It made the whole earth drunk;
The nations drank of her wine—
That is why the nations are mad.
8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered;
Howl over her!
Get balm for her wounds:
Perhaps she can be healed.
9We tried to cure Babylon
But she was incurable.
Let us leave her and go,
Each to his own land;
For her punishment reaches to heaven,
It is as high as the sky.
10The LORD has proclaimed our vindication;
Come, let us recount in Zion
The deeds of the LORD our God.
11Polish the arrows,
Fill the quivers!
The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of Media,
For His plan against Babylon is to destroy her.
This is the vengeance of the LORD,
Vengeance for His Temple.
12Raise a standard against the walls of Babylon!
Set up a blockade; station watchmen;
Prepare those in ambush.
For the LORD has both planned and performed
What He decreed against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13O you who dwell by great waters,
With vast storehouses,
Your time is come, e-the hour of your end.-e
14The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself:
I will fill you with men like a locust swarm,
They will raise a shout against you.
15He made the earth by His might,
Established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding stretched out the skies.
16f-When He makes His voice heard,-f
There is a rumbling of waters in the skies;
He makes vapors rise from the end of the earth,
He makes lightning for the rain,
And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
17Every man is proved dull, without knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame because of the idol,
For his molten image is a deceit—
There is no breath in them.
18They are delusion, a work of mockery;
In their hour of doom, they shall perish.
19Not like these in the Portion of Jacob,
For it is He who formed all things;
And [Israel is] His very own tribe.
LORD of Hosts is His name.
20You are My war club, [My] weapons of battle;
With you I clubbed nations,
With you I destroyed kingdoms;
21With you I clubbed horse and rider,
With you I clubbed chariot and driver,
22With you I clubbed man and woman,
With you I clubbed graybeard and boy,
With you I clubbed youth and maiden;
23With you I clubbed shepherd and flock,
With you I clubbed plowman and team,
With you I clubbed governors and prefects.
24But I will requite Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the wicked things they did to Zion before your eyes
—declares the LORD.
25See, I will deal with you, O mountain of the destroyer
—declares the LORD—
Destroyer of the whole earth!
I will stretch out My hand against you
And roll you down from the crags,
And make you a burnt-out mountain.
26They shall never take from you
A cornerstone or foundation stone;
You shall be a desolation for all time
—declares the LORD.
27Raise a standard on earth,
Sound a horn among the nations,
Appoint nations against her,
Assemble kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz—
Designate a marshal against her,
Bring up horses like swarminge locusts!
28Appoint nations for war against her—
The kings of Media,
Her governors and all her perfects,
And all the lands they rule!
29Then the earth quakes and writhes,
For the LORD’s purpose is fulfilled against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon
A waste without inhabitant.
30The warriors of Babylon stop fighting,
They sit in the strongholds,
Their might is dried up,
They become women.
Her dwellings are set afire,
Her bars are broken.
31Runner dashes to meet runner,
Messenger to meet messenger,
To report to the king of Babylon
That his city is captured, from end to end.
32The fords are captured,
And the swamp thicketse are consumed in fire;
And the fighting men are in panic.
33For thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel:
Fair Babylon is like a threshing floor
Ready to be trodden;
In a little while her harvesttime will come.
34“Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon
Devoured me and discomfited me;
He swallowed me like a dragon,
He filled his belly with my dainties,
And set me down like an empty dish;
Then he e-rinsed me out.-e
35Let the violence done me and my kindred
Be upon Babylon,”
Says the inhabitant of Zion;
“And let my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Says Jerusalem.
36Assuredly, thus said the LORD:
I am going to uphold your cause
And take vengeance for you;
I will dry up her sea
And make her fountain run dry.
37Babylon shall become rubble,
A den for jackals,
An object of horror and hissing,g
Without inhabitant.
38Like lions, they roar together,
They growl like lion cubs.
39h-When they are heated, I will set out their drink
And get them drunk, that they may become hilarious-h
And then sleep an endless sleep,
Never to awake
—declares the LORD.
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
