“1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and
against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a
destroying wind; 2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan
her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be
against her round about. 3 Against [him that] bendeth let the archer
bend his bow, and against [him that] lifteth himself up in his
brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her
host. 4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and
[they that are] thrust through in her streets. 5 For Israel [hath] not
[been] forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though
their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. 6 Flee
out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut
off in her iniquity; for this [is] the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he
will render unto her a recompence. 7 Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in
the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have
drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 8 Babylon is
suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if
so be she may be healed. 9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not
healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for
her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up [even] to the skies.
10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us
declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. 11 Make bright the arrows;
gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of
the Medes: for his device [is] against Babylon, to destroy it; because
it [is] the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple. 12 Set
up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up
the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and
done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13 O thou
that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is
come, [and] the measure of thy covetousness. 14 The LORD of hosts hath
sworn by himself, [saying], Surely I will fill thee with men, as with
caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee. 15 He hath
made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his
wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. 16 When
he uttereth [his] voice, [there is] a multitude of waters in the
heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the
earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out
of his treasures. 17 Every man is brutish by [his] knowledge; every
founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image [is]
falsehood, and [there is] no breath in them. 18 They [are] vanity, the
work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 19
The portion of Jacob [is] not like them; for he [is] the former of all
things: and [Israel is] the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts
[is] his name. 20 Thou [art] my battle axe [and] weapons of war: for
with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I
destroy kingdoms; 21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and
his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his
rider; 22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with
thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in
pieces the young man and the maid; 23 I will also break in pieces with
thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces
the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in
pieces captains and rulers. 24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all
the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in
your sight, saith the LORD. 25 Behold, I [am] against thee, O destroying
mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will
stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and
will make thee a burnt mountain. 26 And they shall not take of thee a
stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be
desolate for ever, saith the LORD. 27 Set ye up a standard in the land,
blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her,
call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz;
appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough
caterpillers. 28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the
Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the
land of his dominion. 29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for
every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make
the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. 30 The mighty
men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in [their]
holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned
her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. 31 One post shall run to meet
another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon
that his city is taken at [one] end, 32 And that the passages are
stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war
are affrighted. 33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel;
The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshingfloor, [it is] time to
thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed
me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a
dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh [be] upon Babylon, shall the
inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,
shall Jerusalem say. 36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will
plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea,
and make her springs dry. 37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a
dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an
inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as
lions’ whelps. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will
make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep,
and not wake, saith the LORD. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to
the slaughter, like rams with he goats. 41 How is Sheshach taken! and
how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an
astonishment among the nations! 42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she
is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. 43 Her cities are a
desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth,
neither doth [any] son of man pass thereby. 44 And I will punish Bel in
Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath
swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him:
yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45 My people, go ye out of the
midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of
the LORD. 46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that
shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come [one] year, and
after that in [another] year [shall come] a rumour, and violence in the
land, ruler against ruler. 47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I
will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land
shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that [is] therein, shall sing
for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith
the LORD. 49 As Babylon [hath caused] the slain of Israel to fall, so at
Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 50 Ye that have escaped
the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let
Jerusalem come into your mind. 51 We are confounded, because we have
heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come
into the sanctuaries of the LORD’S house. 52 Wherefore, behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images:
and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 Though Babylon
should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of
her strength, [yet] from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the
LORD. 54 A sound of a cry [cometh] from Babylon, and great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans: 55 Because the LORD hath spoiled
Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do
roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: 56 Because
the spoiler is come upon her, [even] upon Babylon, and her mighty men
are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of
recompences shall surely requite. 57 And I will make drunk her princes,
and her wise [men], her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men:
and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King,
whose name [is] the LORD of hosts. 58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The
broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall
be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk
in the fire, and they shall be weary.”
“59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of
Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of
Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And [this] Seraiah
[was] a quiet prince. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that
should come upon Babylon, [even] all these words that are written
against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to
Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 62 Then shalt
thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off,
that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall
be desolate for ever. 63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of
reading this book, [that] thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it
into the midst of Euphrates: 64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon
sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and
they shall be weary. Thus far [are] the words of Jeremiah.” (Jeremiah
51:1-64 AV)