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.

¹ Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

² To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

³ And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴ Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵ O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.

⁶ I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁷ Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

⁸ For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

⁹ Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images excelled them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

¹¹ Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹² Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

¹³ For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

¹⁴ And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

¹⁵ Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth with it? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that moveth it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it, or as if the staff should lift itself, as if it were no wood.

¹⁶ Therefore will the Lord, the LORD of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

¹⁷ And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in One day;

¹⁸ And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.

¹⁹ And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean upon him that smote them; but shall lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹ The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

²² For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

²³ For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

²⁴ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

²⁵ For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and my anger in their destruction.

²⁶ And the LORD of hosts will raise up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

²⁷ And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

²⁸ He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his furniture.

²⁹ They have gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul hath fled.

³⁰ Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard to Laish, O poor Anathoth.

³¹ Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

³² As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³ Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts will lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

³⁴ And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.