Judgment on Babylon

1Thus said Jehovah: Behold me raising up against Babel and against those dwelling in the heart of those rising up, a destroying spirit.

2And I sent forth to Babel those scattering, and they scattered her, and they shall empty her land: for they were against her round about in the day of evil.

3Against him bending shall he bending, bend the bow, and against him going up in his coat of mail: and ye shall not spare to her young men; exterminate all her army.

4And the wounded fell in the land of the Chaldeans, and those being thrust through in her streets.

5For Israel not in widowhood, and Judah from his God, from Jehovah of armies; if their land was filled with guilt because of the Holy One of Israel.

6Flee from the midst of Babel and save ye each his soul: ye shall not be destroyed in her iniquity: for it is the time of vengeance to Jehovah; he will do to her a recompense.

7Babel a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk: the nations drank from her wine; for this the nations will be foolish.

8Babylon fell suddenly, and she will be broken: wail ye for her; take balsam for her pain, perhaps she will be healed.

9We healed Babel, and she was not healed: forsake ye her and we will go each to his land: for her judgment reached to the heavens, and was lifted up even to the clouds.

10Jehovah brought forth our justice: come ye, and we will recount in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.

11Polish the arrows; fill the quivers: Jehovah roused up the spirit of the kings of the Males: for his purpose is against Babel, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.

12Lift ye up a signal against the walls of Babel, strengthen the watch, set up the watchers, prepare the ambushes: for Jehovah also purposed and also did what he spake to the inhabitants of Babel.

13Dwelling upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end came, the measure of thy plunder.

14Jehovah of armies sware by his soul: That if I filled thee with men as with locusts, and they struck up a shout against thee.

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

15He made the earth by his power, he prepared the habitable globe by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched forth the heavens.

16For a voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he will bring up the clouds, from the extremity of the earth, making lightnings to the rain, and he will bring forth the wind from his treasures.

17Every man was brutish from knowledge; every founder was ashamed from his carved image: for his founding is a falsehood, and no spirit in them.

18They are vanity, the work of delusions: in the time of reviewing they shall perish.

19Not as these the portions of Jacob; for he the former of all: and the rod of his inheritance: Jehovah of armies his name.

Babylon’s Punishment

20Thou a mallet to me, a weapon of war: and I broke the nations in pieces with thee, and I destroyed kingdoms with thee;

21And I broke in pieces with thee the horse and his rider; and I broke in pieces with thee the chariot and its charioteer;

22And I broke in pieces with thee man and woman; and I broke in pieces with thee the old man and the boy; and I broke in pieces with thee the young man and the virgin;

23And I broke in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and I broke in pieces with thee the husbandman and his yoke; and I broke in pieces with thee the prefects and the rulers.

24And I recompensed to Babel and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil which they did in Zion before your eyes, says Jehovah.

25Behold me against thee, thou destroying mountain, says Jehovah, destroying all the earth: and I stretched out my hand upon thee, and I rolled thee from the rocks, and I gave thee for a burnt mountain.

26And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, and a stone for foundations; for thou shalt be desolations forever, says Jehovah.

27Lift up a signal in the earth, strike ye the trumpet in the nations, consecrate the nations against her, cause ye to be heard against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint over her a satrap; bring up the horse as the bristling locust.

28Consecrate against her the nations, with the kings of the Medes, her prefects and all her rulers, and all the land of his dominion.

29And the earth shall shake and be wearied; for the purpose of Jehovah was set up against Babel, to set the land of Babel for a desolation from not being inhabited.

30The strong ones of Babel ceased to fight; they dwelt in fastnesses; their strength failed; they were for women: they burned her dwellings; her bars were broken.

31A runner shall run to meet a runner, and he announcing, to meet him announcing, to announce to the king of Babel that his city was taken from the extremity.

32And the passages were taken, and they burnt the ropes in fire, and the men of war trembled.

33For thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel: the daughter of Babel is as a threshing-floor, the time of her treading; yet a little while and the time of harvest coming to her.

34Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel consumed us, he destroyed us, he set us an empty vessel, he swallowed us down as a dragon, he filled his belly with my delicacies, he thrust us away.

35My violence and my remainder upon Babel, shall she dwelling in Zion say; and my blood to the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

36For this, thus said Jehovah: Behold me pleading thy cause, and I took vengeance with thy vengeance; and I dried up her sea, and made her fountains dry.

37And Babel was for heaps, a habitation of jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, from none inhabiting.

38Together as lions shall they roar: they shook themselves as the lion's whelps.

39In their heat I will set their drinkings, and I made them drunken so that they shall exult, and sleep an eternal sleep, and they shall not rouse up, says Jehovah.

40I will bring them down as lambs for the slaughter, as rams with he goats.

41How was Sheshach taken and the praise of all the earth will be seized; how was Babel for a desolation among the nations!

42The sea came up against Babel: with the multitude of rolling waves was she covered.

43Her cities were for a desolation, a land of dryness and a sterile region, a land not a man dwells in them, and not the son of man shall pass through them.

44And I reviewed over Bel in Babel, and brought forth his swallowing from his mouth: and the nations shall no more flow to him: also the wall of Babel fell.

45Go ye out from her midst, my people, and save ye each his soul from the burning of the anger of Jehovah.

46And lest your heart shall be faint and ye be afraid for the report being heard in the land; and a report came in a year, and after it in a year a report, and violence in the land, dominion against dominion.

47For this, behold, the days coming and I reviewed upon the carved images of Babel: and all her land shall be ashamed, and all her wounded shall fall in her midst.

48And the heavens and the earth shouted against Babel, and all which is in them: for those laying waste shall come against her from the north, says Jehovah.

49Also Babel for the falling of the wounded of Israel, also for Babel fell the wounded of all the earth.

50Being saved from the sword, go: ye shall not stand: remember from far off Jehovah, and Jerusalem shall come up upon your heart.

51We were ashamed for we heard reproach: shame covered our faces, for strangers came to the holy places of the house of Jehovah.

52For this, behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and I reviewed upon her carved images: and in all her land the wounded shall groan.

53If Babel shall go up to the heavens, and if she shall fortify the height of her strength, from me shall they laying waste come to her, says Jehovah.

54The voice of a cry from Babel, and a great breaking from the land of the Chaldeans:

55For Jehovah laid Babel waste, and he destroyed from her the great voice: and the billows roared as many waters, and a noise of their voice was given.

56For he spoiling came upon her, upon Babel, and her strong ones were taken, their bow was broken: for the God of recompenses, Jehovah requiting will requite.

57And I made drunk her chiefs and her wise, her prefects and her rulers, and her strong ones: and they shall sleep an eternal sleep, and they shall not rise up, says the King, Jehovah of armies his name.

58Thus said Jehovah of armies: The broad walls of Babel being demolished, shall be demolished, and her high gates shall be burnt in fire; the peoples shall labor in vain, the nations for the fire, and they shall be weary.

Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah

59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, in his going with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babel, in the fourth year to his reigning. And Seraiah was chief of the resting place. 60And Jeremiah will write all the evil which shall come to Babel, in one book, all these words being written against Babel. 61And Jeremiah will say to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babel, and thou sawest, and didst read all these words, 62And thou saidst, O Jehovah, thou spakest against this place, to cut it off, for none to be dwelling in it, to man and even to beast, for it shall be desolations forever. 63And it was as thou finishedst to read this book, thou shalt bind upon it a stone and cast it into the midst of Phrath 64And thou saidst, Thus shall Babel sink, and shall not rise from the face of the evil which I bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Even to this the words of Jeremiah.