The Utter Destruction of Babylon
1 Thus says theLord:
# “Behold, I will raise up againstBabylon,
Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,
# A destroying wind.
2 And I will sendwinnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
# For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
3 Againstherlet the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up againstherin his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
# Utterly destroy all her army.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
# Andthosethrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel isnot forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, theLordof hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
# Forthisisthe time of theLord’s vengeance;
# He shall recompense her.
7 Babylonwasa golden cup in theLord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
# The nations drank her wine;
# Therefore the nationsare deranged.
8 Babylon has suddenlyfallen and been destroyed.
# Wail for her!
# Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
# Forsake her, andlet us go everyone to his own country;
# For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
10 TheLordhasrevealed our righteousness.
# Come and let usdeclare in Zion the work of theLordour God.
11 Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
# TheLordhas raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
# For His planisagainst Babylon to destroy it,
# Because itisthe vengeance of theLord,
The vengeance for His temple.
12 Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For theLordhas both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
14 TheLordof hosts has sworn by Himself:
# “Surely I will fill you with men,as with locusts,
# And they shall liftup a shout against you.”
15 He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
# Andstretched out the heaven by His understanding.
16 When He uttersHisvoice—
Thereisa multitude of waters in the heavens:
# “He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
17 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
# For his molded imageisfalsehood,
Andthereisno breath in them.
18 Theyarefutile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19 The Portion of Jacobisnot like them,
For Heisthe Maker of all things;
AndIsraelisthe tribe of His inheritance.
TheLordof hostsisHis name.
20 “YouareMy battle-axandweapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
# With you I will break in piecesold and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23 With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
24 “AndI will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says theLord.
25 “Behold, Iamagainst you,O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says theLord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
# And make you a burnt mountain.
26 They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
# But you shall be desolate forever,” says theLord.
27 Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
# Prepare the nations against her,
# Callthe kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
28 Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
29 And the land will tremble and sorrow;
# For everypurpose of theLordshall be performed against Babylon,
# To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
# They becamelikewomen;
They have burned her dwelling places,
# The bars of hergateare broken.
31 One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken onallsides;
32 The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
33 For thus says theLordof hosts, the God of Israel:
# “The daughter of Babylonislike a threshing floor
# Whenit is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
# And the time of her harvest will come.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
# Hasdevoured me, he has crushed me;
# He has made me anempty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
35 Let the violencedoneto me and my fleshbeupon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.
36 Therefore thus says theLord:
# “Behold,I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
# I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
# An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
39 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 theLord.
40 “I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.
41 “Oh, howSheshach is taken!
# Oh, howthe praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
42 The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
# A land whereno one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
44 I will punishBel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
# Yes,the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 “Mypeople, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of theLord.
46 And lest your heart faint,
# And you fearfor the rumor thatwillbeheard in the land
(A rumor will comeoneyear,
And after that, inanotheryear
A rumorwillcome,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
47 Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48 Thenthe heavens and the earth and all thatisin them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
# For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says theLord.
49 As Babylonhascausedthe slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
# Remember theLordafar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
# For strangershave come into the sanctuaries of theLord’s house.
52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says theLord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yetfrom Me plunderers would come to her,” says theLord.
54 The sound of a crycomesfrom Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55 Because theLordis plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
56 Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
# For theLordisthe God of recompense,
He will surely repay.
57 “And I will make drunk
# Her princes andwise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
# And not awake,” saysthe King,
Whose nameistheLordof hosts.
58 Thus says theLordof hosts:
# “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterlybroken,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
# The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”
Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son ofNeriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiahwasthe quartermaster.
60 So Jeremiahwrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words,
62 then you shall say, ‘OLord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so thatnone shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’
63 Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book,thatyou shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.
64 Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”
Thus fararethe words of Jeremiah.