¹ The word that the Lord hath spoken against Babylon, and against the land of the Chaldeans in the hand of Jeremias the prophet.

² Declare ye among the nations, and publish it, lift up a standard: proclaim, and conceal it not: say: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is overthrown, their graven things are confounded, their idols are overthrown.

³ For a nation is come up against her out of the north, which shall make her land desolate: and there shall be none to dwell therein, from man even to beast:: yea they are removed, and gone away.

⁴ In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together: going and weeping they shall make haste, and shall seek the Lord their God.

⁵ They shall ask the way to Sion, their faces are hitherward. They shall come, and shall be joined to the Lord by an everlasting covenant, which shall never be forgotten.

⁶ My people have been a lost flock, their shepherds have caused them to go astray, and have made them wander in the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.

⁷ All that found them, have devoured them: and their enemies said: We have not sinned in so doing: because they have sinned against the Lord the beauty of justice, and against the Lord the hope of their fathers.

⁸ Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans: and be ye as kids at the head of the flock.

⁹ For behold I raise up, and will bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north: and they shall be prepared against her, and from thence she shall be taken: their arrows, like those of a mighty man, a destroyer, shall not return in vain.

¹⁰ And Chaldea shall be made a prey: all that waste her shall be filled, saith the Lord.

¹¹ Because you rejoice, and speak great things, pillaging my inheritance: because you are spread abroad as calves upon the grass, and have bellowed as bulls.

¹² Your mother is confounded exceedingly, and she that bore you is made even with the dust: behold she shall be the last among the nations, a wilderness unpassable, and dry.

¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but shall be wholly desolate: every one that shall pass by Babylon, shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴ Prepare yourselves against Babylon round about, all you that bend the bow: fight against her, spare not arrows: because she hath sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵ Shout against her, she hath every where given her hand, her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down, for it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance upon her: as she hath done, so do to her.

¹⁶ Destroy the sower out of Babylon, and him that holdeth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the sword of the dove every man shall return to his people, and every one shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷ Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria devoured him: and last this Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

¹⁸ Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will visit the king of Babylon and his land, as I have visited the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ And I will bring Israel again to his habitation: and he shall feed on Carmel, and Bason, and his soul shall be satisfied in mount Ephraim, and Galaad.

²⁰ In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sin of Juda, and there shall none be found: for I will be merciful to them, whom I shall leave.

²¹ Go up against the land of the rulers, and punish the inhabitants thereof, waste, and destroy all behind them, saith the Lord: and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

²² A noise of war in the land, and a great destruction.

²³ How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed! how is Babylon turned into a desert among the nations!

²⁴ I have caused thee to fall into a snare, and thou art taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware of it: thou art found and caught, because thou hast provoked the Lord.

²⁵ The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his wrath : for The Lord the God of hosts hath a work to be done in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ Come ye against her from the uttermost borders: open that they may go forth that shall tread her down: take the stones out of the way, and make heaps, and destroy her: and let nothing of her be left.

²⁷ Destroy all her valiant men, let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them, for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

²⁸ The voice of them that flee, and of them that have escaped out of the land of Babylon: to declare in Sion the revenge of the Lord our God, the revenge of his temple.

²⁹ Declare to many against Babylon, to all that bend the bow: stand together against her round about, and let nose escape; pay her according to her work: according to all that she hath done, do ye to her: for she hath lifted up herself against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰ Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets: and all her men of war shall hold their peace in that day, saith the Lord.

³¹ Behold I come against thee, O proud one, saith the Lord the God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time of thy visitation.

³² And the proud one shall fall, he shall fall down, and there shall be none to lift him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.

³³ Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel, and the children of Juda are oppressed together: all that have taken them captives, hold them fast, they will not let them go.

³⁴ Their redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name : he will defend their cause in judgment, to terrify the land, and to disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵ A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

³⁶ A sword upon her diviners, and they shall be foolish: a sword upon her valiant ones, and they shall be dismayed.

³⁷ A sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the people that are in the midst of her: and they shall become as women: a sword upon her treasures, and they shall be made a spoil.

³⁸ A drought upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: because it is a land of idols, and they glory in monstrous things.

³⁹ Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig fauns: and ostriches shall dwell therein, and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be built up from generation to generation.

⁴⁰ As the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and their neighbour cities, saith the Lord: no man shall dwell there, neither shall the son of man inhabit it.

⁴¹ Behold a people cometh from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall rise from the ends of the earth.

⁴² They shall take the bow and the shield: they are cruel and unmerciful: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses: like a man prepared for battle against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³ The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands are grown feeble: anguish hath taken hold of him, pangs as a, woman in labour.

⁴⁴ Behold he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan to the strong and beautiful: for I will make him run suddenly upon her: and who shall be the chosen one whom I may appoint over her? for who is like to me? and who shall bear up against me? and who is that shepherd that can withstand my countenance?

⁴⁵ Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he hath taken against Babylon: and his thoughts which he hath thought against the land of the Chaldeans: surely the little ones of the flocks shall pull them down, of a truth their habitation shall be destroyed with them.

⁴⁶ At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard amongst the nations.

¹ Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O house of Israel.

² Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear:

³ For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.

⁴ He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.

⁵ They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go. Therefore, fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.

⁶ There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great and great is thy name in might.

⁷ Who shall fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee.

⁸ They shall all proved together to be senseless and foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.

⁹ Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith: violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of artificers.

¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the everlasting king, at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his threatening.

¹¹ Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those places that are under heaven.

¹² He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.

¹³ At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings for rain, and bringeth for the wind out of his treasures.

¹⁴ Every man is become a fool for knowledge every artist is confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and there is no spirit in them.

¹⁵ They are vain things and a ridiculous work: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a siege.

¹⁸ For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that they may be found.

¹⁹ Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.

²⁰ My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my children are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

²¹ Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is scattered.

²² Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.

²³ I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.

²⁴ Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgement: and not in fury, lest thou bring me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have destroyed his glory.