¹ Say ye to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

² Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her prostitutions out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

³ Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

⁴ And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of lewdness.

⁵ For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

⁶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

⁷ And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

⁸ For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

⁹ Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰ And now will I disclose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.

¹¹ I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

¹² And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

¹³ And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, in which she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the LORD.

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.

¹⁵ And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

¹⁷ For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

¹⁸ And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping animals of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down in safety.

¹⁹ And I will betroth thee to me for ever; yes, I will betroth thee to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.

²⁰ I will even betroth thee to me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

²¹ And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

²² And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

²³ And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

¹ Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise against me, a destroying wind;

² And will send to Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her on all sides.

³ Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: 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 by his God, by the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶ Flee from 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 to her a recompense.

⁷ Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drank of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

⁸ Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, it may be 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 to heaven, and is lifted 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 purpose 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 spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³ O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thy 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 caterpillars; and they shall raise 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 vapors 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-ax 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 its 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 to 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 my 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 caterpillars.

²⁸ Prepare against her the nations with the kings of Media, her captains, and all her rulers, 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 forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.

³¹ One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show 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 threshing-floor, 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 dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

³⁸ They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' 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 its waves.

⁴³ Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass by it.

⁴⁴ And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed: and the nations shall not flow together any more to him: even the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵ My people, depart from the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶ And lest your heart should faint, and ye should fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, 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 in them, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come to 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 hight of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come to 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 laid waste Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves 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 recompenses 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 labor in vain, and the people 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 shalt come 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 shalt 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.