40I will bring them down like lambs for slaughter,
Like rams and he-goats.
41How has Sheshachi been captured,
The praise of the whole earth been taken!
How has Babylon become
A horror to the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon,
She is covered by its roaring waves.
43Her towns are a desolation,
A land of desert and steppe,
A land no man lives in
And no human passes through.
44And I will deal with Bel in Babylon,
And make him disgorge what he has swallowed,
And nations shall no more gaze on him with joy.
Even the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45Depart from there, O My people,
Save your lives, each of you,
From the furious anger of the LORD.
46Do not be downhearted or afraid
At the rumors heard in the land:
A rumor will come one year,
And another rumor the next year
Of violence in the land,
And of ruler against ruler.
47Assuredly, days are coming,
When I will deal with Babylon’s images;
Her whole land shall be shamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48Heavens and earth and all that is in them
Shall shout over Babylon;
For the ravagers shall come upon her from the north
—declares the LORD.
49Yes, Babylon is to fall
[For] the slain of Israel,
As the slain of all the earth
Have fallen through Babylon.
50You fugitives from the sword,
Go, don’t delay!
Remember the LORD from afar,
And call Jerusalem to mind.
51“We were shamed, we heard taunts;
Humiliation covered our faces,
When aliens entered
The sacred areas of the LORD’s House.”
52Assuredly, days are coming
—declares the LORD—
When I will deal with her images,
And throughout her land the dying shall groan.
53Though Babylon should climb to the skies,
Though she fortify her strongholds up to heaven,
The ravagers would come against her from Me
—declares the LORD.
54Hark! an outcry from Babylon,
Great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans.
55For the LORD is ravaging Babylon;
He will put an end to her great din,
Whose roar is like waves of mighty waters,
Whose tumultuous noise resounds.
56For a ravager is coming upon Babylon,
Her warriors shall be captured, their bows shall be snapped.
For the LORD is a God of requital,
He deals retribution.
57I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
Her governors and prefects and warriors;
And they shall sleep an endless sleep,
Never to awaken
—declares the King whose name is LORD of Hosts.
58Thus said the LORD of Hosts:
Babylon’s broad wall shall be knocked down,
And her high gates set afire.
Peoples shall labor for naught,
And nations have wearied themselves for fire.
59The instructions that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, when the latter went withj King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylonia, in the fourth year of [Zedekiah’s] reign. Seraiah was quartermaster.e 60Jeremiah wrote down in one scroll all the disaster that would come upon Babylon, all these things that are written concerning Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read out all these words. 62And say, ‘O LORD, You Yourself have declared concerning this place that it shall be cut off, without inhabitant, man or beast; that it shall be a desolation for all time.’ 63And when you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and hurl it into the Euphrates. 64And say, “Thus shall Babylon sink and never rise again, because of the disaster that I will bring upon it. And [nations] shall have wearied themselves [for fire].’ ”k
Thus far the words of Jeremiah.
52 aZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2He did what was displeasing to the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah b-were a cause of anger for the LORD, so that-b He east them out of His presence.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4And in the ninth year of hisc reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadrezzar moved against Jerusalem with his whole army. They besieged it and built towers against it all around. 5The city continued in a state of siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine had become acute in the city; there was no food left for the common people.
7Then [the wall of] the city was breached. All the soldiers fled; they left the city by night through the gate between the double walls, which is near the king’s garden—the Chaldeans were all around the city—and they set out for the Arabah.d 8But the Chaldean troops pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the steppes of Jericho, as his entire force left him and scattered. 9They captured the king and brought him before the king of Babylon at Riblah, in the region of Hamath; and he put him on trial. 10The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons slaughtered before his eyes; he also had all the officials of Judah slaughtered at Riblah. 11Then the eyes of Zedekiah were put out, and he was chained in bronze fetters. The king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and put him in prison, [where he remained] to the day of his death.
12On the tenth day of the fifth month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, came e-to represent-e the king of Babylon in Jerusalem. 13He burned the House of the LORD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of b-every notable person.-b 14The entire Chaldean force that was with the chief of the guards tore down all the walls of Jerusalem on every side. 15The remnant of the people left in the city, the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and what remained of the craftsmenf were taken into exile by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards. But some of the poorest elements of the population—16some of the poorest in the land—were left by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, to be vine-dressers and field hands.
17The Chaldeans broke up the bronze columns of the House of the LORD, the stands, and the bronze tank that was in the House of the LORD; and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon. 18They also took the pails, scrapers, snuffers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and all the other bronze vessels used in the service. 19The chief of the guards took whatever was of gold and whatever was of silver: basins, fire pans, sprinkling bowls, pails, lampstands, ladles, and jars. 20The two columns, the one tank and the twelve bronze oxen which supported it, and the stands, which King Solomon had provided for the House of the LORD—all these objects contained bronze beyond weighing. 21As for the columns, each was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; it was hollow, and [the metal] was four fingers thick. 22It had a bronze capital above it; the height of each capital was five cubits, and there was a meshwork [decorated] with pomegranates about the capital, all made of bronze; and so for the second column, also with pomegranates. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates b-facing outward;-b all the pomegranates around the meshwork amounted to one hundred.
24The chief of the guards also took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the deputy priest, and the three guardians of the threshold. 25And from the city he took a eunuch who was in command of the soldiers; seven royal privy councilors, who were present in the city; the scribe of the army commander, who was in charge of mustering the people of the land; and sixty of the common people who were inside the city. 26Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27The king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death at Riblah, in the region of Hamath.
Thus Judah was exiled from its land. 28This is the number of those whom Nebuchadrezzar exiled in the seventh year: 3,023 Judeans. 29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, 832 persons [were exiled] from Jerusalem. 30And in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, exiled 745 Judeans. The total amounted to 4,600 persons.
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, g-took note of-g King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above those of other kings who were with him in Babylon. 33He removed his prison garments and [Jehoiachin] ate regularly in his presence the rest of his life. 34A regular allotment of food was given him by order of the king of Babylon, an allotment for each day, to the day of his death—all the days of his life.
a Heb. shaqed.
b Heb. shoqed.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d I.e., against Jerusalem and Judah.
e Lit. “the people of the land.”
a Lit. “shepherds”; cf. 3.15; 23.1 ff.
b Cities in Egypt. The Egyptians, like the Assyrians, will prove a disappointment; cf. v. 36.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d-d Lit. “that is what your forsaking the LORD your God is doing to you.”
e For the form, cf. shaqqamti, Judg. 5.7; others “1.”
f Following the kethib; qere “transgress.”
g I.e., of Hinnom; cf. 7.31–32; 32.35.
h I.e., other gods.
i In which case there might have been an excuse for killing them; cf. Exod. 22.1.
j-j A gesture of wild grief; cf. 2 Sam. 13.19
a Cf. Deut. 24.1–4.
b Lit. “Arab.”
c Lit. “forehead.”
d Cf. Akkadian parallels nadāaru and sham&aamacr;aru.
e-e Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
f She deserted her God for idols of stone and wood.
g Lit. “ways.”
h Meaning of Heb. ba’alti uncertain; compare 31.32.
i I.e., Israel and Judah.
j-j I.e., the pagan rites celebrated on the hills are futile; exact
