¶ Thus hath the LORD said: Behold, I will raise up a perilous wind against Babylon and her citizens, that bear evil will against me.
I will send also into Babylon fanners, to fan her out, and to destroy her land: for in the day of her trouble they shall be about her on every side:
Moreover, the Lord hath said unto the bow men, and to them that climb over the walls in breast plates: He shall not spare her young men, kill down all her host.
Thus the slain shall fall down in the land of the Caldees, and the wounded in the streets.
As for Israel and Iuda, they shall not be forsaken of their God, of the LORD of Hosts, of the holy one of Israel: no, though they have filled all their land full of sin.
Fly away from Babylon, every man save his life. Let no man hold his tongue to her wickedness, for the time of the LORD's vengeance is come, yea he shall reward her again.
Babylon hath been in the LORD's hand a golden cup, that maketh all lands drunken. Of her wine have all people drunken, therefore are they out of their wits.
But suddenly is Babylon fallen and destroyed. Mourn for her, bring plasters for her wounds, if she may peradventure be healed again.
We would have made Babylon whole (say they) but she is not recovered. Therefore will we let her alone, and go every man into his own country. For her judgment is come in to heaven, and is gone up to the clouds.
And therefore come on, we will shew Sion the work of the LORD our God.
Make sharp the arrows, and fill the quivers: for the LORD shall raise up the spirit of the king of the Meedes, which hath already a desire to destroy Babylon. This shall be the vengeance of the LORD's, and the vengeance of his temple.
Set up tokens upon the walls of Babylon, make your watch strong, set your watchmen in array, yea hold privy watches: and yet for all that shall the LORD go forth with the device, which he hath taken upon them that dwell in Babylon.
O thou that dwellest by the great waters, O thou that hast so great treasure and riches, thine end is come: and the reckoning of thy winnings.
The LORD of Hosts hath sworn by himself, that he will over whelm thee with men like grasshoppers in number, which with courage shall cry Alarum, Alarum against thee.
Yea even the LORD of Hosts, that with his power made the earth, with his wisdom prepared the round world, and with his discretion spied out the heavens.
As soon as he letteth his voice be heard, the waters in the air wax fierce: He draweth up the clouds from the ends of the earth. He turneth the lightnings to rain, he bringeth the winds out of their secret places.
By the reason of wisdom, all men are become fools. Confounded be all the casters of images: for the thing that they make is but deceit, and hath no breath.
Vain is it and worthy to be laughed at: and in the time of visitation it shall perish.
Nevertheless, the portion of Iacob is none such: but he that made all things, whose name is the LORD of Hosts, he is the rod of his inheritance.
Thou breakest my weapons of war, and yet thorow thee I have scattered the nations and kingdoms:
thorow thee have I scattered horse and horse man, yea the chariots, and such as sat upon them:
thorow thee I have scattered man and woman, old and young, bachelor and maiden.
thorow thee I have scattered the shepherd and his flock, the husband man and his cattle, the princes and the rulers.
Therefore will I reward the city of Babylon and all her citizens the Caldees, with all the evil which they have done unto Sion: Yea that ye yourselves shall see it, sayeth the LORD.
Behold, I come upon thee (thou noisesome hill) sayeth the LORD, thou that destroyest all lands. I will stretch out my hand over thee, and cast thee down from the stony rocks: and will make thee a brent hill,
so that neither corner stones, nor pinnacles, nor foundation stones shall be taken any more out of thee, but waste and desolate shalt thou lie for evermore, sayeth the LORD.
Set up a token in the land, blow the trumpets among the Heathen, provoke the nations against her, call the kingdoms of Ararat, Menni, and Ascanes against her: number out Taphsar against her, bring as great a sort of horses against her, as if they were grasshoppers.
Prepare against them the people of the Meedes with their kings, princes and all their chief rulers, yea and the whole land that is under them.
The land also shall shake and be afraid, when the device of the LORD shall come forth against Babylon: to make the land of Babylon so waste, that no man shall dwell any more therein.
The Worthies of Babylon shall leave the battle, and keep themselves in strongholds, their strength hath failed them, they shall be like women. Their dwelling places shall be brent up, their bars shall be broken.
