Jeremiah

¹ “See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.

² to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster.

³ nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army.

⁴ fatally wounded in her streets.

⁵ by their God, the Lord Almighty, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶ Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the Lord’s vengeance; he will pay her what she deserves.

⁷ she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.

⁸ Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

⁹ but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the clouds.’

¹⁰ come, let us tell in Zion what the Lord our God has done.’

¹¹ take up the shields! The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. The Lord will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

¹² Reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare an ambush! The Lord will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon.

¹³ and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be cut off.

¹⁴ I will surely fill you with men, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.

¹⁵ he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

¹⁶ he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁷ every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have no breath in them.

¹⁸ when their judgment comes, they will perish.

¹⁹ for he is the Maker of all things, including the tribe of his inheritance— the Lord Almighty is his name.

²⁰ my weapon for battle— with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms,

²¹ with you I shatter chariot and driver,

²² with you I shatter old man and youth, with you I shatter young man and maiden,

²³ with you I shatter farmer and oxen, with you I shatter governors and officials.

²⁴ “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the Lord.

²⁵ you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the Lord. “I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain.

²⁶ nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,” declares the Lord.

²⁷ Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts.

²⁸ the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule.

²⁹ for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand— to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there.

³⁰ they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.

³¹ and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured,

³² the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.”

³³ “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.”

³⁴ he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out.

³⁵ say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem.

³⁶ “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

³⁷ a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.

³⁸ they growl like lion cubs.

³⁹ I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter— then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the Lord.

⁴⁰ like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.

⁴¹ the boast of the whole earth seized! What a horror Babylon will be among the nations!

⁴² its roaring waves will cover her.

⁴³ a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no man travels.

⁴⁴ and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵ Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.

⁴⁶ when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷ when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her.

⁴⁸ will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her,” declares the Lord.

⁴⁹ just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁰ leave and do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, and think on Jerusalem.”

⁵¹ for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the Lord’s house.”

⁵² “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

⁵³ and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the Lord.

⁵⁴ the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

⁵⁵ he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound.

⁵⁶ her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. For the Lord is a God of retribution; he will repay in full.

⁵⁷ her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.

⁵⁸ “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”

⁵⁹ This is the message Jeremiah gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign.

⁶⁰ Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon.

⁶¹ He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.

⁶² Then say, ‘O Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither man nor animal will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’

⁶³ When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.

⁶⁴ The words of Jeremiah end here.