Judgment on Babylon

1Thus says YHWH:

“Behold, I am rousing against Babylon,

and against those dwelling in Leb-Kamai,†

a destroying spirit.

2And I will send to Babylon winnowers,

and they will winnow her, and will empty her land;

for they will be against her all around

on the day of evil.

3Do not let bend the one bending his bow,

and let him not bring himself up in his armor;

do not spare toward her young men,

devote to destruction† all of her army!

4And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,†

and the pierced in her streets.

5For Israel has not been forsaken—and Judah—

by their God, by YHWH of Hosts,

though their land had been filled with guilt

before the Holy One of Israel.”

6Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let each man save his soul!

Do not be cut off in her iniquity;

for it is a time of vengeance for YHWH,

a recompense He will complete for her!

7Babylon was a cup of gold in the hand of YHWH,

making drunk all the earth;

from her wine the nations drank;

upon thus the nations are deranged.

8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and has been shattered!

Wail over her, and take balm for her pain;

perhaps she can be healed.

9“We would have healed Babylon,

and she was not healed;

leave her,

and let us go, each man to his land,

for her judgment reaches to the heavens,

and it is lifted up even to the clouds!”

10“YHWH has brought forth our righteousness;

come, and let us declare in Zion

the work of YHWH our God.”

11Make bright† the arrows!

Fill the quivers!†

YHWH has roused the spirit

of the kings of the Medes,

because His plan is against Babylon

to destroy her.

For it is the vengeance of YHWH,

vengeance for His temple.

12Set up the standard against the walls of Babylon!

Make strong the guard,

make stand the watchmen,

prepare those laying ambush!

For YHWH has both planned and done

that which He spoke against those dwelling in Babylon.

13O dweller by many waters,

abundant in treasures,

your end has come,

the measure of your dishonest gain!

14YHWH of Hosts has sworn by Himself:

“Surely I will fill you with men like the locust,

and they will lift up against you a shout.”

Praise to the God of Jacob
(Isaiah 25:1–12)

15The One making the earth by His power,

establishing the world by His wisdom,

and by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.

16At the voice he gives forth

is a multitude of waters in the heavens,

and vapors He makes come up

from the ends of the earth;

He makes lightnings for the rain

and He brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

17Every man is brutish, without knowledge;

every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image,

for deception is his molten image,

and no breath is in them.

18They are a vapor, a work of delusion;

in the time of their visitation they will perish.

19The Portion of Jacob is not like these,

for He is the Maker of all things,

and of the tribe of His inheritance;

YHWH of Hosts is His name.

Babylon’s Punishment

20“You are a war club for Me,

weapons of war;

I will smash apart with you the nations,

and I will destroy with you kingdoms;

21I will shatter with you the horse and its rider,

and I will smash with you the chariot and its rider;

22I will shatter with you man and woman,

and I will smash with you old and young,

and will shatter with you the young man and the maiden;

23I will smash with you the shepherd and his flock,

and I will shatter with you the plowman and his yoke,

and I will smash with you the governors and rulers!

24I will repay to Babylon

and to all those dwelling in Chaldea†

all the evil that they have done in Zion before your⁺ eyes!”

A declaration of YHWH.

25“Behold, I am against you,

O destroying mountain”—

a declaration of YHWH—

“The one destroying all the earth;

I will stretch out My hand against you

and will roll you down from the cliffs,

and I will make you as a burning mountain.

26They will not take from you a stone for a corner

or a stone for a foundation;

but you will be a desolate wasteland forever!”

A declaration of YHWH.

27“Lift up a signal on the earth,

blow the shofar among the nations;

prepare against her the nations,

summon against her the kingdoms—

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;

appoint against her a general,

cause to come up the horses like bristling locust!

28Prepare against her the nations—

the kings of the Medes with their governors,

and all their rulers,

and every land of his dominion.

29The land will tremble and it will writhe,

for every plan of YHWH against Babylon will stand,

to set the land of Babylon as a desolation

without one dwelling.

30The mighty men of Babylon have ceased from fighting;

they sit in their strongholds;

their might has dried up;

they have become like women;

they have burned her dwelling places;

her bars are broken.

31Runner runs to meet runner,

and messenger to meet messenger,

to declare to the king of Babylon

that his city is captured at the extremity;

32the fords have been seized,

and the marshes they have burned with fire,

and the men of war are terrified.”

33For thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor

at the time it is tread;

yet a little while

and will come the time of the harvest for her!”

