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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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CHAPTER 51
Judgments and destruction shall come upon Babylon for her sins—Israel is
commanded: Flee ye from Babylon—Israel is the Lord's rod to destroy all
kingdoms.
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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 awind;
2 And will send unto Babylon
afanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for
in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
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.
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4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel hath not been
aforsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts;
though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee aout of the midst of
bBabylon, 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.
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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.
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed:
ahowl for her; take bbalm for her pain,
if so be 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 acountry:
for her bjudgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up
even to the skies.
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10 The LORD hath abrought forth our
righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our
God.
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.
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.
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13 O thou that dwellest upon many
awatersa, abundant in
btreasures, thine end is come, and the measure of
thy covetousness.
14 The LORD of hosts hath asworn by
himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with
caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
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13a many waters Perhaps thought
to be the manner of the speech of the American Indian, such terms as 'many
waters' is of Biblical and ancient Israel origin. Even in the Book of Mormon
it is used is reference to the many or great waters of the ocean, even
irreantum (1 Nephi 17:5).
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15 He hath amade the earth by his
bpower, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and
hath stretched out the heaven by his cunderstanding.
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.
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17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge;
every founder is confounded by the agraven image: for his
molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for
he is the aformer of all
thingsa: and Israel is the
rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.
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19a the former of all things
The 'creation' of something out of nothing in a false doctrine of the
apostate church. Joseph Smith taught that there is no such thing as immaterial
matter and that creation of something out of nothing is not possible. And thus
it is that here it speaks of the 'creation' as a matter of 'forming' things,
that is organizing matter, its rearrangment and restructuring what already is
into that which the 'former' or 'reformer' of it desires it to be. This does
not diminish the power of God but only states it in its magnificient truth
that God does command the elements and forms them according to the word of his
command.
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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;
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;
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;
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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.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the
inhabitants of Chaldea all their aevil that they have done
in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.
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25 Behold, I am against thee, O
adestroying 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.
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.
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27 Set ye up a astandard 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.
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.
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.
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30 The mighty men of Babylon have
aforborn to fight, they have remained in their
holds: their might hath failed; they became as bwomen: they
have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
31 One apost shall run to meet
another, and one messenger to meet another, to bshew the
king of cBabylon that his city is dtaken
at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
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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
aharvest shall come.
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 adragon, he hath filled his belly with my
delicates, he hath cast me out.
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.
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36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will
plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will
adry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
37 And aBabylon shall become heaps,
a dwellingplace for bdragons, an astonishment, and an
hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps.
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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.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41 How is aSheshach taken! and how
is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an
astonishment among the nations!
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42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that
is therein, shall asing for Babylon: for the
spoilers shall come unto her from the bnorth, saith the
LORD.
49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
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50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are aconfounded, because we
have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come
into the bsanctuaries of the LORD's house.
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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.
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.
54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
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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:
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.
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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.
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 avain, and the folk in
the fire, and they shall be weary.
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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 aSeraiah was a quiet prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that
should come upon Babylon, even all these awords that
are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken
against this place, to acut it off, that none shall remain
in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be
bdesolate for ever.
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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:
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.
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