Jeremiah 51-52; Psalms 27

51This is what the Lord says. “I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Babylonia

.H559H3068H5782H894H3427H3820H6965H7843H7307

2Foreigners will come and winnow her, blowing her away as chaff. They will come from every side to rise against her in her day of trouble.H7971H894H2114H2219H1238H776H3117H7451H5439

3Don’t let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. Don’t spare even her best soldiers! Let her army be completely destroyed

.H1869H1869H1869H7198H5927H5630H2550H970H2763H6635

4They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians

, slashed to death in her streets.H2491H5307H776H3778H1856H2351

5For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has not abandoned Israel and Judah. He is still their God, even though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”H3478H488H3063H430H3068H6635H776H4390H817H6918H3478

6Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves! Don’t get trapped in her punishment! It is the Lord’s time for vengeance; he will repay her in full.H5127H8432H894H4422H376H5315H1826H5771H6256H3068H5360H7999H1576

7Babylon has been a gold cup in the Lord’s hands, a cup that made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank Babylon’s wine, and it drove them all mad.H894H2091H3563H3068H3027H776H7937H1471H8354H3196H1471H1984

8But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen. Weep for her. Give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed.H894H6597H5307H7665H3213H3947H6875H4341H7495

9We would have helped her if we could, but nothing can save her now. Let her go; abandon her. Return now to your own land. For her punishment reaches to the heavens; it is so great it cannot be measured.H7495H894H7495H5800H3212H376H776H4941H5060H8064H5375H7834

10The Lord has vindicated us. Come, let us announce in Jerusalem

everything the Lord our God has done.H3068H3318H6666H935H5608H6726H4639H3068H430

11Sharpen the arrows! Lift up the shields!

For the Lord has inspired the kings of the Medes to march against Babylon and destroy her. This is his vengeance against those who desecrated his Temple.H1305H2671H4390H7982H3068H5782H7307H4428H4074H4209H894H7843H5360H3068H5360H1964

12Raise the battle flag against Babylon! Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen. Prepare an ambush, for the Lord will fulfill all his plans against Babylon.H5375H5251H2346H894H4929H2388H6965H8104H3559H693H3068H2161H6213H1696H3427H894

13You are a city by a great river, a great center of commerce, but your end has come. The thread of your life is cut.H7931H7931H7227H4325H7227H214H7093H935H520H1215

14The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has taken this vow and has sworn to it by his own name. “Your cities will be filled with enemies, like fields swarming with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”H3068H6635H7650H5315H4390H120H3218H6030H1959

15The Lord made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens.H6213H776H3581H3559H8398H2451H5186H8064H8394

16When he speaks in the thunder, the heavens are filled with water. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.H5414H6963H1995H4325H8064H5387H5927H7097H776H6213H1300H4306H3318H7307H214

17The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power.H120H1197H1847H6884H3001H6459H5262H8267H7307

18Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.H1892H4639H8595H6256H6486H6

19But the God of Israel

is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including his people, his own special possession. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name!H2506H3290H3335H7626H5159H3068H6635H8034

20“You

are my battle-ax and sword,” says the Lord. “With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms.H4661H3627H4421H5310H1471H7843H4467

21With you I will shatter armies—destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer.H5310H5483H7392H5310H7393H7392

22With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens.H5310H376H802H5310H2205H5288H5310H970H1330

23With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and officers.H5310H7462H5739H5310H406H6776H5310H6346H5461

24“I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia

for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.H7999H894H3427H3778H7451H6213H6726H5869H5002H3068

25“Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy,” says the Lord. “I will raise my fist against you, to knock you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble.H4889H2022H5002H3068H7843H776H5186H3027H1556H5553H5414H8316H2022

26You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out,” says the Lord.H3947H68H6438H68H4146H8077H5769H5002H3068

27Raise a signal flag to the nations. Sound the battle cry! Mobilize them all against Babylon. Prepare them to fight against her! Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander, and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!H5375H5251H776H8628H7782H1471H6942H1471H8085H4467H780H4508H813H6485H2951H5483H5927H5569H3218

