A Prophecy against Babylon

1The word that the Lord spake, concerning Babel, and cocerning the land of the Caldeans by the ministerie of Ieremiah the Prophet.

2Declare among the nations, and publish it, and set vp a standart, proclaime it and conceale it not: say, Babel is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken downe: her idols are confounded, and their images are burst in pieces.

3For out of the North there commeth vp a nation against her, which shall make her lande waste, and none shall dwel therein: they shall flee, and depart, both man and beast.

Hope for Israel and Judah

4In those daies, and at that time, sayeth the Lorde, the children of Israel shal come, they, and the children of Iudah together, going, and weeping shal they goe, and seeke the Lord their God. 5They shal aske the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let vs cleaue to the Lorde in a perpetuall couenant that shall not be forgotten.

6My people hath beene as lost sheepe: their shepheards haue caused them to goe astray, and haue turned them away to the mountaines: they haue gone from mountaine to hil, and forgotten their resting place.

7Al that found them, haue deuoured them, & their enemies saide, We offende not, because they haue sinned against the Lord, the habitation of iustice, euen the Lord the hope of their fathers.

8Flee from the middes of Babel, and depart out of the lande of the Caldeans, and be ye as the hee goates before the flocke.

9For loe, I will raise, and cause to come vp against Babel a multitude of mightie natios from the North countrey, and they shall set themselues in aray against her, whereby shee shall be taken: their arrowes shall be as of a strong man, which is expert, for none shall returne in vaine.

10And Caldea shalbe a spoyle: all that spoyle her, shalbe satisfied, sayth the Lord.

Babylon’s Fall Is Certain

11Because yee were glad and reioyced in destroying mine heritage, & because ye are growen fatte, as the calues in the grasse, and neied like strong horses,

12Therefore your mother shall bee sore confounded, and she that bare you, shall be ashamed: beholde, the vttermost of the nations shalbe a desert, a drie land, and a wildernes.

13Because of the wrath of the Lorde it shall not be inhabited, but shal be wholy desolate: euery one that goeth by Babel, shall be astonished, and hisse at all her plagues.

14Put your selues in aray against Babel rounde about: all ye that bende the bowe, shoote at her, spare no arrowes: for shee hath sinned against the Lord.

15Crie against her round about: she hath giuen her hand: her foundations are fallen, and her walles are destroyed: for it is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance vpon her: as she hath done, doe vnto her.

16Destroy the sower from Babel, and him that handleth the sieth in the time of haruest: because of the sworde of the oppressor they shall turne euery one to his people, and they shall flee euery one to his owne land.

Redemption for God’s People

17Israel is like scattered sheepe: the lions haue dispersed them: first the King of Asshur hath deuoured him, and last this Nebuchad-nezzar King, of Babel hath broken his bones. 18Therefore thus saith the Lord of hostes the God of Israel, Behold, I wil visit ye King of Babel, and his land, as I haue visited the King of Asshur. 19And I will bring Israel againe to his habitation: hee shall feede on Carmel and Bashan, and his soule shall be satisfied vpon the mount Ephraim and Gilead. 20In those daies, and at that time, sayeth the Lorde, the iniquitie of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sinnes of Iudah, and they shall not be founde: for I will be mercifull vnto them, whome I reserue.

The Destruction of Babylon

21Goe vp against the lande of the rebelles, euen against it, and against the inhabitantes of Pekod: destroy, and lay it waste after them, saieth the Lorde, and doe according to all that I haue commaunded thee.

22A crie of battell is in the land, and of great destruction.

23Howe is the hammer of the whole world destroied, and broken! Howe is Babel become desolate among the nations!

24I haue snared thee, and thou art taken, O Babel, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striuen against the Lorde.

25The Lord hath opened his treasure, & hath brought foorth the weapons of his wrath: for this is the woorke of the Lorde God of hostes in the lande of the Caldeans.

26Come against her from the vtmost border: open her store houses: treade on her as on sheaues, and destroy her vtterly: let nothing of her be left.

27Destroy all her bullockes: let them goe downe to the slaughter. Wo vnto them, for their day is come, and the time of their visitation.

28The voyce of them that flee, and escape out of the lande of Babel to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lorde our God, and the vengeance of his Temple.

29Call vp the archers against Babel: al ye that bend the bow, besiege it rounde about: let none thereof escape: recompence her according to her worke, & according to all that she hath done, doe vnto her: for she hath bene proud against the Lord, euen against the holy one of Israel.

30Therefore shall her yong men fall in the streetes, and al her men of warre shalbe destroied in that day, sayeth the Lord.

31Beholde, I come vnto thee, O proude man, saith the Lord God of hostes: for thy day is come, euen the time that I will visite thee.

32And the proude shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him vp: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, & it shall deuoure all round about him.

33Thus saieth the Lord of hosts, The children of Israel, and the children of Iudah were oppressed together: and all that tooke them captiues, held them, and would not let them goe.

34But their strong redeemer, whose Name is the Lord of hostes, he shall maintaine their cause, that he may giue rest to the lande, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babel.

35A sworde is vpon the Caldeans, sayeth the Lord, and vpon the inhabitants of Babel, and vpon her princes, and vpon her wise men.

36A sworde is vpon the soothsaiers, and they shall dote: a sword is vpon her strong men, & they shalbe afraide.

37A sworde is vpon their horses & vpon their charets, and vpon all the multitude that are in the middes of her, and they shall be like women: a sworde is vpon her treasures, and they shall be spoyled.

38A drought is vpon her waters, and they shall be dried vp: for it is the lande of grauen images, and they dote vpon their idoles.

39Therefore the Ziims with the Iims shall dwel there, & the ostriches shal dwel therein: for it shall be no more inhabited, neither shall it be inhabited from generation vnto generation.

40As God destroied Sodom and Gomorah with the places thereof neere about, sayeth the Lord: so shal no man dwell theere, neither shal the sonne of man remaine therein.

41Beholde, a people shall come from the North, and a great nation, and many Kings shall be raised vp from the coastes of the earth.

42They shall holde the bowe and the buckeler: they are cruell and vnmercifull: their voyce shall roare like the sea, and they shall ride vpon horses, and be put in aray like men to the battell against thee, O daughter of Babel.

43The King of Babel hath heard the report of them, & his hands waxed feeble: sorow came vpon him, euen sorowe as of a woman in trauaile.

44Beholde, hee shall come vp like a lyon from the swelling of Iorden vnto the strong habitation: for I will make Israel to rest, and I will make them to haste away from her: and who is a chosen man that I may appoynt against her? for who is like me, and who will appoynt me the time? and who is the shepheard that will stande before me? 45Therefore heare the counsell of the Lorde that hee hath deuised against Babel, and his purpose that hee hath conceiued against the lande of the Caldeans: surely the least of the flocke shall drawe them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. 46At the noyse of the winning of Babel the earth is moued, and the crye is heard among the nations.