Jeremiah 51-52 - Prayer Tents

Jeremiah 51

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

.H559H3068H5782H894H3427H3820H6965H7843H73072Foreigners 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.H7971H894H2114H2219H1238H776H3117H7451H54393Don’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

.H1869H1869H1869H7198H5927H5630H2550H970H2763H66354They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians

, slashed to death in her streets.H2491H5307H776H3778H1856H23515For 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.”H3478H488H3063H430H3068H6635H776H4390H817H6918H34786Flee 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.H5127H8432H894H4422H376H5315H1826H5771H6256H3068H5360H7999H15767Babylon 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.H894H2091H3563H3068H3027H776H7937H1471H8354H3196H1471H19848But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen. Weep for her. Give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed.H894H6597H5307H7665H3213H3947H6875H4341H74959We 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.H7495H894H7495H5800H3212H376H776H4941H5060H8064H5375H783410The Lord has vindicated us. Come, let us announce in Jerusalem

everything the Lord our God has done.H3068H3318H6666H935H5608H6726H4639H3068H43011Sharpen 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.H1305H2671H4390H7982H3068H5782H7307H4428H4074H4209H894H7843H5360H3068H5360H196412Raise 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.H5375H5251H2346H894H4929H2388H6965H8104H3559H693H3068H2161H6213H1696H3427H89413You are a city by a great river, a great center of commerce, but your end has come. The thread of your life is cut.H7931H7931H7227H4325H7227H214H7093H935H520H121514The 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.”H3068H6635H7650H5315H4390H120H3218H6030H195915The Lord made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens.H6213H776H3581H3559H8398H2451H5186H8064H839416When 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.H5414H6963H1995H4325H8064H5387H5927H7097H776H6213H1300H4306H3318H7307H21417The 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.H120H1197H1847H6884H3001H6459H5262H8267H730718Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.H1892H4639H8595H6256H6486H619But 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!H2506H3290H3335H7626H5159H3068H6635H803420“You

are my battle-ax and sword,” says the Lord. “With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms.H4661H3627H4421H5310H1471H7843H446721With you I will shatter armies—destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer.H5310H5483H7392H5310H7393H739222With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens.H5310H376H802H5310H2205H5288H5310H970H133023With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and officers.H5310H7462H5739H5310H406H6776H5310H6346H546124“I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia

for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.H7999H894H3427H3778H7451H6213H6726H5869H5002H306825“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.H4889H2022H5002H3068H7843H776H5186H3027H1556H5553H5414H8316H202226You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out,” says the Lord.H3947H68H6438H68H4146H8077H5769H5002H306827Raise 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!H5375H5251H776H8628H7782H1471H6942H1471H8085H4467H780H4508H813H6485H2951H5483H5927H5569H321828Bring against her the armies of the nations—led by the kings of the Medes and all their captains and officers.H6942H1471H4428H4074H6346H5461H776H447529The 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.H776H7493H2342H4284H3068H6965H894H7760H776H894H8047H342730Her 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.H1368H894H2308H3898H3427H4679H1369H5405H802H3341H4908H1280H766531The news is passed from one runner to the next as the messengers hurry to tell the king that his city has been captured.H7323H7323H7125H7323H5046H7125H5046H5046H4428H894H5892H3920H709732All the escape routes are blocked. The marshes have been set aflame, and the army is in a panic.H4569H8610H98H8313H784H582H4421H92633This 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.”H559H3068H6635H430H3478H1323H894H1637H6256H1869H4592H6256H7105H93534“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.H5019H4428H894H398H2000H3322H7385H3627H1104H8577H4390H3770H5730H174035Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,” say the people of Zion. “Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,” says Jerusalem.H2555H7607H894H3427H6726H559H1818H3427H3778H3389H55936This 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,H559H3068H7378H7379H5358H5360H2717H3220H4726H300137and 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.H894H1530H4583H8577H8047H8322H342738Her people will roar together like strong lions. They will growl like lion cubs.H7580H3162H3715H5286H738H148439And 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.H2527H7896H4960H7937H5937H3462H5769H8142H6974H5002H306840“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed.H3381H3733H2873H352H626041“How Babylon

is fallen—great Babylon, praised throughout the earth! Now she has become an object of horror among the nations.H8347H3920H8416H776H8610H894H8047H147142The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its crashing waves.H3220H5927H894H3680H1995H153043Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wasteland where no one lives or even passes by.H5892H8047H6723H776H6160H776H376H3427H1121H120H5674H200444And 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!H6485H1078H894H3318H6310H1105H1471H5102H2346H894H530745“Come out, my people, flee from Babylon. Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger.H5971H3318H8432H4422H376H5315H2740H639H306846But 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.H3824H7401H3372H8052H8085H776H8052H935H8141H310H8141H8052H2555H776H4910H491047For 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.H3117H935H6485H6456H894H776H954H2491H5307H843248Then the heavens and earth will rejoice, for out of the north will come destroying armies against Babylon,” says the Lord.H8064H776H7442H894H7703H935H6828H5002H306849“Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel and others throughout the world, so must her people be killed.H1571H894H2491H3478H5307H894H5307H2491H77650Get 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.”H6405H2719H1980H5975H2142H3068H7350H3389H5927H382451“We are ashamed,” the people say. “We are insulted and disgraced because the Lord’s Temple has been defiled by foreigners.”H954H8085H2781H3639H3680H6440H2114H935H4720H3068H100452“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.H3117H935H5002H3068H6485H6456H776H2491H60253Though 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!H894H5927H8064H1219H4791H5797H227H7703H935H5002H306854“Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.H6963H2201H894H1419H7667H776H377855For 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.H3068H7703H894H6H1419H6963H1530H1993H7227H4325H7588H6963H541456Destroying 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.H7703H935H894H1368H3920H7198H2865H3068H410H1578H7999H799957I 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.H7937H8269H2450H6346H5461H1368H3462H5769H8142H6974H5002H4428H8034H3068H663558This 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!”H559H3068H6635H7342H2346H894H6209H6209H1364H8179H3341H784H5971H3021H7385H3816H1767H784H328659The 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

