Jeremiah 51:35-61

³⁵the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” will the inhabitress of Zion say; and “My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” will Jerusalem say.

³⁶Therefore thus hath said the Lord, Behold, I will contend in thy cause, and execute vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and cause her springs to fail.

³⁷And Babylon shall become ruinous heaps, a dwelling-place for monsters, an astonishment, and a derision, without an inhabitant.

³⁸Together like lions shall they roar: they shall yell like the lions' whelps.

³⁹When they are heated will I prepare their drinking-feasts, and I will make them drunken, in order that they may be joyful, and then sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake again, saith the Lord.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like wethers with he-goats.

⁴¹How is Sheshach captured! and how is conquered the praise of the whole earth! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

⁴²The sea is come up over Babylon: with the multitude of its waves is she covered.

⁴³Her cities are become desolate places, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein not any man shall dwell, and through which no son of man shall pass along.

⁴⁴And I will inflict punishment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth what he hath swallowed up out of his mouth; and nations shall not assemble together like a stream unto him any more; yea, the wall of Babylon also is fallen.

⁴⁵Go ye out of the midst of her, my people, and save ye every man his life from the fierceness of the anger of the Lord.

⁴⁶And so that your heart may not faint, and ye fear at the report that is heard in the land: when the report cometh in one year, and after that in another year cometh another report, and when violence be done in the land, by ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Therefore, behold, days are coming, when I will inflict punishment on the graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fail in the midst of her.

⁴⁸And then shall the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, sing because of Babylon; for from the north shall come unto her the destroyers, saith the Lord.

⁴⁹Also Babylon is destined to fall, O ye slain ones of Israel, also at Babylon fall the slain of all the land.

⁵⁰But ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember afar off the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise up in your heart.

⁵¹“We had been made ashamed, because we had heard reproach: confusion had covered our faces; because strangers were come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house.”

⁵²Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will inflict punishment on her graven images: and through all her land shall groan the deadly wounded.

⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength; yet from me should destroyers come unto her, saith the Lord.

⁵⁴A sound of a painful cry cometh from Babylon, and of a great breach from the land of the Chaldeans;

⁵⁵Because the Lord wasteth Babylon, and destroyeth out of her the loud noise; but their waves roar like great waters, the noise of their voice is sent forth;

⁵⁶Because the destroyer is come over her, over Babylon, and her mighty men are caught, every one of their bows is broken; for the God of recompenses, the Lord, will surely requite.

⁵⁷And I will make drunken her princes, and her wise men, her governors, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake again, saith the King, The Lord of hosts is his name.

⁵⁸Thus hath said the Lord of hosts, Every one of the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire; so that nations shall have labored in vain, and the people for the fire, and so shall they have wearied themselves.

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Serayah the son of Neriyah, the son of Machseyah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah unto Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Serayah was chief chamberlain.

⁶⁰And Jeremiah wrote down all the evil that should come upon Babylon in one book, namely, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Serayah, As thou comest to Babylon, see to it, that thou read all these words;