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¹ THUS says the LORD, the God of hosts: Behold, I will stir up against Babylon and against its inhabitants a man of cruel heart and like a destroying wind;² And I will send to Babylon destroyers, and they shall plunder her and tread her land under their feet; and they shall gather against her from every side in the day of trouble.³ The archer shall not cease from bending his bow, and the warrior shall not put off his breastplate; spare not her young men; destroy utterly all her host.⁴ Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans and the wounded lie in her streets.⁵ For Israel and Judah have not been bereaved of their God, of the LORD of hosts their God; though their land was filled with wickedness before the Holy One of Israel.⁶ Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let every man save his life; be not swallowed up in her iniquities; for this is the time of the LORDS vengeance; he will render to her according to her works.⁷ Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORDS hand that made all the earth drunken of her wine; all the nations have drunk, and therefore the nations stagger with drunkenness.⁸ Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; wail for her, take balm for her wound; perhaps she may be healed.⁹ We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; let us forsake her, and let us go every one to his own country; for her judgment has reached to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.¹⁰ The LORD has made evident our innocence; come, let us declare in Zion the works of the LORD our God.¹¹ Gather the quivers; fill them with arrows; the LORD has stirred up the spirit of the king of the Medes; for his device is against Babylon, to destroy her; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.¹² Set up the ensign upon the walls of Babylon, set up a watch, drown her in waters; for the LORD has performed that which he had devised against the inhabitants of Babylon.¹³ O you that dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come and your wound is grievous.¹⁴ The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, numerous as locusts; and they shall lift up a shout against you, saying, It is done! It is done!¹⁵ The LORD has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out heaven by his understanding.¹⁶ When he utters his voice, he causes the rushing sound of waters in the heavens; and he causes the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his storehouses.¹⁷ Every man is brutish, lacking knowledge; all silversmiths are put to shame by the images they have made; for they have cast falsehood, and there is no breath in them.¹⁸ They are worthless, the works of fools; in the time of punishment they shall perish.¹⁹ The portion of Jacob is not the same; for he who has created everything, he is their portion and the sceptre of their inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.²⁰ Prepare weapons of war, for with you will I scatter the nations and with you will I destroy kingdoms;²¹ And with you I will scatter horses and their riders, and with you I will scatter chariots and their riders,²² With you will I scatter men and women, and with you will I scatter the old men and the youths, and with you will I scatter the young men and the maids,²³ And with you will I scatter the shepherd and his flock, and with you will I scatter the plowman and his yoke of oxen, and with you will I scatter rulers and governors.²⁴ And I will recompense to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, before your eyes, for all the evil that they have done in Zion, says the LORD.²⁵ Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, which destroys all the earth; I will stretch out my hand against you and remove your foundation from the rock, and will make you a burnt mountain.²⁶ And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says the LORD.²⁷ Set up a banner in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Armenia, and Aschenaz; decree destruction against her; bring up horses like crawling locusts.²⁸ Prepare the nations for war against her, the king of the Medes and his princes and all his governors.²⁹ And the earth shall tremble and be confounded; for the purpose of the LORD against Babylon shall stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.³⁰ The warriors of Babylon, together with those who man the strongholds, have ceased to fight; their strength has failed; they became cowards; they have dismantled her tents; her bars are broken.³¹ One courier shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from every side,³² And that the crossings are seized and the bastions are burned with fire and all the men of war are in confusion.³³ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, when wheat is ready to be threshed; yet a little while and the time of harvest shall come.³⁴ Jerusalem has said, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has plundered me, he has made me like an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, and then he has caused me to go astray.³⁵ My spoil and my wealth are carried away to Babylon, my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, Jerusalem shall say.³⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; I will dry up the sea of Babylon, and make her springs dry.³⁷ And Babylon shall become heaps, 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 With venom I will prepare their drinks, and I will make them drunk, and they shall fall down and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, says the LORD.⁴⁰ And I will deliver them like fatlings to be slain, like rams and he-goats to slaughter.⁴¹ How is the royal city taken! the praise of the whole earth! How has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!⁴² The sea has come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.⁴³ Her cities have become a horror, like a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no man shall dwell, neither shall any son of man live in it.⁴⁴ And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not worship him anymore; yea, even the broad walls of Babylon shall fall.⁴⁵ My people, go out of the midst of her, and spare every man his life from the fierce anger of the LORD,⁴⁶ Lest your heart faint and be fearful at the rumors that shall be heard in the land; and a rumor shall come in one year, and the following year another rumor; and there shall be violence in the land, and ruler shall rise against ruler.⁴⁷ Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will break the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be destroyed, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.⁴⁸ Then the heaven and the earth and all that is in them shall rejoice over Babylon; for the spoilers shall come to her from the north, says the LORD.⁴⁹ And also in Babylon there shall fall the slain of Israel, and the slain of Babylon shall fall all over the earth.⁵⁰ You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still; remember the LORD from afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.⁵¹ And the house of Israel shall say, We are exceedingly ashamed, because we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces; for strangers have entered into the sanctuary of the LORD.⁵² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will bring punishment upon Babylon and destruction upon her graven images; and her slain shall fall throughout her land.⁵³ Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should set her fortifications in the heights, yet spoilers shall come from me upon her, says the LORD.⁵⁴ A sound of wailing comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans⁵⁵ Because the LORD has spoiled Babylon and destroyed out of her both man and beast; the great sound of their voices goes up like the roaring of many waters.⁵⁶ The spoilers have come upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, and their bows are broken in pieces; for God is the LORD of recompense; he will surely requite them.⁵⁷ And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her noble men and her rulers and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.⁵⁸ Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall surely be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the nations shall be weary with fire.

⁵⁹ The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Sheraiah the son of Neriah the son of Massaiah when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign, and Sheraiah was commander of an army.⁶⁰ So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.⁶¹ And Jeremiah said to Sheraiah, When you enter Babylon, see that you read all these words;⁶² Then say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this country, to destroy it, that none shall dwell in it. neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.⁶³ And when you have finished reading this scroll, then tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates;⁶⁴ And say, Thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise, because of the evil that I will bring upon her people; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.