1Thus saith the Lord;
2And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her,
3Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow,
4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
5For Israel hath not been forsaken,
6Flee out of the midst of Babylon,
7Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
8Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed:
9We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed:
10The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness:
11Make bright the arrows: gather the shields:
12Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon,
13O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures,
14The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying,
15He hath made the earth by his power,
16When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens;
17Every man is brutish by his knowledge;
18They are vanity, the work of errors:
19The portion of Jacob is not like them;
20Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war:
21And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
22With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman;
23I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock;
24And I will render unto Babylon
25Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord,
26And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner,
27Set ye up a standard in the land,
28Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes,
29And the land shall tremble and sorrow:
30The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight,
31One post shall run to meet another,
32And that the passages are stopped,
33For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
34Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me,
35The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,
36Therefore thus saith the Lord;
37And Babylon shall become heaps,
38They shall roar together like lions:
39In their heat I will make their feasts,
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
41How is Sheshach taken!
42The sea is come up upon Babylon:
43Her cities are a desolation,
44And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
45My people, go ye out of the midst of her,
46And lest your heart faint,
47Therefore behold, the days come,
48Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon:
49As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall,
50Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still:
51We are confounded, because we have heard reproach:
52Wherefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
53Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
54A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon,
55Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon,
56Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon,
57And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men,
58Thus saith the Lord of hosts;
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 this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
60So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
62then 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.
63And 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:
64and 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.