This is what Yahweh says: “Behold, I will raise up a destroying wind against Babylon and against those who lift up their heart against me.
I will send to Babylon strangers who will winnow her, and they will empty her land, for in the day of trouble they will be against her on every side.
Do not let the archer bend his bow, and do not let him stand up in his coat of mail. And do not spare her young men; devote to destruction all her army.
They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, thrust through in her streets.
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, Yahweh of Armies, even though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
Flee out of the midst of Babylon and let every man save his life! Do not be cut off because of her iniquity, for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance; he will repay her what she deserves.
Babylon has been a gold cup in Yahweh’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank of her wine, and so the nations went mad.
Babylon will suddenly fall and be destroyed. Wail for her; bring balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed.
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Abandon her! Let’s each go to his own country, for her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up as far as the skies.
Yahweh has brought forth our vindication! Come, and let’s declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.
Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields. Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his Temple.
Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes, for Yahweh has both purposed and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.
Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men as with the canker worm, and they will lift up a shout against you.
He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.
Every man has become stupid; without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast metal image is a lie and there is no breath in them.
They are vanity, a work of delusion; in the time of their visitation they will perish.
Jacob’s Portion is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel, the tribe of his inheritance. Yahweh of Armies is his name.
You are my battle axe and weapons of war, and with you I will break in pieces the nations; and with you I will destroy kingdoms;
and with you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider;
and with you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides in it; and with you I will break in pieces man and woman; and with you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
and with you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke; and with you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.
Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion, says Yahweh.
Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.
They will not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but you will be desolate forever, says Yahweh.
Set up a standard in the land, blow the shofar among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her, cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm.
Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors and all its deputies and all the land of their dominion.
The land trembles and is in pain, for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight; they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are broken.
One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter;
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
For this is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trampled; yet a little while, and the time of harvest will come for her.”
“Nebuchadnezzar 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 sea monster, he has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has cast me out.
May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” the inhabitant of Zion will say, and, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem will say.
Therefore this is what Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you, and I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.
Babylon will become heaps of ruins, a dwelling place for jackals, an object of astonishment and hissing without an inhabitant.
They will roar together like young lions, they will growl as lions’ cubs.
When they are heated, I will make their feast; and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says Yahweh.
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and he-goats.
How is Sheshach taken! And the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land and a desert, a land where no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by it.
I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth what he has swallowed up; and the nations will not flow any more to him, yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.
My people, go away from the middle of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Yahweh.
Do not let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that will be heard in the land; for news will come one year, and after that in another year will come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the carved images of Babylon, and her whole land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in the middle of her.
Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in it will sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, says Yahweh.
As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon will fall the slain of all the land.
You who have escaped the sword, go, do not stand still; remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
‘We are confounded because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.’
Therefore behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, that I will execute judgment on her carved images, and through all her land the wounded will groan.
Though Babylon should mount up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me will destroyers come to her, says Yahweh.
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
For Yahweh lays Babylon waste and destroys out of her the great voice, and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered,
for the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Yahweh is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.
I will make drunk her leaders and her wise men, her governors and her deputies and her mighty men, and they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
This is what Yahweh of Armies says: The thick walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown, and her high gates will be burned with fire. So the peoples will labor for nothing, and the nations only to fuel the fire, and they will be weary.”
The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster.
Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,
and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’,
When you have made an end of reading this book, you are to bind a stone to it and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates,
and you are to say, ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her, and they will be weary.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.