Judgment on Babylon

1Thus sayth the Lord, Beholde, I wil raise vp against Babel, & against the inhabitants that lift vp their heart against me, a destroying wind,

2And wil send vnto Babel fanners that shal fanne her, & shal empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shalbe against her on euery side.

3Also to the bender that bendeth his bowe, and to him that lifteth himselfe vp in his brigandine, will I say, Spare not her yong men, but destroy all her hoste.

4Thus the slaine shal fall in the lande of the Caldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streetes.

5For Israel hath bene no widowe, nor Iudah from his God, from the Lorde of hostes, though their lande was filled with sinne against the holy one of Israel.

6Flee out of the middes of Babel, and deliuer euery man his soule: be not destroyed in her iniquitie: for this is the time of the Lordes vengeance he will render vnto her a recompence.

7Babel hath bene as a golden cuppe in the Lordes hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations haue drunken of her wine, therefore do the nations rage.

8Babel is suddenly fallen, and destroyed: howle for her, bring balme for her sore, if she may be healed.

9We would haue cured Babel, but she could not be healed: forsake her, and let vs go euery one into his owne countrey: for her iudgement is come vp vnto heauen, & is lifted vp to ye cloudes.

10The Lorde hath brought forth our righteousnesse: come and let vs declare in Zion the worke of the Lord our God.

11Make bright the arrowes: gather the shieldes: the Lorde hath raised vp the spirit of the King of the Medes: for his purpose is against Babel to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, and the vengeance of his Temple.

12Set vp the standart vpon the walles of Babel, make the watch strong: set vp the watchmen: prepare the skoutes: for the Lord hath both deuised, and done that which he spake against the inhabitantes of Babel.

13O thou that dwellest vpon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine ende is come, euen the ende of thy couetousnes.

14The Lord of hostes hath sworne by him selfe, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers, and they shall cry and shoute against thee.

Praise to the God of Jacob
(Isaiah 25:1–12)

15He hath made the earth by his power, & established the world by his wisedome, and hath stretched out the heauen by his discretion.

16Hee giueth by his voyce the multitude of waters in the heauen, and he causeth the cloudes to ascend from the endes of the earth: he turneth lightnings to raine, and bringeth forth the winde out of his treasures.

17Euery man is a beast by his owne knowledge: euery founder is confounded by the grauen image: for his melting is but falsehood, and there is no breath therein.

18They are vanitie, and the worke of errors: in the time of their visitation they shal perish.

19The portion of Iaakob is not like them: for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the rodde of his inheritance: the Lorde of hostes is his Name.

Babylon’s Punishment

20Thou art mine hammer, and weapons of warre: for with thee will I breake the nations, & with thee wil I destroy kingdomes,

21And by thee wil I breake horse and horseman, and by thee will I breake the charet & him that rideth therein.

22By thee also will I breake man & woman, and by thee wil I breake olde & yong, & by thee wil I breake the yong man and the mayde.

23I wil also breake by thee the shepheard & his flocke, and by thee will I breake the husband man & his yoke of oxen, & by thee will I breake the dukes and princes.

24And I will render vnto Babel, and to all the inhabitants of the Caldeans all their euil, that they haue done in Zion, euen in your sight, sayth the Lorde.

25Beholde, I come vnto thee, O destroying mountaine, sayth the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand vpon thee, and rolle thee downe from the rockes, and wil make thee a burnt mountaine.

26They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be destroyed for euer, sayth the Lord.

27Set vp a standard in the lande: blowe the trumpets among the nations: prepare the nations against her: call vp the kingdomes of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz against her: appoynt the prince against her: cause horses to come vp as the rough caterpillers.

28Prepare against her the nations with the Kings of the Medes, the dukes thereof, and the princes thereof, & all the land of his dominion.

29And the land shall tremble and sorow: for the deuise of the Lorde shalbe performed against Babel, to make the lande of Babel waste without an inhabitant.

30The strong men of Babel haue ceased to fight: they haue remayned in their holdes: their strength hath fayled, and they were like women: they haue burnt her dwelling places, and her barres are broken.

31A post shall runne to meete the post, and a messenger to meete the messenger, to shew the King of Babel, that his citie is taken on a side thereof,

32And that the passages are stopped, and the reedes burnt with fire, & the me of war troubled.

