Babylon Judged for Sins against Israel
Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon
And against the inhabitants of Leb‑kamai
The aspirit of a destroyer.
2 “I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may awinnow her
And may devastate her land;
For on every side they will be opposed to 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 forsaken
By his God, the Lord 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 save his life!
Do not be bdestroyed in her punishment,
For this is the cLord’s time of vengeance;
He is going to drender recompense to her.
7 Babylon has been a golden acup in the hand of the Lord,
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!
cBring 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 breached to heaven
And towers up to the very skies.
10 The Lord has abrought about our vindication;
Come and let us brecount in Zion
The work of the Lord our God!
11 aSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
The Lord 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 the Lord, vengeance for His temple.
12 aLift up a signal against the walls of Babylon;
Post a strong guard,
Station sentries,
Place men in ambush!
For the Lord has both bpurposed and performed
What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O you who adwell by many waters,
Abundant in btreasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your cend.
14 The aLord 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 utters 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 stupid, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
For his molten images are bdeceitful,
And there is no breath in them.
18 They are aworthless, 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;
The bLord of hosts is His name.
20 He says, “You are My awar‑club, 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 young man and virgin,
23 And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,
And with you I shatter the farmer and his team,
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 the Lord.
25 “Behold, aI am against you, bO destroying mountain,
Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the Lord,
“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 adesolate forever,” declares the Lord.
27 aLift up a signal in the land,
Blow a trumpet among the nations!
Consecrate 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 Consecrate the nations against her,
The kings of the Medes,
Their governors and all their prefects,
And every land of their dominion.
29 So the aland quakes and writhes,
For the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand,
To make the land of Babylon
A bdesolation without inhabitants.
30 The amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They stay in the strongholds;
bTheir strength is exhausted,
They are becoming blike women;
Their dwelling places are set on fire,
The cbars of her gates are broken.
31 One acourier runs to meet another,
And one bmessenger to meet another,
To tell 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 the Lord 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 crushed me,
He has set me down like an bempty vessel;
He has cswallowed me like a monster,
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
He has washed 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 the Lord,
“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 serve them their banquet
And amake them drunk, that they may become jubilant
And may bsleep a perpetual sleep
And not wake up,” declares the Lord.
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 engulfed 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 bsave yourselves
From the fierce anger of the Lord.
46 “Now aso that your heart does not grow faint,
And you are not afraid at 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 aidols 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 the Lord.
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,
Depart! Do not stay!
bRemember the Lord from afar,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51 aWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach;
Disgrace has covered our faces,
For baliens have entered
The holy places of the Lord’s house.
52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“When I will punish her aidols,
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 the Lord.
54 The asound of an outcry from Babylon,
And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the Lord is going to destroy Babylon,
And He will make her loud noise vanish from her.
And their awaves will roar like many waters;
The tumult 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 the Lord 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 the Lord of hosts.
58 Thus says the Lord 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 dexhausted 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 say, ‘You, O Lord, have promised concerning this place to acut it off, so that there will be bnothing dwelling in 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 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 bexhausted.’” cThus far are the words of Jeremiah.
The Fall of Jerusalem
aZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was bHamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of cLibnah. 2 He did aevil in the sight of the Lord like all that bJehoiakim had done. 3 For through the aanger of the Lord this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah brebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 aNow it came about in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a bsiege wall all around it. 5 aSo the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 On the ninth day of the afourth month the bfamine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was abroken into, and all the bmen of war fled and went forth from the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls which was by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were call around the city. And they went by way of the Arabah. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and aovertook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they captured the king and abrought him up to the king of Babylon at bRiblah in the land of cHamath, and he passed sentence on him. 10 The king of Babylon aslaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 Then he ablinded the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.
12 aNow on the tenth day of the fifth month, which was the bnineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, cNebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He aburned the house of the Lord, the bking’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with fire. 14 So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard abroke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard acarried away into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the bdeserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the artisans. 16 But aNebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
17 Now the bronze apillars which belonged to the house of the Lord and the bstands and the bronze csea, which were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away the apots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans and all the bronze vessels which were used in temple service. 19 The captain of the guard also took away the abowls, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the pans and the drink offering bowls, what was fine gold and what was fine silver. 20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, and the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these vessels was abeyond weight. 21 As for the pillars, the aheight of each pillar was eighteen cubits, and it was twelve cubits in acircumference and four fingers in thickness, and hollow. 22 Now a acapital of bronze was on it; and the height of each capital was five cubits, with network and bpomegranates upon the capital all around, all of bronze. And the second pillar was like these, including pomegranates. 23 There were ninety-six exposed pomegranates; all athe pomegranates numbered a hundred on the network all around.
24 Then the captain of the guard took aSeraiah the chief priest and bZephaniah the second priest, with the three cofficers of the temple. 25 He also took from the city one official who was overseer of the men of war, and seven of the aking’s advisers who were found in the city, and the scribe of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and abrought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 Then the king of Babylon astruck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was bled away into exile from its land.
28 These are the people whom aNebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, aNebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4,600 persons in all.
31 aNow it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, bshowed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. 32 aThen he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin achanged his prison clothes, and bhad his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life. 34 For his allowance, a aregular allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a daily portion all the days of his life until the day of his death.