 1 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up a destroying wind against Babylon, and against those dwelling in the heart of my foes. 2 I will send aliens to Babylon who will sift her and will empty her land. For in the day of trouble they shall be against her all around. 3 Do not let the treader fully tread his bow. Nor lift himself up in his armor. And do not spare her young men. Utterly destroy all her army. 4 So the dead will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, those thrust through in her streets. 5 For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God, by the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. 6 Flee out of the middle of Babylon and each man deliver his soul. Do not be cut off in her iniquity for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance. He will give to her a just reward. 7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, which made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine. Therefore the nations rage. 8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. Wail for her. Take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed. 9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her and let us go, each one into his own country. For her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the skies. 10 The Lord has brought forth our righteousness. Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God. 11 Sharpen the arrows. Gather the shields. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it. Because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple. 12 Set up the banner on the walls of Babylon. Make the watch strong. Set up the watchmen. Prepare the ambushes. For the Lord has both planned and done what He spoke against the people of Babylon. 13 O you who live on many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your unjust gain. 14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself saying, Surely I will fill you with men as with locusts and they will raise a shout against you. 15 He has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom and has stretched out the heavens by His understanding. 16 When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens. He causes the mists to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with rain and brings forth the wind out of His treasures. 17 Every man is brutish in knowledge. Every refiner is put to shame by idols. For his molded image is a lie, and no breath is in them. 18 They are vanity, the work of errors. In the time of their judgment they shall perish. 19 The Portion of Jacob is not like them. For He is the Former of all things, and Israel is the rod of His inheritance. The Lord of hosts is His name. 20 You are my war club and weapons of war. For with you I will shatter nations. And with you I will destroy kingdoms. 21 With you I will shatter the horse and his rider. And with you I will shatter the chariot and his rider. 22 Also with you I will shatter man and woman. And with you I will shatter old and young. And with you I will shatter the young man and the girl. 23 I will also shatter the shepherd and his flock with you. And with you I will shatter the farmer and his team. And with you I will shatter heads and rulers. 24 I will give to Babylon, and to all the people of Chaldea, all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the Lord. 25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the Lord, who destroys all the earth. And I will stretch out my hand on you and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain. 26 They shall not take a stone from you for a corner, nor a stone for foundations. But you shall be a waste forever, says the Lord. 27 Set up a banner in the land. Blow a trumpet among the nations. Prepare the nations against her. Call the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her. Set a commander against her. Cause the horses to come up as the rough locusts. 28 Consecrate nations against her, with the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her rulers, and all the land of his kingdom. 29 The land will tremble and writhe. For every purpose of the Lord will be done against Babylon to make the land of Babylon a desert without inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting. They have remained in strongholds. Their might has failed. They became like women. They have burned her houses. Her bars are broken. 31 A runner will run to meet a runner and a herald to a herald to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end. 32 The fords are stopped and they have burned the reeds with fire and the men of war are frightened. 33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. It is time to thresh her. Yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come. 34 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a jackal. He has filled his belly with good things. He has thrown me out. 35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon. The inhabitant in Zion will say, My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea. Jerusalem will say. 36 So the Lord says this: Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you. And I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. 37 Babylon shall become heaps, a home for jackals, a horror and a hissing, without an inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions. They shall growl like lions' cubs. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk so that they may rejoice and sleep a never ending sleep, and never awaken, says the Lord. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. 41 How Sheshach is captured. And how the praise of the whole earth is seized. How Babylon has become a horror 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 desert, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no one lives, nor does any son of man pass by it. 44 I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth what he has swallowed up. And the nations shall not flow together any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45 My people, go out of her midst. And let each man deliver his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. 46 Do not let your heart faint nor fear the rumor that will be heard in the land. The report will come in a year. After that a report will come in another year and violence will be in the land, ruler against ruler. 47 The days are coming that I will punish the idols of Babylon. All her land will be put to shame and all her slain will fall in her midst. 48 The heavens and the earth and all that is in them will shout for Babylon. For the plunderers will come to her from the north, says the Lord. 49 As Babylon is to fall for the dead of Israel, so at Babylon the dead of all the earth will fall. 50 You who have escaped the sword, go away. Do not stand still. Remember the Lord from far away and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51 We have turned pale because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for foreigners have come into the holy places of the Lord's house. 52 So, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 Though Babylon should mount up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet plunderers shall come to her from me, says the Lord. 54 A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great ruin from the land of the Chaldeans. 55 The Lord is stripping Babylon and the great voice will perish out of her. Her waves will roar like great waters. The noise of their voice is given, 56 The ravager has come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are captured. Every one of their bows is broken. For the Lord God of vengeance will surely repay. 57 I will make her rulers drunk, also her wise ones, her governors, and her rulers, and her mighty men. They will sleep a never ending sleep and not awaken, says the King whose name is the Lord of hosts. 58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be completely broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. And the people shall labor in vain, and the people shall be in the fire, and they shall be weary. 59 The Word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was a quiet prince. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon and see and read all these words, 62 then you will say, O Lord, you have spoken against this place to cut it off so that no one will remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it will be a ruin forever. 63 When you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of Euphrates. 64 Say, In this way, Babylon will sink and will not rise from the evil that I will bring on her. They will be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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