Online Bible

Yahweh Sends Calamity to Babylon

Thus says Yahweh:“Behold, I am going to arouse against BabylonAnd against the inhabitants of ¹Leb-kamai²The ^aspirit of a destroyer.

2 “I will send ¹strangers to Babylon that they may ^awinnow herAnd may empty her land to destruction;For on every side they will be against herIn the day of her calamity.3 “¹Let not ²him who ³^abends his bow ⁴bend it,⁵Nor let him rise up in his ^bscale-armor;So do not spare her young men;Devote all her army to destruction.4 “They will fall down ¹slain in the land of the Chaldeans,And ^apierced through in their streets.”

5 For ^aneither Israel nor Judah has been widowedBy his God, by Yahweh of hosts,Although their land is ^bfull of guilt¹Before the Holy One of Israel.6 ^aFlee from the midst of Babylon,And each of you escape with his life!Do not be ¹^bsilenced in her ²iniquity,For this is ^cYahweh’s time of vengeance;He is going to ^drender recompense to her.7 Babylon has been a golden ^acup in the hand of Yahweh,Intoxicating all the earth.The ^bnations have drunk of her wine;Therefore the nations are ^cgoing mad.8 Suddenly ^aBabylon has fallen and been broken;^bWail over her!^cTake ¹balm for her pain;Perhaps she may be healed.9 We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;Forsake her and ^alet us each go to his own country,For her judgment has ^btouched heavenAnd lifts up to the very skies.10 Yahweh has ^abrought ¹about our righteousness;Come and let us ^brecount in ZionThe work of Yahweh our God!

11 ^aSharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!Yahweh has aroused the spirit of the kings of the MedesBecause His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it;For it is the ^bvengeance of Yahweh, vengeance for His temple.12 ^aLift up a standard against the walls of Babylon;Make strong the watch;Raise up ¹watchmen;Establish men in ambush!For Yahweh has both ^bpurposed and performedWhat He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.13 O you who ^adwell by abundant waters,Abundant in ^btreasures,Your end has come,The ¹measure of your ²^cend.14 ^aYahweh of hosts has sworn by Himself:“Surely I will fill you with a ¹population like ^blocusts,And they will cry out with ²shouts of victory over you.”

15 It is ^aHe who made the earth by His power,Who established the world by His wisdom,And by His understanding He ^bstretched out the heavens.16 When He gives forth His ^avoice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,And He causes the ^bclouds to ascend from the end of the earth;He makes lightning for the rainAnd brings forth the ^cwind from His storehouses.17 ^aAll mankind is senseless, devoid of knowledge;Every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image,For his molten images are ^ba lie,And there is no breath in them.18 They are ^avanity, a work of mockery;In the time of their punishment they will perish.19 The ^aportion of Jacob is not like these;For the ¹Maker of all is He,And of the ²tribe of His inheritance;^bYahweh of hosts is His name.20 He says, “You are My ^ainstrument of shattering, My weapon of war;And with you I ^bshatter nations,And with you I destroy kingdoms.21 “With you I ^ashatter the horse and his rider,And with you I shatter the ^bchariot and its rider,22 And with you I shatter ^aman and woman,And with you I shatter old man and ^byouth,And with you I shatter choice man and virgin,23 And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,And with you I shatter the farmer and his pair of oxen,And with you I shatter governors and prefects.

24 “But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of ^aChaldea for ^ball their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares Yahweh.

25 “Behold, ^aI am against you, ^bO destroying mountain,Who destroys the whole earth,” declares Yahweh,“And I will stretch out My hand against youAnd roll you down from the crags,And I will make you a ^cburnt out mountain.26 “They will not take from you even a stone for a cornerNor a stone for foundations,But you will be a perpetual ^adesolation,” declares Yahweh.

27 ^aLift up a standard in the land,Blow a trumpet among the nations!Set apart the nations against her;Summon against her the ^bkingdoms of ^cArarat, Minni, and ^dAshkenaz;Appoint a marshal against her;Bring up the ^ehorses like bristly locusts.28 Set apart the nations against her,The kings of the Medes,¹Their governors and all ²their ³prefectsAnd every land of ⁴their rule.29 So the ^aland quakes and writhes,For the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand,To make the land of Babylon¹A ^bdesolation without inhabitants.30 The ^amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting;They inhabit the strongholds;^bTheir might is dried up;They are becoming ^clike women;Their dwelling places are set on fire;The ^dbars of her gates are broken.31 One ^arunner runs to meet ¹another,And one ^bmessenger to meet ²another,To give a message to the king of BabylonThat his city has been captured from end to end;32 The fords also have been seized,And they have burned the marshes with fire,And the men of war are terrified.

