1Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them who dwell in the midst of those who rise up against Me, a destroying wind; 2And will send unto Babylon winnowers {fanners}, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land; for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. 3Against him who bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifteth himself up in his coat of mail {brigandine}; and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host. 4Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they who are thrust through 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. 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. 7Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunk{en}; the nations have drunk{en} of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 8Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; wail {howl} for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may 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. 10The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD, our God.

11Make bright the arrows; gather the shields; the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for His purpose {device} is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of 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 purposed {devised} and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. 14The LORD of hosts hath sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars, and they shall lift up a shout against thee.

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. 16When He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures. 17Every man is stupid {brutish} by his knowledge; every goldsmith {founder} is confounded by the engraved {graven} image; for his melted {molten} image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 18They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their judgment {visitation} they shall perish. 19The Portion of Jacob is not like them; for He is the One Who formed {former of} all things; and Israel is the rod of His inheritance; the LORD of hosts is His name.

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; 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; 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. 23I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the farmer {husbandman} and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. 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. 25Behold, I am against thee, O thou destroying mountain, saith the LORD, that 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. 26And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith 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 like {as} the rough caterpillars. 28Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, their captains {thereof}, and all their rulers {thereof}, and all the land of their {his} dominion. 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. 30The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their strongholds; their might hath failed, they became like {as} women; they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken. 31One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, 32And that the fords are seized {passages are stopped}, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are in a panic {affrighted}. 33For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. 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 monster {dragon}, he hath filled his belly with my delicacies {delicates}, he hath cast me out. 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.

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. 37And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals {dragons}, an horror {astonishment}, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. 38They shall roar together like lions; they shall yell like {as} lions' whelps. 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. 40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. 41How is Sheshach taken! And how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! How is Babylon become an horror {astonishment} among the nations! 42The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its {the} waves {thereof}. 43Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which {wherein} no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass by it {thereby}. 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. 45My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver {ye} every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute {do} judgment upon the carved {graven} images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 48Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them {therein}, shall sing for Babylon; for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.

49As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 50Ye who have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still; remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; shame hath covered our faces; for foreigners are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house. 52Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will execute {do} judgment upon her carved {graven} images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 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. 54A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, 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: 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 recompenses shall surely requite. 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. 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 labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

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 forever. 63And it shall be, when thou hast finished {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.