Thus saith
the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against
Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst
of them that rise up against me, a destroying
wind;
02 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall
fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day
of trouble they shall be against her round about.
03 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend
his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up
in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young
men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
04 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the
Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in
her streets.
05 For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah
of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their
land was filled with sin against the Holy One of
Israel.
06 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver
every man his soul: be not cut off in her
iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord's
vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.
07 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's
hand, that made all the earth drunken: the
nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the
nations are mad.
08 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl
for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may
be healed.
09 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not
healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into
his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto
heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness:
come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the
Lord our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields:
the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings
of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon,
to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the
Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon,
make the watch strong, set up the watchmen,
prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both
devised and done that which he spake against the
inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters,
abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the
measure of thy covetousness.
14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself,
saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with
caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout
against thee.
15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath
established the world by his wisdom, and hath
stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a
multitude of waters in the heavens; and he
causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of
the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and
bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every
founder is confounded by the graven image: for
his molten image is falsehood, and there is no
breath in them.
18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the
time of their visitation 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 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for
with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and
with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse
and his rider; and with thee will I break in
pieces the chariot and his rider;
22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and
woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old
and young; and with thee will I break in pieces
the young man and the maid;
23 I will also break in pieces with thee the
shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I
break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of
oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces
captains and rulers.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the
inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they
have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.
25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying
mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all
the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon
thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will
make thee a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a
corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou
shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord.
27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the
trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations
against her, call together against her the
kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint
a captain against her; cause the horses to come
up as the rough caterpillers.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings
of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the
rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for
every purpose of the Lord shall be performed
against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a
desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to
fight, they have remained in their holds: their
might hath failed; they became as women: they
have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are
broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one
messenger to meet another, to shew the king of
Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the
reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of
war are affrighted.
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33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a
threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a
little while, and the time of her harvest shall
come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath
devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me
an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a
dragon, he hath filled his belly with my
delicates, he hath cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be
upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say;
and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,
shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will
plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and
I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a
dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and
an hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions: they
shall yell as lions' whelps.
39 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.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the
slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise
of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon
become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is
covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a
wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth,
neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will
bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath
swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow
together any more unto him: yea, the wall of
Babylon shall fall.
45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and
deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce
anger of the Lord.
46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the
rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour
shall both come one year, and after that in
another year shall come a rumour, and violence in
the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will
do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon:
and her whole land shall be confounded, and all
her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is
therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers
shall come unto her from the north, saith the
Lord.
49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to
fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all
the earth.
50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand
not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let
Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are confounded, because we have heard
reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for
strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the
Lord's house.
52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will do judgment upon her graven
images: and through all her land the wounded
shall groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and
though she should fortify the height of her
strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto
her, saith the Lord.
54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and
great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
55 Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon, and
destroyed out of her the great voice; when her
waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their
voice is uttered:
56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even
upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every
one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of
recompences shall surely requite.
57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her
wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her
mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual
sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name
is the Lord of hosts.
58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls
of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high
gates shall be burned with fire; and the people
shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire,
and they shall be weary.
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded
Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah,
when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into
Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this
Seraiah was a quiet prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that
should come upon Babylon, even all these words
that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest
to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all
these words;
62 Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken
against this place, to cut it off, that none
shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but
that it shall be desolate for ever.
63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of
reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone
to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink,
and shall not rise from the evil that I will
bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far
are the words of Jeremiah.
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