Read & explore together
Babylon’s Punishment
Jeremiah 51:20 to 58 announces Babylon’s punishment in strong prophetic language. The passage describes Babylon’s collapse, explains why judgment is coming, and includes instructions for God’s people to leave and remember Yahweh.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
In these verses of Jeremiah 51, Yahweh speaks against Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldea. The prophecy connects Babylon’s downfall with the evil done in Zion, names nations prepared against her, and addresses people who have escaped and still remember Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 51:20–58Main takeaway
Yahweh declares that Babylon will be repaid for its violence, and his people are told to separate from the coming judgment and remember him.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A weapon and a sentence against BabylonThe opening repeats, “With you I will break in pieces”, showing wide-reaching judgment over nations, rulers, workers, and fighters.
Explanation
The opening repeats, “With you I will break in pieces”, showing wide-reaching judgment over nations, rulers, workers, and fighters. The passage does not identify the one addressed here. Then Babylon is named as the one to be repaid for evil done in Zion. Yahweh calls Babylon a destroying mountain that will become desolate.
02Nations gather and Babylon weakensA standard is raised and nations are called against Babylon, including the kings of the Medes.
Explanation
A standard is raised and nations are called against Babylon, including the kings of the Medes. Yahweh’s purposes stand, so the land trembles. Babylon’s mighty men stop fighting, the city is reported taken on every side, and Babylon is compared to a threshing floor whose harvest time is near.
03Zion’s cry and Yahweh’s replyZion says Nebuchadnezzar has devoured and crushed her, and Jerusalem asks that violence and blood be answered on Babylon.
Explanation
Zion says Nebuchadnezzar has devoured and crushed her, and Jerusalem asks that violence and blood be answered on Babylon. Yahweh replies that he will plead their cause, dry up Babylon’s waters, and make Babylon a ruin. The verses then picture Babylon’s people roaring like lions before being brought down in judgment.
04Leave Babylon and remember YahwehBabylon is described as taken, desolate, judged, and emptied. Yahweh says he will judge Bel, bring down Babylon’s wall, and execute judgment on her images.
Explanation
Babylon is described as taken, desolate, judged, and emptied. Yahweh says he will judge Bel, bring down Babylon’s wall, and execute judgment on her images. His people are told to leave, not let their hearts faint, and remember Yahweh and Jerusalem. The passage ends with Babylon’s cry, broken strength, and fallen walls.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How does the repeated phrase “with you I will break in pieces” shape the opening of the prophecy?
Notice how many different groups are named, which shows how broad and forceful the announced judgment is.
02What reasons in this passage are given for Babylon’s punishment?
Look for the evil done in Zion, the violence and blood named by Jerusalem, and the slain Babylon has caused.
03What are the escaped people told to do, and what sorrow do they express?
Find the commands to leave, not fear, and remember Yahweh and Jerusalem, then read the confession about reproach and strangers entering Yahweh’s sanctuaries.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Jeremiah 51:20–58
20“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
21With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.
22With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin.
23With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.
24“I will give to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says Yahweh.
25“Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.
26They won’t take a cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate forever,” says Yahweh.
27“Set 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 Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts!
28Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion!
29The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken.
31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
32So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.”
33For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest comes for her.”
34“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out.
35May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!” will Jerusalem say.
36Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
37Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38They will roar together like young lions. They will growl as lions’ cubs.
39When they are inflamed, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh.
40“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
41“How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
42The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells. No son of man passes by it.
44I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.
45“My people, go away from the middle of her, and each of you save yourselves from Yahweh’s fierce anger.
46Don’t let your heart faint. Don’t fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year, and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land will be confounded. All her slain will fall in the middle of her.
48Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, will sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers will come to her from the north,” says Yahweh.
49“As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon.
50You who have escaped the sword, go! Don’t stand still! Remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.”
51“We are confounded because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”
52“Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded will groan.
53Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet destroyers will come to her from me,” says Yahweh.
54“The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55For Yahweh lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice! Their waves roar like many waters. The noise of their voice is uttered.
56For the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon. Her mighty men are taken. Their bows are broken in pieces, for Yahweh is a God of retribution. He will surely repay.
57I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
58Yahweh of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary.”