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Thus says Jehovah; Behold, I will stir··up against Babylon, and to▵ those who dwell in the heart of those who rise··up against Me, a destroying wind;
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and will send unto Babylon winnowers, that shall winnow her, and shall exhaust her land; for in the day of evil they shall be against her all around.
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Toward▵ him that bends◦, the bender bends◦ his bow, and brings· himself ·up in his siron*; and pity ye not her young··men; doom ye all her army.
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And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust··through in her streets.
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For Israel and Judah are· not ·as··widows to their God, to Jehovah of Armies; for their land* was··filled with guilt against the Holy··One of Israel.
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Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and cause· every man◦ his soul ·to··escape; be· not ·still* in her iniquity; for this◦ is the time of Jehovah’s vengeance; He◦ will pay unto her a recompense.
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Babylon has been a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, intoxicating all the earth; the nations were made··drunk of her wine; therefore the nations rave.
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Babylon is suddenly fallen and broken; howl for her; take balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed.
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We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forsake her, and let us go, a man◦ to his own land: for her judgment reaches to▵ the heavens, and is lifted··up even··to the higher··clouds.
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Jehovah has brought forth our justice; come, and let us recount in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
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Purify the arrows; gather the shields◦; Jehovah has stirred··up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for His purpose is against Babylon, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple.
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Lift··up the standard toward▵ the walls of Babylon, make· the guard ·firm, raise··up the guardsmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah has even purposed and done that which He spoke against those who dwell in Babylon.
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O thou who abidest◦ on many waters, with many treasures, thine end has come, and the measure* of thy gain.
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Jehovah of Armies has promised by His soul, saying, Surely I will··fill thee with man, as with the grub; and they shall answer with hedad* against thee.
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He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched··out the heavens by His understanding.
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For the voice which He gives, there is a crowd of waters in the heavens, and He causes the mist to go··up from the end of the earth; He makes lightnings for rain, and brings··out the wind from His treasuries.
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Every man is made··brutish by his knowledge; every refiner is shamed by the graven image; for his molten image is falsity, and the spirit is not in them.
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They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
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The part of Jacob is not as these; but He is the former of all, and the scepter of His inheritance; Jehovah of Armies is His name.
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Thou◦ art for Me a shattering hammer*, weapons◦ of war; and by thee will I shatter nations, and by thee will I destroy kingdoms;
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and by thee will I shatter the horse and his rider; and by thee will I shatter the chariot and his rider;
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and by thee will I shatter man◦ and woman; and by thee will I shatter an elder and a lad; and by thee will I shatter a young··man and a virgin;
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I will also shatter by thee the shepherd and his flock*; and I will shatter by thee the farmer and his pair of oxen; and I will shatter by thee governors and dukes.
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And I will repay Babylon and all those who dwell in Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes, says◦ Jehovah.
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Behold, I◦ am against thee, O mountain of destruction, says◦ Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch··out My hand on thee, and roll thee down from the rocks◦, and will put◦ thee for a mountain burning··up.
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And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; for desolations of eternity thou shalt be, says◦ Jehovah.
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Lift ye up a standard in the land, sound the shophar* among◦ the nations, sanctify the nations against her, cause to hear against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint an emperor against her; cause the horse to come··up as the bristling grub.
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Sanctify against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the dukes thereof, and all the land which he rules.
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And the land shall quake and travail; for the thoughts of Jehovah shall be performed* against Babylon, to set the land of Babylon for a desolation with no··one dwelling there.
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The heroes of Babylon have stopped fighting, they have sat in forts; their might has shrunken; they became as women*; they have kindled her habitations; her bars are broken.
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A runner shall run to meet a runner, and he who tells to meet another who tells, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is captured from the edge,
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and that the crossings are occupied, and the pond··rush they have burned··up with fire, and the men◦ of war are vexed.
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For thus says Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is as a threshing··floor, it is time to tread her; yet a··little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
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Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has routed me, he has placed◦ me as an empty vessel, he has swallowed· me ·up as a whale, he has filled his stomach from my pleasures, he has purged◦ himself of me.
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The violence done to me and to my kin be on Babylon, shall she who dwells in Zion say; and my blood on those who dwell in Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
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Therefore thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy plea, and avenge thy vengeance; and I will waste her sea, and dry··up her springs.
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And Babylon shall become heaps, an abode of dragons, a desolation, and a hissing, with none dwelling there.
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They shall roar together like young··lions; they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
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In their heat I will set◦ their feasts, and I will make· them ·drunk, so··that they may triumph, and sleep an eternal sleep, and not awake, says◦ Jehovah.
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I will bring· them ·down as lambs▫ to the butchering, as rams with he-goats.
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How◦ is Sheshach captured, and the praise of the whole earth occupied! How◦ is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
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The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the noise of the waves thereof.
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Her cities are a desolation, an arid land, and a desert, a land wherein no man◦ dwells, neither does any son of man cross into them.
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And I will visit Bel in Babylon, and I will bring··forth from his mouth what he swallowed··up; and the nations shall not flow··together to▵ him any··more; even the wall of Babylon shall fall.
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Go· ye ·out from her midst, My people, and deliver◦ each··man◦ his soul from the fierce anger of Jehovah.
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And lest your heart be··soft, and you fear for the report that shall be heard in the land; a report shall both come one year, and after··that in another year shall come a report, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
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Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will visit* upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be··ashamed, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
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Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing··aloud for Babylon; for the devastators shall come unto her from the north, says◦ Jehovah.
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Even as Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, even so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
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You who have been delivered from the sword shall walk; you shall not stand; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come··up upon your heart.
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We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach; humiliation has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah’s house.
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Therefore, behold, the days come, says◦ Jehovah, that I will visit* upon her graven images; and in all her land the slain shall groan◦.
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If▫ Babylon should go··up to the heavens, and if▫ she should fortify the height of her strength, from◦ Me shall devastators come for her, says◦ Jehovah.
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A voice of a cry comes from Babylon, and great breaking from the land of the Chaldeans:
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for Jehovah has devastated Babylon, and made· the great voice ·perish from her; and their waves make··a··noise as many waters, an uproar of their voice is given;
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because the devastator is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are captured,* their bows are··dismayed; for Jehovah God◦ of recompenses repaying shall he repay.
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And I will make··drunk her princes, and her wise men, her governors, and her dukes, and her heroes; and they shall sleep an eternal sleep, and not awake, says◦ the King, whose name is Jehovah of Armies.
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Thus says Jehovah of Armies: The wide walls of Babylon overturning▵ shall be overturned▵, and her tall gates shall be kindled with fire; and they shall toil, the peoples in so··much◦ emptiness, and the nations◦ in so··much◦ fire, and they shall faint.
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The word which Jeremiah◦ the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with◦ Zedekiah◦ the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of◦ his reign, and Seraiah was prince of Menuhah*;
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and Jeremiah◦ wrote in one book all the evil that should come to▵ Babylon, even all these words that are written to▵ Babylon.
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And Jeremiah◦ said to Seraiah, When◦ thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words,
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then shalt thou say, O Jehovah, Thou◦ hast spoken concerning▵ this place, to cut· it ·off, that there shall not▵ be any dwelling in it, from man even··to beast, that it shall be eternally desolate.
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And it shall be, when thou hast completed reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
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and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon drown, and shall not rise from before the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall faint; until, behold, the words of Jeremiah◦.