33 For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel:“The daughter of Babylon is like a ^athreshing floorAt the time ¹it is stamped firm;Yet in a little while the time of ^bharvest will come for her.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has ^adevoured me and brought me into confusion;He has set me down like an ^bempty vessel;He has ^cswallowed me like a sea monster;He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;He has rinsed me away.35 “May the ^aviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”The ¹inhabitant of Zion will say;And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”Jerusalem will say.

36 Therefore thus says Yahweh,“Behold, I am going to ^aplead your caseAnd ^bexact full vengeance for you;And ^cI will dry up her ¹seaAnd make her fountain dry.

37 “^aBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,An ^bobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.38 “They will roar together like ^ayoung lions;They will growl like lions’ cubs.39 “When they become heated up, I will set before them their feastAnd ^amake them drunk, that they may exultAnd may ^bsleep a perpetual sleepAnd not wake up,” declares Yahweh.40 “I will bring them down like ¹lambs ^ato the slaughter,Like rams together with male goats.

41 “How ¹^aSheshak has been captured,And ^bthe praise of the whole earth been seized!How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!42 “The ¹^asea has come up over Babylon;She has been covered with its tumultuous waves.43 “Her cities have become an ^aobject of horror,A parched land, and a desert,A land in which ^bno man livesAnd through which no son of man passes.44 “^aI will punish Bel in Babylon,And I will make what he has swallowed ^bcome out of his mouth;And the nations will no longer ^cstream to him.Even the ^dwall of Babylon has fallen down!

45 “^aCome forth from her midst, My people,And each of you ^bescape with his lifeFrom the burning anger of Yahweh.46 “Now ^alest your heart grow faint,And you fear the ^breport that will be heard in the land—For the report will come ¹one year,And after that ²another report in ³another year,And violence will be in the landWith ^cruler against ruler—47 Therefore behold, days are comingWhen I will punish the ^agraven images of Babylon;And her whole land will be ^bput to shame,And all her slain will fall in her midst.48 “Then ^aheaven and earth and all that is in themWill shout for joy over Babylon,For ^bthe destroyers will come to her from the north,”Declares Yahweh.

49 ^aIndeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,As also for Babylon ^bthe slain of all the earth have fallen.50 You ^awho have escaped the sword,Go! Do not stand around!^bRemember Yahweh from afar,And let Jerusalem come upon your heart.51 ^aWe are ashamed because we have heard reproach;Dishonor has covered our faces,For ^bstrangers have enteredThe holy places of the house of Yahweh.

52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh,“When I will punish her ^agraven images,And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.53 “Though Babylon should ^aascend to the heavens,And though she should fortify ¹her lofty stronghold,From ^bMe destroyers will come to her,” declares Yahweh.

54 The ^asound of an outcry from Babylon,And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!55 For Yahweh is going to destroy Babylon,And He will make her loud ¹noise ²vanish from her.And their ^awaves will roar like many waters;The rumbling of their voices ³sounds forth.56 For the ^adestroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,And her mighty men will be captured;Their ^bbows are shattered;For Yahweh is a God of ^crecompense,He will fully repay.57 “I will ^amake her princes and her wise men drunk,Her governors, her prefects, and her mighty men,That they may sleep a ^bperpetual sleep and not wake up,”^cDeclares the King, whose name is Yahweh of hosts.

58 Thus says Yahweh of hosts,“The broad ^awall of Babylon will be completely razed,And her high ^bgates will be set on fire;So the peoples will ^ctoil for nothing,And the nations become ^dweary only for fire.”

59 The ¹message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of ^aNeriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with ^bZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.) 60 So Jeremiah ^awrote in a single ¹scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. 61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud, 62 and then you will say, ‘You, O Yahweh, have ¹promised concerning this place to ^acut it off, so that there will be ^bnothing inhabiting it, ²whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’ 63 And as soon as you finish reading this ¹scroll, you will tie a stone to it and ^athrow it into the middle of the Euphrates, 64 and then you will say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and ^anot rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become ^butterly weary.’” ^cThus far are the words of Jeremiah.