Jeremiah 51:35-61

³⁵May the violent things done to me, and my downfall, come on Babylon, the daughter of Zion will say; and, May my blood be on the people of Chaldaea, Jerusalem will say.

³⁶For this reason the Lord has said: See, I will give support to your cause, and take payment for what you have undergone; I will make her sea dry, and her fountain without water.

³⁷And Babylon will become a mass of broken walls, a hole for jackals, a cause of wonder and surprise, without a living man in it.

³⁸They will be crying out together like lions, their voices will be like the voices of young lions.

³⁹When they are heated, I will make a feast for them, and overcome them with wine, so that they may become unconscious, sleeping an eternal sleep without awaking, says the Lord.

⁴⁰I will make them go down to death like lambs, like he-goats together.

⁴¹How is Babylon taken! and the praise of all the earth surprised! how has Babylon become a cause of wonder among the nations!

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the mass of its waves.

⁴³Her towns have become a waste, a dry and unwatered land, where no man has his living-place and no son of man goes by.

⁴⁴And I will send punishment on Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what went into it; no longer will the nations be flowing together to him: truly, the wall of Babylon will come down.

⁴⁵My people, go out from her, and let every man get away safe from the burning wrath of the Lord.

⁴⁶So that your hearts may not become feeble and full of fear because of the news which will go about in the land; for a story will go about one year, and after that in another year another story, and violent acts in the land, ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷For this cause, truly, the days are coming when I will send punishment on the images of Babylon, and all her land will be shamed, and her dead will be falling down in her.

⁴⁸And the heaven and the earth and everything in them, will make a song of joy over Babylon: for those who make her waste will come from the north, says the Lord.

⁴⁹As Babylon had the dead of Israel put to the sword, so in Babylon the dead of all the land will be stretched out.

⁵⁰You who have got away safe from the sword, go, waiting for nothing; have the Lord in memory when you are far away, and keep Jerusalem in mind.

⁵¹We are shamed because bitter words have come to our ears; our faces are covered with shame: for men from strange lands have come into the holy places of the Lord's house.

⁵²For this reason, see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send punishment on her images; and through all her land the wounded will be crying out in pain.

⁵³Even if Babylon was lifted up to heaven, even if she had the high places of her strength shut in with walls, still I would send against her those who will make her waste, says the Lord.

⁵⁴There is the sound of a cry from Babylon, and of a great destruction from the land of the Chaldaeans:

⁵⁵For the Lord is making Babylon waste, and putting an end to the great voice coming out of her; and her waves are thundering like great waters, their voice is sounding loud:

⁵⁶For the waster has come on her, even on Babylon, and her men of war are taken, their bows are broken: for the Lord is a rewarding God, and he will certainly give payment.

⁵⁷And I will make her chiefs and her wise men, her rulers and her captains and her men of war, overcome with wine; their sleep will be an eternal sleep without awaking, says the King; the Lord of armies is his name.

⁵⁸The Lord of armies has said: The wide walls of Babylon will be completely uncovered and her high doorways will be burned with fire; so peoples keep on working for nothing, and the weariness of nations comes to an end in the smoke.

⁵⁹The order which Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of his rule. Now Seraiah was the chief controller of the house.

⁶⁰And Jeremiah put in a book all the evil which was to come on Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you give them all these words;