6Leave Babylon; save your lives, each of you! Don't perish because of her guilt. For this is the time of the LORD's vengeance--he will pay her what she deserves.
9We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches as far as the clouds.
11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the LORD's vengeance, vengeance for his temple.
12Raise up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon; fortify the watch post; set the watchmen in place; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both planned and accomplished what he has threatened against those who live in Babylon.
16When he thunders, the waters in the heavens are tumultuous, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.
19Jacob's Portion is not like these because he is the one who formed all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of Armies is his name.
24"Before your very eyes, I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion." This is the LORD's declaration.
25Look, I am against you, devastating mountain. This is the LORD's declaration. You devastate the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and turn you into a charred mountain.
26No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will become desolate forever. This is the LORD's declaration.
27Raise a signal flag in the land; blow a ram's horn among the nations; set apart the nations against her. Summon kingdoms against her--Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.
30Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their might is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon's homes have been set ablaze, her gate bars are shattered.
33For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.
34"King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty dish; he has swallowed me like a sea monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out.
35Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon," says the inhabitant of Zion. "Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea," says Jerusalem.
36Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to champion your cause and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her fountain run dry.
39While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they celebrate. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the LORD's declaration.
46May you not become cowardly and fearful when the report is proclaimed in the land, for the report will come one year, and then another the next year. There will be violence in the land with ruler against ruler.
47Therefore, look, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon's carved images. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
48Heaven and earth and everything in them will shout for joy over Babylon because the destroyers from the north will come against her. This is the LORD's declaration.
52Therefore, look, the days are coming--this is the LORD's declaration--when I will punish her carved images, and the wounded will groan throughout her land.
53Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens and fortify her tall fortresses, destroyers will come against her from me. This is the LORD's declaration.
55For the LORD is going to devastate Babylon; he will silence her mighty voice. Their waves roar like a huge torrent; the tumult of their voice resounds,
56for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, their bows shattered, for the LORD is a God of retribution; he will certainly repay.
57I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the King's declaration; the LORD of Armies is his name.
58This is what the LORD of Armies says: Babylon's thick walls will be totally demolished, and her high gates set ablaze. The peoples will have labored for nothing; the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire.
59This is what the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign.
64Then say, 'In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.'" The words of Jeremiah end here.