Yahweh Sends Calamity to Babylon
Thus says Yahweh:
“Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon
And against the inhabitants of Leb‑kamai
The aspirit of a destroyer.
2 I will send strangers to Babylon that they may awinnow her
And may empty her land to destruction;
For on every side they will be against her
In the day of her calamity.
3 Let not him who abends his bow bend it,
Nor let him rise up in his bscale‑armor;
So do not spare her young men;
Devote all her army to destruction.
4 They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
And apierced through in their streets.”
5 For aneither Israel nor Judah has been widowed
By his God, by Yahweh of hosts,
Although their land is bfull of guilt
Before the Holy One of Israel.
6 aFlee from the midst of Babylon,
And each of you escape with his life!
Do not be bsilenced in her iniquity,
For this is cYahweh’s time of vengeance;
He is going to drender recompense to her.
7 Babylon has been a golden acup in the hand of Yahweh,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The bnations have drunk of her wine;
Therefore the nations are cgoing mad.
8 Suddenly aBabylon has fallen and been broken;
bWail over her!
cTake balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;
Forsake her and alet us each go to his own country,
For her judgment has btouched heaven
And lifts up to the very skies.
10 Yahweh has abrought about our righteousness;
Come and let us brecount in Zion
The work of Yahweh our God!
11 aSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
Yahweh has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes
Because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it;
For it is the bvengeance of Yahweh, vengeance for His temple.
12 aLift up a standard against the walls of Babylon;
Make strong the watch;
Raise up watchmen;
Establish men in ambush!
For Yahweh has both bpurposed and performed
What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who adwell by abundant waters,
Abundant in btreasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your cend.
14 aYahweh of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with a population like blocusts,
And they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.”
15 It is aHe who made the earth by His power,
Who established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding He bstretched out the heavens.
16 When He gives forth His avoice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
And He causes the bclouds to ascend from the end of the earth;
He makes lightning for the rain
And brings forth the cwind from His storehouses.
17 aAll mankind is senseless, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image,
For his molten images are ba lie,
And there is no breath in them.
18 They are avanity, a work of mockery;
In the time of their punishment they will perish.
19 The aportion of Jacob is not like these;
For the Maker of all is He,
And of the tribe of His inheritance;
bYahweh of hosts is His name.
20 He says, “You are My ainstrument of shattering, My weapon of war;
And with you I bshatter nations,
And with you I destroy kingdoms.
21 With you I ashatter the horse and his rider,
And with you I shatter the bchariot and its rider,
22 And with you I shatter aman and woman,
And with you I shatter old man and byouth,
And with you I shatter choice man and virgin,
23 And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,
And with you I shatter the farmer and his pair of oxen,
And with you I shatter governors and prefects.
24 “But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of aChaldea for ball their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares Yahweh.
25 “Behold, aI am against you, bO destroying mountain,
Who destroys the whole earth,” declares Yahweh,
“And I will stretch out My hand against you
And roll you down from the crags,
And I will make you a cburnt out mountain.
26 They will not take from you even a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for foundations,
But you will be a perpetual adesolation,” declares Yahweh.
27 aLift up a standard in the land,
Blow a trumpet among the nations!
Set apart the nations against her;
Summon against her the bkingdoms of cArarat, Minni, and dAshkenaz;
Appoint a marshal against her;
Bring up the ehorses like bristly locusts.
28 Set apart the nations against her,
The kings of the Medes,
Their governors and all their prefects
And every land of their rule.
29 So the aland quakes and writhes,
For the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand,
To make the land of Babylon
A bdesolation without inhabitants.
30 The amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting;
They inhabit the strongholds;
bTheir might is dried up;
They are becoming blike women;
Their dwelling places are set on fire;
The cbars of her gates are broken.
31 One arunner runs to meet another,
And one bmessenger to meet another,
To give a message to the king of Babylon
That his city has been captured from end to end;
32 The fords also have been seized,
And they have burned the marshes with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
33 For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a athreshing floor
At the time it is stamped firm;
Yet in a little while the time of bharvest will come for her.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has adevoured me and brought me into confusion;
He has set me down like an bempty vessel;
He has cswallowed me like a sea monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
He has rinsed me away.
35 May the aviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say.
36 Therefore thus says Yahweh,
“Behold, I am going to aplead your case
And bexact full vengeance for you;
And cI will dry up her sea
And make her fountain dry.
37 aBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,
An bobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.
38 They will roar together like ayoung lions;
They will growl like lions’ cubs.
39 When they become heated up, I will set before them their feast
And amake them drunk, that they may exult
And may bsleep a perpetual sleep
And not wake up,” declares Yahweh.
40 “I will bring them down like lambs ato the slaughter,
Like rams together with male goats.
41 “How aSheshak has been captured,
And bthe praise of the whole earth been seized!
How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
42 The asea has come up over Babylon;
She has been covered with its tumultuous waves.
43 Her cities have become an aobject of horror,
A parched land, and a desert,
A land in which bno man lives
And through which no son of man passes.
44 aI will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will make what he has swallowed bcome out of his mouth;
And the nations will no longer cstream to him.
Even the dwall of Babylon has fallen down!
45 “aCome forth from her midst, My people,
And each of you bescape with his life
From the burning anger of Yahweh.
46 Now alest your heart grow faint,
And you fear the breport that will be heard in the land—
For the report will come one year,
And after that another report in another year,
And violence will be in the land
With cruler against ruler—
47 Therefore behold, days are coming
When I will punish the agraven images of Babylon;
And her whole land will be bput to shame,
And all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 Then aheaven and earth and all that is in them
Will shout for joy over Babylon,
For bthe destroyers will come to her from the north,”
Declares Yahweh.
49 aIndeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,
As also for Babylon bthe slain of all the earth have fallen.
50 You awho have escaped the sword,
Go! Do not stand around!
bRemember Yahweh from afar,
And let Jerusalem come upon your heart.
51 aWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach;
Dishonor has covered our faces,
For bstrangers have entered
The holy places of the house of Yahweh.
52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh,
“When I will punish her agraven images,
And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.
53 Though Babylon should aascend to the heavens,
And though she should fortify her lofty stronghold,
From bMe destroyers will come to her,” declares Yahweh.
54 The asound of an outcry from Babylon,
And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For Yahweh is going to destroy Babylon,
And He will make her loud noise vanish from her.
And their awaves will roar like many waters;
The rumbling of their voices sounds forth.
56 For the adestroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men will be captured;
Their bbows are shattered;
For Yahweh is a God of crecompense,
He will fully repay.
57 “I will amake her princes and her wise men drunk,
Her governors, her prefects, and her mighty men,
That they may sleep a bperpetual sleep and not wake up,”
cDeclares the King, whose name is Yahweh of hosts.
58 Thus says Yahweh of hosts,
“The broad awall of Babylon will be completely razed,
And her high bgates will be set on fire;
So the peoples will ctoil for nothing,
And the nations become dweary only for fire.”
59 The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of aNeriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with bZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.) 60 So Jeremiah awrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. 61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud, 62 and then you will say, ‘You, O Yahweh, have promised concerning this place to acut it off, so that there will be bnothing inhabiting it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’ 63 And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and athrow it into the middle of the Euphrates, 64 and then you will say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and anot rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become butterly weary.’” cThus far are the words of Jeremiah.