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 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
lion's 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 alt 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. |