While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB When they are heated, 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.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, That they may rejoice, And sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the Lord.
- NASB “When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And make them drunk, so that they may rejoice in triumph, And may sleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up,” declares the Lord.
- NLT And 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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When they are heated with revelry, God will set them a feast, make them drunk, and send them into a perpetual sleep from which they never wake. God turns Babylon's celebration into the sleep of death.
Overview
This pictures Babylon carousing while God prepares the cup of judgment, recalling Daniel 5, where the city fell during Belshazzar's feast. The 'perpetual sleep' is death itself, an everlasting silencing of the proud. The verse warns against false security in pleasure and reminds readers that only those awakened by Christ pass from death to life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
- Jer 25:27“Then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, because of the sword I will send among you.’
- Nah 1:10For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
- Nah 3:11You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.
- Isa 22:12–14On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Ps 76:5–6The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.
- Isa 21:4–5My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight of my desire has turned to horror.
- Jer 48:26“Make him drunk, because he has magnified himself against the LORD; so Moab will wallow in his own vomit, and he will also become a laughingstock.
- Dan 5:1–4Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.
- Ps 13:3Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,
- Dan 5:30That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 51:39 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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