1. So says Jehovah, Behold, I am arousing a destroying wind against Babylon and against those dwelling in the heart of My foes.
2. And I will send foreigners to Babylon who will sift her and shall empty her land. For in the day of evil they shall be against her all around.
3. Do not let the one treading fully tread his bow, nor go up in his armor. And do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army.
4. So the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, yea, pierced through in her streets.
5. For neither Israel nor Judah has been widowed by his God, by Jehovah of Hosts, though their land was filled with guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6. Flee from the midst of Babylon; yea, each man deliver his soul. Do not be silenced in her iniquity. For it is the time of the vengeance of Jehovah. He will give her a just recompense. He will repay her.
7. Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations rage.
8. Suddenly Babylon has fallen, and it is broken. Wail for her, take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.
9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go, each one into his own country. For her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the skies.
10. Jehovah has brought forth our righteousness; come and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
11. Purify the arrows, fill the shields; Jehovah has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple.
12. Lift up the banner to Babylon's walls, make the watch strong; set up the watches, prepare the ambushes. For Jehovah has both planned and has done that which He spoke against the people of Babylon.
13. O you who live by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
14. Jehovah of Hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they shall lift up a shout against you.
15. He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
16. When He gives His voice, a multitude of waters is in the heavens, and He causes the mists to ascend from the end of the earth. He makes lightnings for rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasuries.
17. Every man is brutish in knowledge, every refiner is put to shame by idols. For his casted image is a lie, and no breath is in them.
18. They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19. The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Former of all things, and He is the rod of His inheritance, Jehovah of Hosts is His name.
20. You are My war club and weapons of war, for with you I will shatter nations and with you I will destroy kingdoms.
21. And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider, and with you I will shatter the chariot and his charioteer.
22. And I will shatter man and woman with you, and with you I will shatter old and young, and with you I will shatter the young man and the girl.
23. And I will shatter the shepherd and his flock with you. And I will shatter the farmer and his team with you, and with you I will shatter heads and rulers.
24. And I will give to Babylon, and to all the people of Chaldea all the evil that they have done in Zion, before your eyes, declares Jehovah.
25. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares Jehovah, who destroys all the earth. And I will stretch out My hand on you, and will roll you down from the rocks, and I will make you a burned mountain,
26. and they shall not take a stone from you for a corner, or a stone for foundations, but you shall be a waste forever, says Jehovah.
27. Lift up a banner in the land. Blow a trumpet among the nations; consecrate nations against her. Make to hear the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her, set a marshal against her. Cause the horses to come up like rough locusts.
28. Consecrate nations against her, with the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her rulers, and all the land of his dominion.
29. And the land trembles and writhes in pain. For every purpose of Jehovah shall be done against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a waste without one living in it.
30. The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting. They have dwelt in strongholds; their might has withered; they became as women; they have burned their houses, her bars are broken.
31. A runner shall run to meet a runner, and a herald to meet a herald, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end,
32. and that the fords are captured. And they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war are terrified.
33. For so says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, The daughter of Babylon is like a grain floor, it is time to tread her. Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come.
34. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has devoured us. He has crushed us. He has made us an empty vessel. He has swallowed us like a jackal. He has filled his belly with delicacies. He has thrown me out.
35. The violence done to me and to my flesh is on Babylon, the one living in Zion shall say. And Jerusalem shall say, My blood shall be on those living in Chaldea.
36. So Jehovah says this: Behold, I will strive for you and take vengeance for you. And I will dry up her sea and make her well dry.
37. And Babylon shall become heaps, a home for jackals, a horror and a hissing, without a dweller.
38. They shall roar together like lions, they shall growl like lions' cubs.
39. In their heat, I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk so that they exult and sleep a never ending sleep and never awaken, says Jehovah.
40. I shall bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41. How Sheshach is captured! And how the praise of all the earth is seized! How Babylon has become a ruin among the nations!
42. The sea has come up over Babylon, she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43. Her cities have become a ruin, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, nor does any son of man pass by it.
44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. And the nations shall not flow together any more to him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45. My people, go out of her midst, and each man deliver his soul from the fierce anger of Jehovah.
46. And that your heart not faint, and you fear the report that shall be heard in the land, the report shall come in a year. And after that the report shall come in another year, and there shall be violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47. So behold, the days come that I will punish on the idols of Babylon. And all her land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48. Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for Babylon. For the plunderers shall come to her from the north, says Jehovah.
49. As Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel, so for Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50. You who have escaped the sword, go away. Do not stand still. Remember Jehovah afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your heart.
51. We have turned pale because we have heard reproach, dishonor has covered our faces. For foreigners have come into the holy places of the house of Jehovah.
52. So, behold, the days are coming, says Jehovah, that I will punish on her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53. Though Babylon should go up to the heavens, and though she should fortify her strong height, plunderers shall come from Me to her, states Jehovah.
54. A sound of a cry from Babylon, and great ruin from the land of Chaldeans!
55. For Jehovah is stripping Babylon, and the great voice will perish out of her. And her waves will roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is given.
56. Because the plunderer is coming on her, on Babylon, and her mighty men are captured, their bows are shattered; for Jehovah the God of recompenses repaying shall repay.
57. And I will make her rulers drunk, also her wise ones, her governors, and her rulers, and her prefects; and they shall sleep a never-ending sleep, and not awaken, says the King whose name is Jehovah of Hosts.
58. So says Jehovah of Hosts, The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly laid bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. And the peoples shall labor as for vanity, and the peoples as for 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, to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was a chief official.
60. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon and shall see and shall cry all these words,
62. then you shall say, O Jehovah, You have spoken against this place to cut it off so that no dweller shall be in it, from man to animal, but it shall be a ruin forever.
63. And it shall be, when you have finished crying this book, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.
64. And you shall say, In this way Babylon shall sink and shall not rise from the evil that I am bringing on her. And they shall be weary. So far are the words of Jeremiah.