One pursuant shall meet another, yea one post shall come by another, to bring the king of Babylon tidings: that his city is taken in on every side,
the fords occupied, the fens brent up, and the soldiers sore afraid.
For thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon hath been in her time like as a threshing floor, but shortly shall her harvest come.
Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon hath devoured and destroyed me, he hath made me an empty vessel. He swallowed me up like a dragon, and filled his belly with my delicates: he hath cast me out.
he hath taken my substance away and the thing that was left me hath he carried unto Babylon, sayeth the daughter that dwelleth in Sion: Yea and my blood also, unto the Caldees, sayeth Ierusalem.
Therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Behold, I will defend thy cause, and avenge thee: I will drink up her sea, and dry up her water springs.
Babylon shall become an heap of stones a dwelling place for dragons, a fearfulness and wondering, because no man dwelleth there.
They shall roar together like lions, and as the young lions when they be angry, so shall they bend them selves.
In their heat I shall set drink before them, and they shall be drunken for joy: Then shall they sleep an everlasting sleep, and never wake, sayeth the LORD.
I shall carry them down to be slain like sheep, like whethers and goats.
O how was Sesach won? O, how was the glory of the whole land taken? how happeneth it, that Babylon is so wondered at among the Heathen?
The sea is risen over Babylon, and hath covered her with his great waves.
Her cities are laid waste, the land lieth unbuilded and void: it is a land where no man dwelleth, and where no man traveleth thorow.
Moreover, I will visit Bel at Babylon: and the thing that he hath swallowed up, that same shall I pluck out of his mouth. The Gentiles also shall run no more unto him, yea and the walls of Babylon shall fall.
O My people, come out of Babylon, that every man may save his life, from the fearful wrath of the LORD.
Be not faint hearted, and fear not at every rumour that shall be heard in the land: for every year bringeth new tidings, yea strange wickedness and lordship.
And lo, the time cometh that I will visit the images of Babylon, and the whole land shall be confounded, yea and her slain shall lie in the middest of her.
Heaven and earth with all that is therein, shall rejoice over Babylon, when the destroyers shall come upon her from the North, sayeth the LORD.
Like as Babylon hath beaten down and slain many out of Israel, so shall there fall many, and be slain in all her kingdom.
Ye that have escaped the sword, haste you, stond not still, remember the LORD afar off: and think upon Ierusalem,
for we were ashamed to hear the blasphemies: our faces were covered with shame, because the strange aliens came into the Sanctuary of the LORD.
Wherefore, behold, (sayeth the LORD) the time cometh, that I will visit the images of Babylon, and thorow the whole land they shall mourn and fall.
Though Babylon climbed up into heaven, and kept her power an high: yet shall I send her destroyers, sayeth the LORD.
A piteous cry shall be heard from Babylon, and a great misery from the land of the Caldees:
when the LORD destroyeth them, and when he driveth out the high stomach and proud boasting, wherewith they have been as furious as the waves of great water floods, and made great crakes with their words.
For the destroyers shall come upon her (even upon Babylon) which shall take her worthies, and brake their bows: for GOD is disposed to avenge himself upon them, and sufficiently to recompense them.
Yea (sayeth the LORD) I will make their princes, their wise men, their chief rulers and all their worthies, drunken: so that they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and never wake: Thus sayeth the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts: The thick wall of Babylon shall be broken, and her proud gates shall be brent up. And the thing that the Gentiles and the people have wrought with great travail and labour, shall come to naught and be consumed in the fire.
¶ This is the charge that Ieremy gave unto Saraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maasiah, when he went toward Babylon with Zedekiah the king of Iudah, in the fourth year of his reign. Now this Saraiah was a peaceable prince.
Ieremy wrote in a book all the misery that should come upon Babylon, yea and all these sermons that be written against Babylon,
and gave Saraiah this charge: When thou comest unto Babylon, see that thou read all these words,
and say: O LORD, thou art determined to root out this place, so that neither people nor cattle shall dwell there any more, but to lie waste for ever:
and when thou hast read out the book, bind a stone to it, and cast it in the middest of Euphrates,
and say: Even thus shall Babylon sink, and be thrust down with the burthen of trouble, that I will bring upon her: so that she shall never come up again. Thus far are the preachings of Ieremy.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.