Jeremiah 51

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Jeremiah 51:1-64 (KJV) 

1 Thus 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; 

When God sends a message of destruction, it is a warning for those who do not want to be caught up in God's wrath to escape.  If we choose to stay in the place that God's promised to destroy, those who decide not to leave will be destroyed.

2 And 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. 

God will send fans that will blow the things in the land of Babylon, and Babylon will have nothing left in it: the army will surround Babylon and fight against her.

3 Against [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. 

Those who fight for Babylon will be destroyed.

4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and [they that

 are] thrust through in her streets. 

There will be slain people in the streets whose bodies will be killed by the sword.

5 For 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. 

Israel sinned but God will not leave them alone.

6 Flee 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. 

Those of you who want to live, flee from Babylon.  For God will pay Babylon back for the evil she has done.

7 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. 

Babylon made the nation drink the wine of her cup and those who drank became drunk and lived like mad men.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. 

Babylon is in need of help: cry for her; give her medicine for pain; if so she may be healed.

9 We 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. 

We tried to help Babylon, but the medicine we brought her is not enough.  Let us get out of here.  Judgment is upon Babylon because her sins are many.

10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. 

God has made our obedience known: let us tell in Zion how good God is.

11 Make 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. 

God has given the army that will fight against Babylon energy.  He said to sharpen your weapons and destroy Babylon because of the wrath of God against Babylon who did evil.

12 Set 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.

Seige Babylon.  Let your presence be known and catch them by surprise: God will do all that He has planned against Babylon. 

13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, [and] the measure of thy covetousness. 

Those who dwell on ships, those who have plenty of money your time is over and there will be an end to the things you have taken from others.

14 The 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. 

There will be many men who will lift up a shout against you.

15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. 

Recognize I am God who made all things.

16 When 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. 

God controls the heavens.

17 Every 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. 

A man without God is like an animal; the idol gods only confuse people and the people believe lies from a god who has no breath.

18 They [are] vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 

All the energy that was taken to create these idols was a waste of time and this is the appointed time of their destruction.

19 The 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. 

Israel is God's anointed.

20 Thou [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;

I will use Israel to set things in order.

 21 And 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; 

I will use Israel to break in pieces the horse and his rider,  ands the chariot and his rider.

22 With 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; 

The man, woman, young and old will all be broken into pieces by Him who God ordained to fight against Babylon.

23 I 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.

No one will escape the breaking of pieces: the shepherd, his flock, the farmer and his cattle, the captian and the rulers too.

 24 And 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. 

You will see what Baylon did to you, I will do the same to them.

25 Behold, 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. 

You called yourself a mountain?  I will roll you down the rocks and put a flame to you.

26 And 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.

No one will ever build anything from you.

 27 Set 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. 

Tell the appointed army to get ready to destroy Babylon and the surrounding cities.  Destroy her like a caterpiller destroys the crop.

28 Prepare 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.

Prepare war against the Medes and its rulers and all of the land they dominate.

 29 And 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. 

The land will tremble and God will fulfill his purpose in destroying Babylon.

30 The 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. 

After seeing things being destroyed by fire and bars broken, the men are as afraid as a woman.  They hide, they are to weak to fight and as mighty as they once were, they are too discouraged to go to fight back.

31 One 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, 

The men will run to and fro to get the message of the disaster to the king of Babylon.  Why is he not like a warrrior leading his own army?

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. 

The passage for the necessities of life such as the water flow, the roads  were all of no use because they had been stopped up.  Even the reeds of the water have been burned with fire and the men are afraid.

33 For 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. 

Babylon is like the wheat ready to be trampled: in a little while Babylon will be trampled upon.

34 Nebuchadrezzar 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. 

Israel cries out against the hurt the king of Babylon did to her.

What you did to God's people you also did to God.

35 The 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. 

What Babylon did to me let it be counted against her; and the blood shed upon us let Babylon be found guilty.

36 Therefore 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. 

God told His people I heard you and I will take vengenace because of what Babylon did to you.

