1Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up a destroying wind against Babylon, and against those dwelling in their midst who rise up against Me. 2And I will send strangers into Babylon who shall winnow her and shall empty her land. For in the day of calamity they shall be against her all around. 3Do not let the archer tread and bend his bow; nor lift himself up in his armor. And do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army. 4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, those thrust through in her streets. 5For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God, Jehovah of Hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. 6Flee out of the middle of Babylon, and each man deliver his soul. Do not be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of Jehovah’s vengeance; He will make good her recompense. 7Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah’s hand, which made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk her wine; therefore the nations are deranged. 8Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Wail for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed. 9We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her and let us go, each one into his own land; for her judgment reaches to the heavens and is lifted up to the skies. 10Jehovah has brought forth our righteousness; come and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God. 11Polish the arrows; gather the shields. Jehovah has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple. 12Set up the banner on the walls of Babylon; make the guard strong; set up the watchmen; prepare the ambushes. For Jehovah has both planned and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13O you who live on many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your unjust gain. 14Jehovah of Hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men as with locust caterpillars; and they shall lift up a shout against you. 15He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His understanding. 16When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and He causes the mists to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with rain and brings forth the wind out of His treasures. 17Every man is stupid in knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by graven images. For his molten image is deception, and there is no breath in them. 18They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their judgment they shall perish. 19The Portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the Former of all things, and Israel is the offshoot of His inheritance. Jehovah of Hosts is His name. 20You are My battle-ax and weapons of war; for with you I will shatter nations; and with you I will destroy kingdoms. 21And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider; and with you I will shatter the chariot and his rider. 22Also with you I will shatter man and woman; and with you I will shatter old and young; and with you I will shatter the young man and the maiden. 23I will also shatter the shepherd and his flock with you. And with you I will shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will shatter governors and rulers. 24And I will recompense unto Babylon, and unto all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all the evil that they have done in Zion in your eyes, says Jehovah. 25Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says Jehovah, who destroys all the earth. And I will stretch out My hand upon you and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. 26And they shall not take a stone from you for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be a waste forever, says Jehovah. 27Set up a banner in the land; blow the shofar among the nations; prepare the nations against her. Call the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her; appoint a commander against her. Cause the horses to come up as the bristling caterpillars. 28Consecrate nations against her, with the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her rulers, and all the land of his realm. 29And the land shall tremble and writhe. For every purpose of Jehovah shall be fulfilled against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a waste without inhabitant. 30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting; they have remained in strongholds; their might has failed. They became like women; they have burned her dwellings; the bars of her gates are broken. 31A runner shall run to meet a runner, and a herald to a herald, to report to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end; 32and that the passages are blocked; and they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war are frightened. 33For thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, and it is time to thresh her. Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. 34Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a dragon; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has rinsed me out. 35The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, the inhabitant of Zion shall say. And, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, Jerusalem shall say. 36Therefore thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. 37And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant. 38They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl like lions’ cubs. 39In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk so that they may rejoice and sleep a never-ending sleep, and not wake up, says Jehovah. 40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with the male goats. 41How Sheshach is captured! And how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a waste among the nations! 42The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves. 43Her cities are desolate, a dry land and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, nor does any son of man pass by it. 44And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. And the nations shall not flow together to him any more; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45My people, go out of her midst; and let each man deliver his soul from the fierce anger of Jehovah. 46And let not your heart faint, nor fear the rumor that shall be heard in the land. The report shall come in a year. And after that a report shall come in another year; and violence shall be in the land, ruler against ruler. 47Therefore, behold, the days are coming that I will punish the graven images of Babylon. And all her land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst. 48And the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for joy over Babylon; for the plunderers shall come to her from the north, says Jehovah. 49As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall. 50You who have escaped the sword, go away! Do not stand still! Remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51We are confounded because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah’s house. 52Therefore behold, the days are coming, says Jehovah, that I will punish her graven images, and throughout all her land the wounded shall groan. 53Though Babylon should mount up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet plunderers shall come unto her from Me, says Jehovah. 54The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, 55because Jehovah is plundering Babylon, and the loud voice has been blotted out of her. Her waves are turbulent like great waters, they have made a great roaring sound; 56because the plunderer has come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are captured. Every one of their bows is broken, for Jehovah, the Mighty God of recompenses, makes good the recompense. 57And I will make her rulers drunk, along with her wise ones, her governors, and her officials, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a never-ending sleep and not wake up, says the King whose name is Jehovah of Hosts. 58Thus says Jehovah of Hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be completely broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the nation shall labor in vain, and the people shall be in the fire, and they shall be weary. 59The 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 Seraiah was a quiet leader. 60So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you arrive in Babylon, and have seen, and have read all these words, 62then you shall say, O Jehovah, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that no one shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be a waste forever. 63And it shall be when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. 64And you shall say, In this way 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.