28Bring against her the armies of the nations—led by the kings of the Medes and all their captains and officers.H6942H1471H4428H4074H6346H5461H776H4475

29The earth trembles and writhes in pain, for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged. Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.H776H7493H2342H4284H3068H6965H894H7760H776H894H8047H3427

30Her mightiest warriors no longer fight. They stay in their barracks, their courage gone. They have become like women. The invaders have burned the houses and broken down the city gates.H1368H894H2308H3898H3427H4679H1369H5405H802H3341H4908H1280H7665

31The news is passed from one runner to the next as the messengers hurry to tell the king that his city has been captured.H7323H7323H7125H7323H5046H7125H5046H5046H4428H894H5892H3920H7097

32All the escape routes are blocked. The marshes have been set aflame, and the army is in a panic.H4569H8610H98H8313H784H582H4421H926

33This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says. “Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor, about to be trampled. In just a little while her harvest will begin.”H559H3068H6635H430H3478H1323H894H1637H6256H1869H4592H6256H7105H935

34“King Nebuchadnezzar

of Babylon has eaten and crushed us and drained us of strength. He has swallowed us like a great monster and filled his belly with our riches. He has thrown us out of our own country.H5019H4428H894H398H2000H3322H7385H3627H1104H8577H4390H3770H5730H1740

35Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,” say the people of Zion. “Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,” says Jerusalem.H2555H7607H894H3427H6726H559H1818H3427H3778H3389H559

36This is what the Lord says to Jerusalem: “I will be your lawyer to plead your case, and I will avenge you. I will dry up her river, as well as her springs,H559H3068H7378H7379H5358H5360H2717H3220H4726H3001

37and Babylon will become a heap of ruins, haunted by jackals. She will be an object of horror and contempt, a place where no one lives.H894H1530H4583H8577H8047H8322H3427

38Her people will roar together like strong lions. They will growl like lion cubs.H7580H3162H3715H5286H738H1484

39And while they lie inflamed with all their wine, I will prepare a different kind of feast for them. I will make them drink until they fall asleep, and they will never wake up again,” says the Lord.H2527H7896H4960H7937H5937H3462H5769H8142H6974H5002H3068

40“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed.H3381H3733H2873H352H6260

41“How Babylon

is fallen—great Babylon, praised throughout the earth! Now she has become an object of horror among the nations.H8347H3920H8416H776H8610H894H8047H1471

42The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its crashing waves.H3220H5927H894H3680H1995H1530

43Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wasteland where no one lives or even passes by.H5892H8047H6723H776H6160H776H376H3427H1121H120H5674H2004

44And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and make him vomit up all he has eaten. The nations will no longer come and worship him. The wall of Babylon has fallen!H6485H1078H894H3318H6310H1105H1471H5102H2346H894H5307

45“Come out, my people, flee from Babylon. Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger.H5971H3318H8432H4422H376H5315H2740H639H3068

46But do not panic; don’t be afraid when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces. For rumors will keep coming year by year. Violence will erupt in the land as the leaders fight against each other.H3824H7401H3372H8052H8085H776H8052H935H8141H310H8141H8052H2555H776H4910H4910

47For the time is surely coming when I will punish this great city and all her idols. Her whole land will be disgraced, and her dead will lie in the streets.H3117H935H6485H6456H894H776H954H2491H5307H8432

48Then the heavens and earth will rejoice, for out of the north will come destroying armies against Babylon,” says the Lord.H8064H776H7442H894H7703H935H6828H5002H3068

49“Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel and others throughout the world, so must her people be killed.H1571H894H2491H3478H5307H894H5307H2491H776

50Get out, all you who have escaped the sword! Do not stand and watch—flee while you can! Remember the Lord, though you are in a far-off land, and think about your home in Jerusalem.”H6405H2719H1980H5975H2142H3068H7350H3389H5927H3824