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

Babylon will be left in ruins and will be the talk of many.

 38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. 

The cry against Bablyon will be heard.

39 In 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. 

They will not enjoy their feast, and they will be drunk, and glad to go to sleep, in a sleep that they will never wake from.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. 

I will bring them silently to death  and  they will behave like rams and male goats to the slaughter.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! 

Another name for Babylon used by some who said it was a secret code... Sheshach; and the earth will be shocked at what has happened to Babylon.

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

Babylon has been covered by the waves of the sea.

 43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth [any] son of man pass thereby. 

Babylon will not be visited.  The land is dry and deserted.

44 And 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.

Babylon has worshipped Bel on many occassions.  Holidays celebrated Bel, inauguration ceremonies recognized Bel before putting people into position.   People gathered from far and near to give honor to nothing.  People treated Bel as their god.  Imagine a whole nation worshipping a god as God.  When you have no experience in thinking like that you may tend to think that this is ubsurd.  However, you can also be out of line as Paul told the Corinthians, you need to be careful that you are not serving a god that is not God.  I grew up where people gathered all the time from far and near and never heard the Word of God.  They spoke bits and pieces, but many times they selected what they wanted people to hear and said the message was from the Lord.  I cannot explain it but there was something real or should I say we were drunk and did not have a clue of the truth of what we were doing.  Still today, many people still seek the form of goldiness and deny the God of everything.  Whenever we seek to please God without His Word we are the same as the Babylonians.  We must know what God said and adjust our lives accordingly.

 

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

Get out of Babylon!  Run from the wrath of God.

46 And 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. 

Get out before you get to scared to run; you will hear of  what I will do one time and you will hear it again another time, and finally the killing will be in the land, ruler fighting ruler.

47 Therefore, 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. 

I will judge graven images of Babylon: and the people will gasp of what I will do to what they worshiped and all of the dead bodies will fall in the same place she is destroyed.

48 Then 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. 

Heaven and earth will be happy that Babylon has fallen!  Just as God said the enemy of Babylon will come from the north.

49 As Babylon [hath caused] the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 

Babylon caused My people to fall, so Babylon shall fall and it will be a great fall in the earth.

50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 

If you escaped the sword, keep running. Think about the land that is waiting on you in Jerusalem.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house. 

We are confused and ashamed because strangers came into the temple of God.

52 Wherefore, 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. 

The Lord responds, don't worry, I will destroy her images and those who have been wounded will groan because of what I have done.

53 Though 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. 

I will send destroyers to Babylon even though she has built strong walls and the strong walls are extemely tall.

54 A sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 

The loud sound of Babylon will because of all what she had is gone.

55 Because 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: 

The Lord has taken the authority from Babylon: The enemies voices are louder than Babylons.

56 Because 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. 

God has broken the amunition of Babylon.  The Lord is requiring the debt of Babylon to be paid.

57 And 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. 

The leaders will be drunk and they will fall into a sleep that they will not awake from.

58 Thus 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. 

The huge walls will be a waste of time by the builders; what they spent their time building will fall to the ground and they will be left not knowing what to do next.

59 The 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. 

A quiet prince who left during the 4th year of Zedekiah's reign was given an assignment to be carried out by Jeremiah,

60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, [even] all these words that are written against Babylon. 

Jeremiah wrote all of the evil things that will come upon Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 

When you get to Babylon, read out loud this book I have written, read all of it.

62 Then 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. 

After you read the book, tell God you have spoken everything I wrote that speaks against this place and nothing shall remain in it, man nor beast and this land will be empty forever.

63 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: 

When you have finished reading the entire book I have written, take a rock and tie the book to the rock and throw it into th Euphrates.

64 And 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.

And say this is what will happen to Babylon, Babylon will sink just as the book bound with the rock.  Babylon will not come back to life because of the evil that will come upon her: and the people will not know what to do.  These are the words of Jeremiah.  This is the end of Jeremiah's writing.