1This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I will bring a destroying wind against Babylon, and against those who dwell among them who rise up against Me, 2And I will send foreigners to Babylon to come and winnow her; they shall fan and shall empty her land; for in the day of trouble all those around her shall be against her. 3Do not let the archers string or bend their bows; and do not spare her young men; utterly destroy her whole army. 4The slain shall fall throughout the land of the Chaldeans, and those killed by the sword shall lie in her streets. 5For Israel and Judah have not been abandoned by their God, the LORD of hosts; even though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. 6Flee from Babylon; run for your lives! Do not die because of her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; He will repay her in full. 7Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD's hand that she made all the nations to drink her wine from; and now those nations are mad. 8Babylon will suddenly fall and be destroyed. Wail for her; apply balm for her pain. Perhaps she can be healed.”

9We would have tried to heal Babylon, but she cannot be healed; leave her, and let us all return to our own country; for her judgment reaches to the skies – it rises to the skies! 10The LORD has vindicated us. Come, and let us declare in Zion all that the LORD, our God, has done.

11Sharpen the arrows; lift the shields! The LORD has stirred up the kings of the Medes; because His purpose is to destroy Babylon! The LORD has taken His vengeance - vengeance for His Temple. 12Lift up the banner upon the walls of Babylon, reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare an ambush; for the LORD has both determined and done what He decreed against the people of Babylon. 13You who live by many waters, and are rich with treasures, your end has come - the end of your string. 14The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, “Surely I will fill you with troops, like caterpillars, and they shall raise a shout of victory over you.”

15He has created the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding. 16When He speaks, His voice is like thunder, with a multitude of clouds in the heavens; He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of His storehouse. 17The wisdom of man is stupid; every goldsmith is shamed by his engraved image; for his molten images are a fraud; there is not even any breath in them. 18They are worthless, the product of wrong thinking; at the time of judgment, they shall perish. 19The Portion of Jacob is not like these; for He is the One Who formed all things; and He has made Israel His inheritance; the LORD of hosts is His name.

20“You are My battle axe (mace, or war club) and My weapon for war - with you I will break the nations in pieces, and with you will I destroy kingdoms; 21And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with you I will shatter armies, breaking both chariot and its rider in pieces; 22With you I will also shatter man and woman, young and old; young man and maid. 23With you I will also break in pieces both the shepherd and his flock; the farmer and his yoke of oxen; commanders and rulers. 24And, before your eyes, I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they have done in Zion,” says the LORD. 25“I am against you”, says the LORD, “You mountain that destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out My hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a charred mountain. 26And no rock shall they take from you for a cornerstone, nor even a stone for foundations; but you shall remain desolate forever”, says the LORD.

27“Hoist a flag in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her (Babylon), call these nations together against her: the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a commander to lead them against her; send horses like a swarm of caterpillars. 28Prepare these nations with their kings against her: the Medes, with their commanders, and all the countries they command. 29The land shall tremble and sorrow; for every intent of the LORD shall be accomplished against Babylon, to lay waste– desolate and uninhabited - the land of Babylon. 30Babylon’s warriors have refused to fight, they have remained in their forts; their strength has failed them, they became feeble; the enemy has burned Babylon’s dwelling places; the bars of her gates are broken. 31One courier after another shall rush to report to the king of Babylon that his city is captured from one end to the other, 32That the fords (river crossings) are seized, they have set the marsh reeds on fire, and the soldiers are in a panic.” 33For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Babylon is like a threshing floor; and it is time to thresh her; and the time of her harvest will soon come. 34‘Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has devoured us, he has crushed us, he has made us an empty jar, he has swallowed us up like a monster, he has filled his belly with our delicacies, then he has spewed us out. 35May the violence done to us be upon Babylon’, shall the inhabitants of Zion say; ‘And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea’, shall Jerusalem say.”

36Therefore the LORD says: “Behold, I will plead your (Israel’s) cause, and avenge you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. 37And Babylon shall become piles of rubble, where jackals lurk, a horror, and scorn, where no man lives. 38Her people shall roar like lions; they shall growl like lions' whelps. 39In their greed I will make them a feast, and they will become drunk, that they may revel, then sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awaken”, says the LORD. 40“I will lead them like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. 41How is Sheshach seized! And how is the boast of the whole earth surprised! How has Babylon become a horror among the nations! 42The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with its many waves. 43Her cities lie in desolation, a dry desert and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, nor does any man pass by it. 44And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and I will make him spew out of his mouth what he has swallowed. Nations shall no longer be drawn to him; yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45 Come out of her, My people, and save your souls from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46And do not lose heart, or fear when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor one year, another year - another rumor, of violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47Be aware, the time is coming, that I will execute judgment upon the carved images and idols of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall within her. 48Then heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the marauders shall come upon her from the north”, says the LORD.

49“As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel and of all the earth to fall, so shall the slain at Babylon fall. 50You who have escaped the sword, get away, do not linger! Remember the LORD from a distant land, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.” 51We are disgraced, because we have heard insults; shame covers our faces; for foreigners have entered the sanctuaries of the LORD's Temple. 52“But the days are coming”, says the LORD, “That I will execute judgment upon her idols and carved images, and throughout all her land, the wounded shall groan. 53Though Babylon should ascend to heaven, and though she should fortify the lofty heights of her strength, yet I will send spoilers against her”, says the LORD. 54“A sound of great destruction comes from Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, 55Because the LORD has destroyed Babylon, and silenced her noisy din. When her enemies roar like great waves, the noise of their voice shall resound: 56Because the destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon, and her mighty warriors are captured, every one of their bows is broken; for the LORD God of retribution shall surely repay. 57And I will make her officials, her wise men, officers, rulers, and her mighty men drunk; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and never awaken,” says the King, Whose name is the LORD of hosts. 58Thus says the LORD of hosts: “The thick walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be set on fire, and the people shall labor to exhaustion in vain to save things from the fire.”

59The message which Jeremiah, the prophet, gave to Seraiah, son of Neriah, grandson of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, into Babylon in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. 60Jeremiah had written in a book (scroll) all the disaster that would come upon Babylon, every word that had been written against Babylon. 61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words, 62Then you shall say, ‘O LORD, You have spoken against this place, to destroy it, that none, neither man nor beast, shall remain in it, but that it shall be forever desolate.’ 63And when you have finished reading this book, you shall tie a stone to it, and throw it into the Euphrates; 64And then you shall say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, and not rise again, because of the destruction that I will bring upon her; and her people shall be exhausted.’” The words of Jeremiah end here.