1Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am stirring up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Leb-qamai, a destroying wind.
2And I will send winnowers to Babylon, and they will winnow her and empty out her land; for they will be against her on every side in the day of disaster.
3Against him let the archer bend his bow, and against him let him rise up in his coat of mail. Do not spare her young men; devote to destruction all her army.
4And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and those pierced through in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah are not widowed of their God, of Yahweh of Hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let each save his life; do not be cut off in her iniquity, for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance—he is repaying her recompense.
7Babylon was a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, making all the earth drunk; the nations drank of her wine, therefore the nations act like madmen.
8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken. Wail over her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.
9‘We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the skies.’
10Yahweh has brought forth our vindication. Come, and let us recount in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.
11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of Media, for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance for his temple.
12Against the walls of Babylon raise a standard! Strengthen the watch, station the watchmen, prepare the ambushers! For Yahweh has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13O you who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
14Yahweh of Hosts has sworn by himself: Surely I will fill you with men like locusts, and they will raise the shout against you.
15He who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens—
16at the sound of his giving voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17Every man is stupid, without knowledge; every metalsmith is put to shame by his idol, for his cast image is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
18They are worthless, a work of mockery; at the time of their punishment they will perish.
19Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for he is the fashioner of all things, and the tribe of his inheritance; Yahweh of Hosts is his name.
20You are my war club, my weapons of battle; with you I will shatter nations, and with you I will destroy kingdoms.
21With you I shatter the horse and its rider, and with you I shatter the chariot and its driver.
22With you I shatter man and woman, and with you I shatter old and young, and with you I shatter young man and virgin.
23With you I shatter shepherd and his flock, and with you I shatter the farmer and his team, and with you I shatter governors and prefects.
24And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they did in Zion before your eyes, declares Yahweh.
25Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares Yahweh, you who destroy all the earth; I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags and make you a burnt mountain.
26They will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for foundations, for you will be everlasting desolations, declares Yahweh.
27Raise a standard in the land, blow a trumpet among the nations! Consecrate the nations against her, summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her, bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of Media, its governors and all its prefects, and every land of its dominion.
29And the land quakes and writhes, for Yahweh’s plans against Babylon stand firm, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30Babylon’s warriors have ceased to fight; they remain in the strongholds; their strength has dried up; they have become women. Her dwellings are set ablaze; her bars are broken.
31Runner runs to meet runner, and messenger to meet messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.
32The fords have been seized, the marshes burned with fire, and the men of war are terrified.
33For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest will come for her.
34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has set me down like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like the sea-monster, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has rinsed me out.”
35“May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the inhabitant of Zion; “and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.
36Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am about to plead your case and take vengeance for you; I will dry up her sea and make her fountain run dry.
37And Babylon shall become heaps of rubble, a lair of jackals, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38Together they roar like young lions; they growl like lions’ cubs.
39While they are heated I will set out their banquets; I will make them drunk, so that they exult, then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares Yahweh.
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
41How Sheshach has been captured, the praise of all the earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its roaring waves.
43Her cities have become a horror, a land of drought and desert, a land where no one dwells and through which no son of man passes.
44And I will punish Bel in Babylon and bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; the nations shall no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45Come out of her midst, my people! Let each save his life from the burning anger of Yahweh.
46And do not let your heart grow faint, and do not fear at the report heard in the land, when a report comes one year and after it a report another year, and violence is in the land, and ruler against ruler.
47Therefore, behold, days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north the destroyers will come against her, declares Yahweh.
49Babylon too must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon the slain of all the earth have fallen.
50You who have escaped the sword, go, do not stand still! Remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your heart.
51We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the holy places of the house of Yahweh.
52Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will punish her idols, and throughout all her land the wounded will groan.
53Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens, and though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, from me destroyers will come against her, declares Yahweh.
54The sound of a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55For Yahweh is destroying Babylon and silencing her great noise. Their waves roar like many waters; the tumult of their voice resounds.
56For a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are captured, their bows are shattered. For Yahweh is a God of recompense; he will surely repay.
57I will make her officials and her wise men, her governors and her prefects and her warriors drunk, and they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the King — Yahweh of hosts is his name.
58Thus says Yahweh of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly razed, and her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for the fire.
59The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was quartermaster.
60And Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the disaster that was to come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, see that you read aloud all these words,
62and say, ‘Yahweh, you yourself have spoken against this place, to cut it off, so that no one dwells in it, neither human nor beast, but it shall be desolations forever.’
63And when you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates,
64and say, ‘So shall Babylon sink and not rise, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her; and they shall grow weary.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
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