Jeremiah 51:35-61

³⁵'The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon', shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and: 'My blood be 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 fountain dry.

³⁷And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

³⁸They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' whelps.

³⁹With their poison I will prepare their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may be convulsed, 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 the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

⁴²The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

⁴³Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass 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 any more unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye, for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; for a rumour shall come one year, and after that in another year a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Therefore behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be ashamed; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

⁴⁸Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over 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 land.

⁵⁰Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

⁵¹'We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach, confusion hath covered our faces; for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.'

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.

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.

⁵⁴Hark! a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For the LORD spoileth Babylon, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is uttered;

⁵⁶For the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are shattered; for the LORD is a God of recompenses, He will surely requite.

⁵⁷And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, 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 overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labour for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded 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 reign. Now Seraiah was quartermaster.

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

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: 'When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou read all these words,