51“We are ashamed,” the people say. “We are insulted and disgraced because the Lord’s Temple has been defiled by foreigners.”H954H8085H2781H3639H3680H6440H2114H935H4720H3068H1004

52“Yes,” says the Lord, “but the time is coming when I will destroy Babylon’s idols. The groans of her wounded people will be heard throughout the land.H3117H935H5002H3068H6485H6456H776H2491H602

53Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens and makes her fortifications incredibly strong, I will still send enemies to plunder her. I, the Lord, have spoken!H894H5927H8064H1219H4791H5797H227H7703H935H5002H3068

54“Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.H6963H2201H894H1419H7667H776H3778

55For the Lord is destroying Babylon. He will silence her loud voice. Waves of enemies pound against her; the noise of battle rings through the city.H3068H7703H894H6H1419H6963H1530H1993H7227H4325H7588H6963H5414

56Destroying armies come against Babylon. Her mighty men are captured, and their weapons break in their hands. For the Lord is a God who gives just punishment; he always repays in full.H7703H935H894H1368H3920H7198H2865H3068H410H1578H7999H7999

57I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her captains, officers, and warriors. They will fall asleep and never wake up again!” says the King, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.H7937H8269H2450H6346H5461H1368H3462H5769H8142H6974H5002H4428H8034H3068H6635

58This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. “The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground, and her massive gates will be burned. The builders from many lands have worked in vain, for their work will be destroyed by fire!”H559H3068H6635H7342H2346H894H6209H6209H1364H8179H3341H784H5971H3021H7385H3816H1767H784H3286

59The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, a staff officer, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign

.H1697H3414H5030H6680H8304H1121H5374H1121H4271H3212H6667H4428H3063H894H7243H8141H4427H8304H4496H8269

60Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon—all the words written here.H3414H3789H259H5612H7451H935H894H1697H3789H894

61He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll.H3414H559H8304H935H894H7200H7121H1697

62Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.’H559H3068H1696H4725H3772H3427H120H929H8077H5769

63When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River.H3615H7121H5612H7194H68H7993H8432H6578

64Then say, ‘In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.’” This is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.H559H894H8257H6965H6440H7451H935H3286H1697H3414

52Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.H6667H259H6242H8141H1121H4427H4427H259H6240H8141H3389H517H8034H2537H1323H3414H3841

2But Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.H6213H7451H5869H3068H3079H6213

3These things happened because of the Lord’s anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished them from his presence and sent them into exile. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.H5921H639H3068H3389H3063H7993H6440H6667H4775H4428H894

4So on January 15

, during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls.H8671H8141H4427H6224H2320H6218H2320H5019H4428H894H935H2428H3389H2583H1129H1785H5439

5Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.H935H5892H4692H6249H6240H8141H4428H6667

6By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign

, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.H7243H2320H8672H2320H7458H2388H5892H3899H5971H776

7Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians

, they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.H5892H1234H582H4421H1272H3318H5892H3915H1870H8179H2346H4428H1588H3778H5892H5439H3212H1870H6160

8But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and caught him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.H2428H3778H7291H310H4428H5381H6667H6160H3405H2428H6327

9They took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.H8610H4428H5927H4428H894H7247H776H2574H1696H4941

10He made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons and all the other officials of Judah.H4428H894H7819H1121H6667H5869H7819H8269H3063H7247

11Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death.H5786H5869H6667H4428H894H631H5178H935H894H5414H1004H6486H3117H4194

12On August 17 of that year

, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.H2549H2320H6218H2320H8672H6240H8141H8141H5019H4428H894H935H5018H7227H2876H5975H6440H4428H894H3389

13He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings

in the city.H8313H1004H3068H4428H1004H1004H3389H1004H1419H8313H784

14Then he supervised the entire Babylonian

army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.H2428H3778H7227H2876H5422H2346H3389H5439

15Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, then took as exiles some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.H5018H7227H2876H1540H1803H5971H3499H5971H7604H5892H5307H5307H4428H894H3499H527