33For thus sayth the Lorde of hosts the God of Israel, the daughter of Babel is like a threshing floore: the time of her threshing is come: yet a litle while, and the time of her haruest shal come.

34Nebuchad-nezzar the King of Babel hath deuoured me, and destroyed me: he hath made me an emptie vessel: he swallowed mee vp like a dragon, and filled his belly with my delicates, and hath cast me out.

35The spoyle of me, and that which was left of me, is brought vnto Babel, shall the inhabitant of Zion say: and my blood vnto the inhabitantes of Caldea, shal Ierusalem say.

36Therefore thus sayth the Lorde, Beholde, I will maintayne thy cause, and take vengeance for thee, and I will drie vp the sea, and drie vp her springes.

37And Babel shall be as heapes, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, & an hissing, without an inhabitant.

38They shal rore together like lions, and yell as the lyons whelpes.

39In their heate I will make them feastes, and I wil make them drunken, that they may reioyce, and sleepe a perpetual sleepe, & not wake, sayth the Lord.

40I wil bring them downe like lambes to the slaughter, and like rams and goates.

41How is Sheshach taken! and howe is the glory of the whole earth taken! how is Babel become an astonishment among the nations!

42The sea is come vp vpon Babel: he is couered with the multitude of the waues thereof.

43Her cities are desolate: the land is dry and a wildernes, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth the sonne of man passe thereby.

44I wil also visite Bel in Babel, & I wil bring out of his mouth, that which he hath swallowed vp, and the nations shal runne no more vnto him, and the wall of Babel shal fall.

45My people, go out of the middes of her, & deliuer yee euery man his soule from the fierce wrath of the Lord,

46Least your heart euen faynt, & ye feare the rumour, that shalbe heard in the land: the rumour shall come this yeere, and after that in the other yeere shal come a rumour, & crueltie in the land, and ruler against ruler.

47Therefore beholde, the dayes come, that I will visite the images of Babel, & the whole land shalbe confounded, and all her slayne shal fall in the middes of her.

48Then the heauen and the earth, and all that is therein, shall reioyce for Babel: for the destroyers shal come vnto her from the North, saith the Lord.

49As Babel caused the slaine of Israel to fal, so by Babel the slaine of all the earth did fall.

50Ye that haue escaped the sworde, goe away, stand not still: remember the Lord a farre of, and let Ierusalem come into your minde.

51Wee are confounded because wee haue heard reproch: shame hath couered our faces, for straungers are come into the Sanctuaries of the Lordes House.

52Wherefore behold, the dayes come, sayth the Lord, that I will visite her grauen images, and through all her land the wounded shal grone.

53Though Babel should mount vp to heauen, and though shee should defend her strength on hye, yet from mee shall her destroyers come, sayth the Lord.

54A sound of a cry commeth from Babel, and great destruction from the land of the Caldeans,

55Because the Lorde hath layde Babel waste and destroyed from her the great voyce, and her waues shall roare like great waters, and a sounde was made by their noyse:

56Because the destroyer is come vpon her, euen vpon Babel, and her strong men are taken, their bowes are broken: for the Lorde God that recompenceth, shal surely recompence.

57And I will make drunke her princes, and her wise men, her dukes, and her nobles, and her strong men: and they shall sleepe a perpetuall sleepe, and not wake, sayth the King, whose Name is the Lord of hostes.

58Thus saith the Lord of hostes, The thicke wall of Babel shalbe broken, & her hie gates shal be burnt with fire, and the people shall labour in vaine, & the folke in ye fire, for they shalbe weary.

Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah

59The worde which Ieremiah the Prophet commanded Sheraiah the sonne of Neriiah, the sonne of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the King of Iudah into Babel, in the fourth yeere of his reigne: and this Sheraiah was a peaceable prince. 60So Ieremiah wrote in a booke all the euill that should come vpo Babel: euen al these things, that are written against Babel. 61And Ieremiah sayd to Sheraiah, Whe thou commest vnto Babel, and shalt see, & shalt reade all these wordes, 62Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to destroy it, that none should remaine in it, neither man nor beast, but that it should be desolate for euer. 63And when thou hast made an ende of reading this booke, thou shalt binde a stone to it, & cast it in the middes of Euphrates, 64And shalt say, Thus shal Babel be drowned, and shall not rise from the euil, that I will bring vpon her: and they shal be weary. Thus farre are the wordes of Ieremiah.