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.
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB 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.
- 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, 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.
- Jer 25:27“You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’
- Nah 1:10For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
- Nah 3:11You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
- Isa 22:12–14In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
- Ps 76:5–6Valiant men lie plundered, they have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.
- Isa 21:4–5My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.
- Jer 48:26“Make him drunken; for he magnified himself against Yahweh: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
- Dan 5:1–4Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
- Ps 13:3Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
- Dan 5:30In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.