Jeremiah 51:54

THE MESSAGE

"But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon! An unearthly wail out of Chaldea! God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon. We'll be hearing the last of her noise— Death throes like the crashing of waves, death rattles like the roar of cataracts. The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon: Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed. Indeed, God is a God who evens things out. All end up with their just deserts.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The sound of a cry from Babylon!The sound of terrible destructionfrom the land of the Chaldeans!

Hebrew Names Version
The sound of a cry from Bavel, and of great destruction from the land of the Kasdim!

King James Version
A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

English Standard Version
"A voice! A cry from Babylon! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

New American Standard Bible
The sound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

New Century Version
"Sounds of people crying are heard in Babylon. Sounds of people destroying things are heard in the land of the Babylonians.

Amplified Bible
The sound of an outcry [comes] from Babylon, And [the sound] of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

World English Bible
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Geneva Bible (1587)
A sound of a cry commeth from Babel, and great destruction from the land of the Caldeans,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
The sound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Legacy Standard Bible
The sound of an outcry from Babylon,And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Berean Standard Bible
The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Contemporary English Version
The Lord said: Listen to the cries for help coming from Babylon. Everywhere in the country the sounds of destruction can be heard.

Complete Jewish Bible
An agonized cry is heard from Bavel! Great destruction in the land of the Kasdim!

Darby Translation
The sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;

Easy-to-Read Version
"We can hear people crying in Babylon. We hear the sound of people destroying things in the land of Babylon.

George Lamsa Translation
A sound of wailing comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans

Good News Translation
The Lord says, "Listen to the sound of crying in Babylon, of mourning for the destruction in the land.

Lexham English Bible
The sound of a cry for help from Babylon, and a great collapse from the land of the Chaldeans.

Literal Translation
A sound of a cry from Babylon, and great ruin from the land of Chaldeans!

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A piteous crie shall be herde from Babilon, and a greate mysery from the londe of the Caldees:

American Standard Version
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Bible in Basic English
There is the sound of a cry from Babylon, and of a great destruction from the land of the Chaldaeans:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Hark! a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

King James Version (1611)
A sound of a crie commeth from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Caldeans.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
A piteous crye [shalbe hearde] from Babylon, and a great miserie from the lande of the Chaldees:

English Revised Version
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The vois of a criere of Babiloyne, and greet sorewe of the lond of Caldeis,

Update Bible Version
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

Webster's Bible Translation
A sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

New English Translation
Cries of anguish will come from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

New King James Version
The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,

New Living Translation
"Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

New Life Bible
The sound of a cry comes from Babylon! A noise comes from the land of the Babylonians because much is being destroyed!

New Revised Standard
Listen!—a cry from Babylon! A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans!

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A voice of outcry from Babylon! And a great crash from the land of the Chaldeans!

Douay-Rheims Bible
The noise of a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

Revised Standard Version
"Hark! a cry from Babylon! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chalde'ans!

Young's Literal Translation
A voice of a cry [is] from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldean.

Contextual Overview

¹There's more. God says more: "Watch this: I'm whipping up A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia'— against all who live in that perverse land. I'm sending a cleanup crew into Babylon. They'll clean the place out from top to bottom. When they get through there'll be nothing left of her worth taking or talking about. They won't miss a thing. A total and final Doomsday! Fighters will fight with everything they've got. It's no-holds-barred. They will spare nothing and no one. It's final and wholesale destruction—the end! Babylon littered with the wounded, streets piled with corpses. It turns out that Israel and Judah are not widowed after all. As their God, God -of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well, committed to them even though They filled their land with sin against Israel's most Holy God. ⁶"Get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Run for your lives! Save your necks! Don't linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her as I pay her back for her sins. Babylon was a fancy gold chalice held in my hand, Filled with the wine of my anger to make the whole world drunk. The nations drank the wine and they've all gone crazy. Babylon herself will stagger and crash, senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic! Get anointing balm for her wound. Maybe she can be cured." ⁹ "We did our best, but she can't be helped. Babylon is past fixing. Give her up to her fate. Go home. The judgment on her will be vast, a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance. ¹⁰ " God has set everything right for us. Come! Let's tell the good news Back home in Zion. Let's tell what our God did to set things right. ¹¹"Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! God has stirred up the kings of the Medes, infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!' God 's on the warpath. He's out to avenge his Temple. Give the signal to attack Babylon's walls. Station guards around the clock. Bring in reinforcements. Set men in ambush. God will do what he planned, what he said he'd do to the people of Babylon. You have more water than you need, you have more money than you need— But your life is over, your lifeline cut." ¹⁴ God -of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn: "I'll fill this place with soldiers. They'll swarm through here like locusts chanting victory songs over you." ¹⁵By his power he made earth. His wisdom gave shape to the world. He crafted the cosmos. He thunders and rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring. He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches the wind from his warehouse. Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish! god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods! Their gods are frauds, dead sticks— deadwood gods, tasteless jokes. They're nothing but stale smoke. When the smoke clears, they're gone. But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing; he put the whole universe together, With special attention to Israel. His name? God -of-the-Angel-Armies! ²⁰God says, "You, Babylon, are my hammer, my weapon of war. I'll use you to smash godless nations, use you to knock kingdoms to bits. I'll use you to smash horse and rider, use you to smash chariot and driver. I'll use you to smash man and woman, use you to smash the old man and the boy. I'll use you to smash the young man and young woman, use you to smash shepherd and sheep. I'll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen, use you to smash governors and senators. ²⁴ "Judeans, you'll see it with your own eyes. I'll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion." God 's Decree. ²⁵"I'm your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer, you ravager of the whole earth. I'll reach out, I'll take you in my hand, and I'll crush you till there's no mountain left. I'll turn you into a gravel pit— no more cornerstones cut from you, No more foundation stones quarried from you! Nothing left of you but gravel." God 's Decree.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Jeremiah 48:3-5, Jeremiah 50:22, Jeremiah 50:27, Jeremiah 50:43, Jeremiah 50:46, Isaiah 13:6-9, Isaiah 15:5, Zephaniah 1:10, Revelation 18:17-19

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 4:6 - and a great Jeremiah 46:12 - thy cry

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon,.... Of the inhabitants of it upon its being taken; which is said to denote the certainty of it, which was as sure as if the cry of the distressed was then heard:

and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans; that is, the report of a great destruction there, was, or would be, carried from thence, and spread all over the world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A cry - i. e., the war-cry.