16But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in Judah to care for the vineyards and fields.H5018H7227H2876H7604H1803H776H3755H3009

17The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon.H5982H5178H1004H3068H4350H5178H3220H1004H3068H3778H7665H5375H5178H894

18They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.H5518H3257H4212H4219H3709H3627H5178H8334H3947

19Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, dishes, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.H5592H4289H4219H5518H4501H3709H4518H2091H2091H3701H3701H3947H7227H2876H3947

20The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the Lord’s Temple in the days of King Solomon.H8147H5982H259H3220H8147H6240H5178H1241H4350H4428H8010H6213H1004H3068H5178H3627H4948

21Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference

. They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.H5982H6967H259H5982H8083H6240H520H2339H8147H6240H520H5437H5672H702H676H5014

22The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 1/2 feet

high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.H3805H5178H6967H259H3805H2568H520H7639H7416H3805H5439H5178H8145H5982H7416

23There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 on the network around the top.H8673H8337H7416H7307H7416H7639H3967H5439

24Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.H7227H2876H3947H8304H7218H3548H6846H4932H3548H7969H8104H5592

25And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; seven of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens.H3947H5892H259H5631H6496H582H4421H7651H582H7200H4428H6440H4672H5892H8269H5608H6635H6633H5971H776H8346H376H5971H776H4672H8432H5892

26Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah.H5018H7227H2876H3947H3212H4428H894H7247

27And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.H4428H894H5221H4191H7247H127H2574H3063H1540H776

28The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign

was 3,023.H5971H5019H1540H7651H8141H7969H505H3064H7969H6242

29Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year

he took 832 more.H8083H6240H8141H5019H1540H3389H8083H3967H7970H8147H5315

30In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year

he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.H7969H6242H8141H5019H5018H7227H2876H1540H3064H7651H3967H705H2568H5315H5315H702H505H8337H3967

31In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to

Jehoiachin and released him from prison on March 31 of that year.H7651H7970H8141H1546H3078H4428H3063H8147H6240H2320H2568H6242H2320H192H4428H894H8141H4438H5375H7218H3078H4428H3063H3318H1004H3628

32He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.H1696H2896H5414H3678H4605H3678H4428H894

33He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.H8138H3608H899H8548H398H3899H6440H3117H2416

34So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived. This continued until the day of his death.H737H8548H737H5414H4428H894H3117H3117H1697H3117H4194H3117H2416

27[A psalm of David.] The LORD is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?H1732H3068H216H3468H3372H3068H4581H2416H6342 2When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.H7489H6862H341H7126H398H1320H3782H5307 3Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident.H4264H2583H3820H3372H4421H6965H982 4The one thing I ask of the LORD—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD's perfections and meditating in his Temple.H259H7592H3068H1245H3427H1004H3068H3117H2416H2372H5278H3068H1239H1964 5For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock.H3117H7451H6845H5520H5643H168H5641H7311H6697 6Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the LORD with music.H7218H7311H341H5439H2076H168H2077H8643H7891H2167H3068 7Hear me as I pray, O LORD. Be merciful and answer me!H8085H3068H7121H6963H2603H6030 8My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming."H1245H6440H3820H559H6440H3068H1245 9Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don't leave me now; don't abandon me, O God of my salvation!H5641H6440H5186H5650H5186H639H5833H5203H5800H430H3468 10Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.H1H517H5800H3068H622 11Teach me how to live, O LORD. Lead me along the right path, for my enemies are waiting for me.H3384H1870H3068H5148H4334H734H8324 12Do not let me fall into their hands. For they accuse me of things I've never done; with every breath they threaten me with violence.H5414H5315H6862H8267H5707H6965H3307H2555 13Yet I am confident I will see the LORD's goodness while I am here in the land of the living.H3884H539H7200H2898H3068H776H2416 14Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.H6960H3068H2388H553H3820H6960H3068

Jeremiah 51-52; Psalms 27 - Prayer Tents