The broad wall of Babylon will be leveled, the high gates burn, the people exhaust themselves for nothing.

59-64 Jeremiah's Command to Seraiah

• Jeremiah tells Seraiah (son of Neriah son of Mahseiah), who was going to Babylon with King Zedekiah in the fourth year of his reign, to take a scroll to read in Babylon.
• The scroll would announce that God would destroy Babylon so that it would be uninhabitable.
• Then Seraiah was to throw the scroll into the middle of Euphrates, declaring, "Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more...."

(See more detailed notes from June 19, 2009)