1This is what the LORD says: "Look, I will stir up a destroying wind against Babylon, and against those who live in the heart of the land of those who rise up against me."
2"I will send winnowers to Babylon, and they will winnow her and empty her land. In the day of trouble they will come against her from every side."
3"Let the archer bend his bow against the one who bends his own, and against the one who rises up in his coat of armour. Do not spare her young men; destroy all her army completely."
4"So the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and those run through with the sword in her streets."
5"For Israel has not been abandoned by his God, the LORD of hosts, nor has Judah, though their land was full of sin against the Holy One of Israel."
6Flee out of Babylon. Let every man save his own life. Do not be cut off in her wrongdoing. This is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he is paying her back what she deserves.
7Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, making all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk her wine; that is why the nations are mad.
8Babylon has fallen suddenly and is broken. Wail for her. Get balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.
9We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment reaches up to heaven; it is lifted as high as the skies.
10The LORD has brought out our righteousness. Come, let us tell in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11Polish the arrows; take up the shields. The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, for his plan is against Babylon, to destroy it. This is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.
12Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon. Make the guard strong. Post the watchmen. Get the ambushes ready. For the LORD has both planned and done what he said against the people of Babylon.
13You who live by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your greed.
14The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: "Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they will raise a shout against you."
15He made the earth by his power. He set the world in place by his wisdom. He stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16When he speaks, there is a roar of waters in the heavens. He makes the mists rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning with the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses.
17Every man is senseless and without knowledge. Every metalworker is put to shame by his carved image. His cast image is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
18They are worthless, a work of errors. When the time comes for them to be punished, they will perish.
19The portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. The LORD of hosts is his name.
20"You are my battle axe and my weapons of war. With you I will break the nations in pieces, and with you I will destroy kingdoms."
21"With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; with you I will break in pieces the chariot and its driver."
22"With you I will break in pieces man and woman; with you I will break in pieces old and young; with you I will break in pieces the young man and the girl."
23"With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his pair of oxen; with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers."
24"And I will pay back Babylon and all who live in Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion, before your own eyes, says the LORD."
25"Look, I am against you, destroying mountain, says the LORD, you who destroy all the earth. I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain."
26"No one will take a stone from you for a corner, or a stone for foundations. You will be desolate for ever, says the LORD."
27Lift up a banner in the land. Blow the trumpet among the nations. Get the nations ready against her. Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashchenaz. Appoint a commander against her. Bring up the horses like bristling locusts.
28Get the nations ready against her: the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their rulers, and every land they rule.
29The land will tremble and writhe, for every plan of the LORD against Babylon will be carried out, to make the land of Babylon a waste with no one living in it.
30The strong men of Babylon have stopped fighting; they stay in their strongholds. Their strength has failed; they have become like women. Her houses are burned; her gate bars are broken.
31One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been taken from end to end,
32that the river crossings are seized, the reeds are burned with fire, and the soldiers are terrified.
33For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is time to thresh. In a little while her harvest time will come."
34"Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has eaten me up. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty jar. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my best food. He has thrown me out."
35"Let the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon," the people of Zion will say. "Let my blood be on those who live in Chaldea," Jerusalem will say.
36Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Look, I will take up your case and pay back your enemies for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry."
37"Babylon will become heaps of ruins, a home for dragons, a thing of horror and scorn, with no one living there."
38"They will roar together like lions; they will growl like lion cubs."
39"While they are heated with wine I will prepare their feasts. I will make them drunk, so that they are merry, and then sleep for ever and never wake, says the LORD."
40"I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats."
41How Sheshach has been taken! How the praise of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its many waves.
43Her cities are a waste, a dry land and a desert, a land where no one lives and no human being passes through.
44"I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not stream to him any more. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall."
45"My people, come out of her. Let every man save his own life from the fierce anger of the LORD."
46"Do not lose heart, and do not be afraid of the rumour heard in the land. One year a rumour will come, and the next year another rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler."
47"So look, the days are coming when I will punish the carved images of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall inside her."
48"Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, says the LORD."
49"As Babylon made the slain of Israel fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth will fall."
50You who have escaped the sword, get away, do not stand still. Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51We are ashamed, because we have heard insults. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the holy places of the LORD's house.
52"So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will punish her carved images, and all through her land the wounded will groan."
53"Even if Babylon should climb up to heaven, and make her high stronghold even stronger, destroyers will come to her from me, says the LORD."
54The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55because the LORD is destroying Babylon and silencing her loud voice. Their waves roar like great waters; the noise of their voice is heard.
56For the destroyer has come against her, against Babylon. Her strong men are captured; every one of their bows is broken. For the LORD is a God who repays; he will surely pay back.
57"I will make her princes drunk, and her wise men, her governors, her rulers and her strong men. They will sleep for ever and never wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts."
58This is what the LORD of hosts says: "The wide walls of Babylon will be completely broken down, and her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples work for nothing, and the nations wear themselves out only for the fire."
59This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet gave as a command to Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. This Seraiah was a quiet prince.
60Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that was to come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
62"Then say, 'LORD, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, so that no one lives in it, neither man nor animal, but it will be desolate for ever.'"
63"When you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates."