| King James Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind; | 1This is what the LORD says: “I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Babylonia. |
| 2And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. | 2Foreigners will come and winnow her, blowing her away as chaff. They will come from every side to rise against her in her day of trouble. |
| 3Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host. | 3Don’t let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. Don’t spare even her best soldiers! Let her army be completely destroyed. |
| 4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. | 4They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians, slashed to death in her streets. |
| 5For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. | 5For the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has not abandoned Israel and Judah. He is still their God, even though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.” |
| 6Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. | 6Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves! Don’t get trapped in her punishment! It is the LORD’s time for vengeance; he will repay her in full. |
| 7Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. | 7Babylon has been a gold cup in the LORD’s hands, a cup that made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank Babylon’s wine, and it drove them all mad. |
| 8Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. | 8But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen. Weep for her. Give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed. |
| 9We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. | 9We would have helped her if we could, but nothing can save her now. Let her go; abandon her. Return now to your own land. For her punishment reaches to the heavens; it is so great it cannot be measured. |
| 10The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. | 10The LORD has vindicated us. Come, let us announce in Jerusalem everything the LORD our God has done. |
| 11Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple. | 11Sharpen the arrows! Lift up the shields! For the LORD has inspired the kings of the Medes to march against Babylon and destroy her. This is his vengeance against those who desecrated his Temple. |
| 12Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. | 12Raise the battle flag against Babylon! Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen. Prepare an ambush, for the LORD will fulfill all his plans against Babylon. |
| 13O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. | 13You are a city by a great river, a great center of commerce, but your end has come. The thread of your life is cut. |
| 14The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee. | 14The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has taken this vow and has sworn to it by his own name: “Your cities will be filled with enemies, like fields swarming with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.” A Hymn of Praise to the LORD |
| 15He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. | 15The LORD made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens. |
| 16When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. | 16When he speaks in the thunder, the heavens roar with rain. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses. |
| 17Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. | 17The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power. |
| 18They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. | 18Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed. |
| 19The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name. | 19But the God of Israel is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including his people, his own special possession. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is his name! Babylon’s Great Punishment |
| 20Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; | 20“You are my battle-ax and sword,” says the LORD. “With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms. |
| 21And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; | 21With you I will shatter armies— destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer. |
| 22With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; | 22With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and young women. |
| 23I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. | 23With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and officers. |
| 24And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. | 24“I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem,” says the LORD. |
| 25Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. | 25“Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy,” says the LORD. “I will raise my fist against you, to knock you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble. |
| 26And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD. | 26You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out,” says the LORD. |
| 27Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers. | 27Raise a signal flag to the nations. Sound the battle cry! Mobilize them all against Babylon. Prepare them to fight against her! Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander, and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts! |
| 28Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. | 28Bring against her the armies of the nations— led by the kings of the Medes and all their captains and officers. |
| 29And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. | 29The earth trembles and writhes in pain, for everything the LORD has planned against Babylon stands unchanged. Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant. |
| 30The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. | 30Her mightiest warriors no longer fight. They stay in their barracks, their courage gone. They have become like women. The invaders have burned the houses and broken down the city gates. |
| 31One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, | 31The news is passed from one runner to the next as the messengers hurry to tell the king that his city has been captured. |
| 32And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. | 32All the escape routes are blocked. The marshes have been set aflame, and the army is in a panic. |
| 33For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. | 33This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor, about to be trampled. In just a little while her harvest will begin.” |
| 34Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. | 34“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has eaten and crushed us and drained us of strength. He has swallowed us like a great monster and filled his belly with our riches. He has thrown us out of our own country. |
| 35The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. | 35Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,” say the people of Zion. “Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,” says Jerusalem. The LORD’s Vengeance on Babylon |
| 36Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. | 36This is what the LORD says to Jerusalem: “I will be your lawyer to plead your case, and I will avenge you. I will dry up her river, as well as her springs, |
| 37And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. | 37and Babylon will become a heap of ruins, haunted by jackals. She will be an object of horror and contempt, a place where no one lives. |
| 38They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. | 38Her people will roar together like strong lions. They will growl like lion cubs. |
| 39In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. | 39And while they lie inflamed with all their wine, I will prepare a different kind of feast for them. I will make them drink until they fall asleep, and they will never wake up again,” says the LORD. |
| 40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. | 40“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed. |
| 41How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! | 41“How Babylon is fallen— great Babylon, praised throughout the earth! Now she has become an object of horror among the nations. |
| 42The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. | 42The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its crashing waves. |
| 43Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. | 43Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wasteland where no one lives or even passes by. |
| 44And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. | 44And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and make him vomit up all he has eaten. The nations will no longer come and worship him. The wall of Babylon has fallen! A Message for the Exiles |
| 45My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. | 45“Come out, my people, flee from Babylon. Save yourselves! Run from the LORD’s fierce anger. |
| 46And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. | 46But do not panic; don’t be afraid when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces. For rumors will keep coming year by year. Violence will erupt in the land as the leaders fight against each other. |
| 47Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. | 47For the time is surely coming when I will punish this great city and all her idols. Her whole land will be disgraced, and her dead will lie in the streets. |
| 48Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD. | 48Then the heavens and earth will rejoice, for out of the north will come destroying armies against Babylon,” says the LORD. |
| 49As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. | 49“Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel and others throughout the world, so must her people be killed. |
| 50Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. | 50Get out, all you who have escaped the sword! Do not stand and watch—flee while you can! Remember the LORD, though you are in a far-off land, and think about your home in Jerusalem.” |
| 51We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house. | 51“We are ashamed,” the people say. “We are insulted and disgraced because the LORD’s Temple has been defiled by foreigners.” |
| 52Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan. | 52“Yes,” says the LORD, “but the time is coming when I will destroy Babylon’s idols. The groans of her wounded people will be heard throughout the land. |
| 53Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD. | 53Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens and makes her fortifications incredibly strong, I will still send enemies to plunder her. I, the LORD, have spoken! Babylon’s Complete Destruction |
| 54A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: | 54“Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. |
| 55Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: | 55For the LORD is destroying Babylon. He will silence her loud voice. Waves of enemies pound against her; the noise of battle rings through the city. |
| 56Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite. | 56Destroying armies come against Babylon. Her mighty men are captured, and their weapons break in their hands. For the LORD is a God who gives just punishment; he always repays in full. |
| 57And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. | 57I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her captains, officers, and warriors. They will fall asleep and never wake up again!” says the King, whose name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. |
| 58Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. | 58This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled to the ground, and her massive gates will be burned. The builders from many lands have worked in vain, for their work will be destroyed by fire!” Jeremiah’s Message Sent to Babylon |
| 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. | 59The prophet Jeremiah gave this message to Seraiah son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, a staff officer, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah. This was during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. |
| 60So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. | 60Jeremiah had recorded on a scroll all the terrible disasters that would soon come upon Babylon—all the words written here. |
| 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; | 61He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read aloud everything on this scroll. |
| 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. | 62Then say, ‘LORD, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.’ |
| 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: | 63When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River. |
| 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. | 64Then say, ‘In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.’” This is the end of Jeremiah’s messages. |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
|
