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1 Thus says the LORD: “Look, I am stirring up a destroying wind against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon, and they will winnow her and empty her land, for they will surround her on the day of disaster.
3 Let the archer bend his bow against her, and let him rise against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
devote her entire army to destruction.
4 They will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, pierced through in her streets.”
5 For Israel and Judah have not been widowed of their God, the LORD of hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon!
Let each save his life!
Do not perish in her iniquity, for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance.
He is repaying her.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore the nations went mad.
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered.
Wail for her!
Get balm for her pain;
perhaps she can be healed.
9 “We tried to heal Babylon, but she was not healed.
Leave her, and let us go, each to his own land, for her judgment has reached heaven and risen to the skies.”
10 “The LORD has brought our vindication to light.
Come, let us recount in Zion the work of the LORD our God.”
11 Sharpen the arrows!
Take up the shields!
The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of Media, for his purpose against Babylon is to destroy her.
This is the LORD’s vengeance, vengeance for his temple.
12 Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon!
Strengthen the guard!
Post watchmen!
Prepare ambushes!
For the LORD has both planned and done what he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 You who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: “I will surely fill you with men like locusts, and they will raise a shout against you.”
15 He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he utters his voice, the waters roar in the heavens.
He raises the clouds from the ends of the earth, makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses.
17 Every person is foolish, without knowledge.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast image is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, a work of mockery.
At the time of their punishment they will perish.
19 The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the one who formed all things, including the tribe of his inheritance.
The LORD of hosts is his name.
20 “You are my hammer, my weapon of war.
With you I will shatter nations, and with you I will destroy kingdoms.
21 With you I will shatter horse and rider, and with you I will shatter chariot and driver.
22 With you I will shatter man and woman, and with you I will shatter old man and youth, and with you I will shatter young man and virgin.
23 With you I will shatter shepherd and flock, and with you I will shatter farmer and team, and with you I will shatter governors and deputies.
24 I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they did in Zion before your eyes, declares the LORD.
25 Look, I am against you, destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth, declares the LORD.
I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burned mountain.
26 No one will take from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, for you will be a desolation forever, declares the LORD.”
27 Raise a banner in the land!
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Consecrate nations against her!
Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz!
Appoint a commander against her!
Bring up horses like bristling locusts!
28 Consecrate nations against her: the kings of Media, her governors, all her deputies, and all the land of his dominion.
29 The earth trembles and writhes, for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants.
30 Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;
they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength has failed;
they have become like women.
Her dwellings have been set on fire, and her bars are broken.
31 Runner runs to meet runner, and messenger to meet messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured at one end.
32 The crossings have been seized, the reed beds burned with fire, and the soldiers are terrified.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is time to tread it.
In a little while the time of her harvest will come.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and thrown me into confusion.
He has made me an empty vessel, swallowed me like a monster, filled his belly with my delicacies, and cast me out.
35 Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,” the inhabitant of Zion will say.
“Let my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem will say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD: “Look, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her spring run dry.
37 Babylon will become heaps of ruins, a dwelling for jackals, a horror and an object of hissing, without inhabitants.
38 They will roar together like young lions and growl like lion cubs.
39 When they are heated, I will prepare their feast and make them drunk, so that they may exult, sleep an everlasting sleep, and never wake, declares the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to slaughter, like rams with male goats.
41 How Sheshach has been captured, the praise of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered by its many waves.
43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land and a desert, a land where no one lives and through which no human being passes.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
Even Babylon’s wall has fallen.
45 Come out of her, my people!
Let each save his life from the burning anger of the LORD!
46 Do not let your heart grow faint or be afraid at the report heard in the land.
One year a report will come, and the next year another report;
there will be violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore look, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.
Her whole land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 The heavens and the earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for destroyers will come against her from the north, declares the LORD.”
49 Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword, go!
Do not stand still!
Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51 “We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach.
Dishonor has covered our faces, for foreigners have entered the holy places of the house of the LORD.”
52 “Therefore look, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish her carved images, and the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.
53 Though Babylon rises to heaven and fortifies her lofty stronghold, destroyers will come against her from me, declares the LORD.
54 A cry sounds from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the LORD is devastating Babylon and silencing her mighty din.
Their waves roar like many waters;
the clamor of their voices resounds.
56 For a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon.
Her warriors are captured, and their bows are shattered, for the LORD is a God of recompense;
he will surely repay.
57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, deputies, and warriors.
They will sleep an everlasting sleep and never wake, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.”
58 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Babylon’s broad walls will be utterly razed, and her high gates burned with fire.
Peoples will labor for nothing, and nations for the fire, and they will grow weary.”
59 This is the command Jeremiah the prophet gave Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the officer in charge of lodging. 60 Jeremiah wrote in one scroll all the disaster that would come upon Babylon, all these words written against Babylon. 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, see that you read all these words. 62 Then say, ‘LORD, you have spoken against this place to destroy it, so that no one will live in it, neither people nor animals, but it will be a desolation forever.’ 63 When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates. 64 Then say, ‘In this way Babylon will sink and never rise because of the disaster I am bringing upon her, and they will grow weary.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.