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57 I will make her princes and sages drunk, with her governors, officers, and warriors, so that they sleep an everlasting sleep, never to awaken—oracle of the King, whose name is Lord of hosts.

58     Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The walls of spacious Babylon shall be leveled to the ground,
    its lofty gates destroyed by fire.
The toil of the peoples is for nothing;
    the nations weary themselves for what the flames consume.(A)

The Prophecy Sent to Babylon. 59 The mission Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah,[a] son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign; Seraiah was chief quartermaster.

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Footnotes

  1. 51:59 Seraiah: the brother of Baruch; cf. 32:12. He may have gone to Babylon to explain away the presence of foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem that same year; cf. 27:3.

57 I will make her officials(A) and wise(B) men drunk,(C)
    her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep(D) forever and not awake,”
    declares the King,(E) whose name is the Lord Almighty.

58 This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Babylon’s thick wall(F) will be leveled
    and her high gates(G) set on fire;
the peoples(H) exhaust(I) themselves for nothing,
    the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”(J)

59 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah,(K) the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah(L) king of Judah in the fourth(M) year of his reign.

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