34“He has devoured me, he has crushed me—

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon;

he has made me stand as an empty vessel;

he has swallowed me up like a monster,

he has filled his belly with my delicacies;

he has vomited me out!†

35May the violence to me

and my flesh

be upon Babylon,”

says the dweller of Zion,

“and my blood be toward those dwelling in Chaldea”—

says Jerusalem.

36Therefore, thus says YHWH:

“Behold, I will plead your case,

and I will take vengeance in vengeance for you!

I will dry up her sea,

and I will make dry her springs;

37Babylon will become as heaps,

an abode for jackals,†

a horror and a hissing,

without one dwelling.

38Together like young lions they will roar;

they will growl like cubs of lions.

39In their heat

I will make their feasts,

and I will make them drunk,

so that they may rejoice,

and sleep a sleep forever,

and they will not awake!”

A declaration of YHWH.

40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

like rams with male goats.

41How Sheshach† has been captured,

and the praise of all the earth is seized!

How Babylon has become as a desolation

among the nations!

42The sea has come up over Babylon;

with the multitude of its waves she is covered.

43Her cities have become as a desolation,

a dry land and a desert,

a land—none does dwell in them, any man,

and no son of man passes through it.

44And I will visit punishment upon Bel in Babylon,

and I will bring out what he has swallowed—from his mouth,

and no more will flow to him the nations;

indeed the wall of Babylon has fallen!

Go out from the midst of her, My people,†

and let deliver each man his soul

from the burning of the anger of YHWH.

Do not let your⁺ heart grow faint,

and do not be afraid

of the report being heard in the land;

for will come in one year a report,

and in the year after that a report,

and violence is in the land,

and ruler is against ruler.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming

when I will visit punishment on the carved images of Babylon;

and all her land will be put to shame,

and all her slain will fall in her midst.

And they will sing out over Babylon—the heavens and the earth

and all that is in them,

for from the north will come against her

the destroyers!”

A declaration of YHWH.

49“Even Babylon must fall

for the slain of Israel,

even as for Babylon have fallen

the slain of all the earth.

50Escapees from the sword,

go, do not stand still!

Remember YHWH from far off,

and let Jerusalem come up upon your⁺ heart.”

51“We are put to shame, because we have heard reproach;

shame has covered our faces,

for strangers have come

upon the holy places of the house of YHWH.”

52“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,”

a declaration of YHWH,

“when I will visit punishment on her carved images,

and in all her land the wounded will groan.

53Though Babylon were to go up to the heavens,

and though she were to gather the height of her strength,

from Me would come destroyers against her!”

A declaration of YHWH.

54“The voice of a cry

is from Babylon,

and great destruction

from the land of the Chaldeans!

55For YHWH is destroying Babylon,

and He has destroyed from her the great voice;

and have sounded their waves like great waters,

and has given forth their voice a roar.

56For is coming against her, against Babylon,

the destroyer,

her mighty men will be captured,

their bows will be broken;

for the God of recompense is YHWH;

He will repay in full!

57I will make drunk her officers and her wise men,

her governors, and her deputies, and her mighty men;

they will sleep a sleep everlasting,

and they will not wake up!”

A declaration of the King—

YHWH of Hosts is His name.

58Thus says YHWH of Hosts:

“The broad walls of Babylon will be completely stripped down,

and her high gates will be burned with fire;

the people will toil in vain,

and the nations will grow weary at the abundance of the fire.”

Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah

59The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, at his going with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the prince of quietness. 60Jeremiah wrote down all the evil that would come upon Babylon into one scroll; all these words that were written against Babylon.

61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “In your coming to Babylon, you should see and call out all these words. 62And you shall say, ‘O YHWH, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that there is no one remaining in it, from man even to beast, but it will be a desolation forever.’

63And it will come to pass at your completing to call out this scroll, that you shall tie upon it a stone and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates; 64and you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon will sink, and she will not rise from the face of the disaster that I am bringing upon her; and they shall be weary.’”

Up to here are the words of Jeremiah.

Footnotes:

1 Leb-kamai is a code name for Chaldea, that is, Babylonia.
3 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to YHWH, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
4 That is, the Babylonians; also in verse 54
11 Or Sharpen
11 LXX and some translations of the Hebrew; or Gather the shields!
24 That is, Babylonia; also in verse 35
34 Or he has expelled me
37 Or serpents or dragons
41 Sheshach is a code name for Babylon.
45 See Revelation 18:4.