.H1697H3414H5030H6680H8304H1121H5374H1121H4271H3212H6667H4428H3063H894H7243H8141H4427H8304H4496H826960Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon—all the words written here.H3414H3789H259H5612H7451H935H894H1697H3789H89461He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll.H3414H559H8304H935H894H7200H7121H169762Then 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.’H559H3068H1696H4725H3772H3427H120H929H8077H576963When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River.H3615H7121H5612H7194H68H7993H8432H657864Then 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

Jeremiah 52

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.H6667H259H6242H8141H1121H4427H4427H259H6240H8141H3389H517H8034H2537H1323H3414H38412But Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.H6213H7451H5869H3068H3079H62133These 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.H5921H639H3068H3389H3063H7993H6440H6667H4775H4428H8944So 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.H8671H8141H4427H6224H2320H6218H2320H5019H4428H894H935H2428H3389H2583H1129H1785H54395Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.H935H5892H4692H6249H6240H8141H4428H66676By 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.H7243H2320H8672H2320H7458H2388H5892H3899H5971H7767Then 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.H5892H1234H582H4421H1272H3318H5892H3915H1870H8179H2346H4428H1588H3778H5892H5439H3212H1870H61608But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and caught him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.H2428H3778H7291H310H4428H5381H6667H6160H3405H2428H63279They took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.H8610H4428H5927H4428H894H7247H776H2574H1696H494110He made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons and all the other officials of Judah.H4428H894H7819H1121H6667H5869H7819H8269H3063H724711Then 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.H5786H5869H6667H4428H894H631H5178H935H894H5414H1004H6486H3117H419412On 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.H2549H2320H6218H2320H8672H6240H8141H8141H5019H4428H894H935H5018H7227H2876H5975H6440H4428H894H338913He 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.H8313H1004H3068H4428H1004H1004H3389H1004H1419H8313H78414Then he supervised the entire Babylonian

army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.H2428H3778H7227H2876H5422H2346H3389H543915Nebuzaradan, 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.H5018H7227H2876H1540H1803H5971H3499H5971H7604H5892H5307H5307H4428H894H3499H52716But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in Judah to care for the vineyards and fields.H5018H7227H2876H7604H1803H776H3755H300917The 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.H5982H5178H1004H3068H4350H5178H3220H1004H3068H3778H7665H5375H5178H89418They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.H5518H3257H4212H4219H3709H3627H5178H8334H394719Nebuzaradan, 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.H5592H4289H4219H5518H4501H3709H4518H2091H2091H3701H3701H3947H7227H2876H394720The 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.H8147H5982H259H3220H8147H6240H5178H1241H4350H4428H8010H6213H1004H3068H5178H3627H494821Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference

. They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.H5982H6967H259H5982H8083H6240H520H2339H8147H6240H520H5437H5672H702H676H501422The 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.H3805H5178H6967H259H3805H2568H520H7639H7416H3805H5439H5178H8145H5982H741623There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 on the network around the top.H8673H8337H7416H7307H7416H7639H3967H543924Nebuzaradan, 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.H7227H2876H3947H8304H7218H3548H6846H4932H3548H7969H8104H559225And 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.H3947H5892H259H5631H6496H582H4421H7651H582H7200H4428H6440H4672H5892H8269H5608H6635H6633H5971H776H8346H376H5971H776H4672H8432H589226Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah.H5018H7227H2876H3947H3212H4428H894H724727And 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.H4428H894H5221H4191H7247H127H2574H3063H1540H77628The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign

was 3,023.H5971H5019H1540H7651H8141H7969H505H3064H7969H624229Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year

he took 832 more.H8083H6240H8141H5019H1540H3389H8083H3967H7970H8147H531530In 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.H7969H6242H8141H5019H5018H7227H2876H1540H3064H7651H3967H705H2568H5315H5315H702H505H8337H396731In 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.H7651H7970H8141H1546H3078H4428H3063H8147H6240H2320H2568H6242H2320H192H4428H894H8141H4438H5375H7218H3078H4428H3063H3318H1004H362832He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.H1696H2896H5414H3678H4605H3678H4428H89433He 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.H8138H3608H899H8548H398H3899H6440H3117H241634So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived. This continued until the day of his death.H737H8548H737H5414H4428H894H3117H3117H1697H3117H4194H3117H2416