The word which Jehovah spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:

Declare among the nations and proclaim; Lift up a banner, proclaim it. Do not conceal it, but say, Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Merodach is shattered; Her images are put to shame; Her idols are dismayed.

For a nation has come up against her from the north; It will make her land a waste, And there will be no inhabitant in it; Both man and beast have fled; they are gone away.

In those days and at that time, declares Jehovah, The children of Israel will come, Both they and the children of Judah together; They will go along with weeping as they go, And they will seek Jehovah their God.

They will ask for the way to Zion With their faces toward it, saying: Come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah In an eternal covenant that will not be forgotten.

My people are lost sheep; Their shepherds have led them astray; They have made them turn aside on the mountains; They have gone from mountain to hill; They have forgotten their resting place.

All who found them have devoured them, And their adversaries have said, We are not guilty, Because they have sinned against Jehovah, The habitation of righteousness, Even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.

Flee from the midst of Babylon, And go out from the land of the Chaldeans, And be as male goats Before the flock.

For I am about to stir up and bring up against Babylon An assembly of great nations from the land of the north; And they will set themselves in array against her, And she will be taken captive from there. Their arrows will be like those of an expert mighty man; None will return empty-handed.

And Chaldea will become spoil; All those who spoil her will be satisfied, declares Jehovah.

Because you rejoiced, because you exulted, O you who plunder My inheritance, Because you spring about as a threshing heifer, And you neigh like stallions,

Your mother has been greatly ashamed; She who bore you has become a reproach: Indeed, she has become the last of the nations, A wilderness, a dry land and a desert.

Because of the wrath of Jehovah she will not be inhabited, But she will become a complete desolation; For every one who passes by Babylon will be astonished And will hiss at all her wounds.

Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, All those who bend the bow; Shoot at her; spare no arrow; Because she has sinned against Jehovah;

Raise a shout against her all around. She has surrendered; her buttresses have fallen, Her walls have been torn down; For this is the vengeance of Jehovah: Take vengeance on her; As she has done, so do to her.

Cut off the sower from Babylon, And the one who handles a sickle in the time of harvest; Because of the sword of the oppressor Each one will turn to his people, And each one flee to his own land.

Israel is a scattered sheep; Lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last this Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.

Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.

And I will bring Israel back to his habitation, And he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, And in the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead He will satisfy his soul.

In those days and at that time, declares Jehovah, The iniquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none; And the sin of Judah, but it will not be found; For I will forgive those whom I will leave as a remnant.

Go up against her, against the land of Merathaim And against the inhabitants of Pekod. Desolate and utterly destroy them, declares Jehovah, And do according to all that I commanded you.

The sound of war is in the land, And great destruction.

How the hammer of the whole earth Is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become an astonishment Among the nations!

I have set a snare for you, and you also have been taken captive, O Babylon, and you did not know; You were found, and you also were seized, Because you engaged in war with Jehovah.

Jehovah has opened His armory And has brought out the weapons of His wrath, For this is the work of the Lord Jehovah of hosts Against the land of the Chaldeans.

Come against her from every side; Open her granaries. Pile her up like heaps; Destroy her utterly; Let nothing of her remain.

Slay all her oxen; Let them go down to slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, The time of their punishment.

There is a sound of those who flee and escape From the land of Babylon, To declare in Zion The vengeance of Jehovah our God, The vengeance for His temple.

Summon archers against Babylon, All those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around; Let there be no escape. Recompense her according to her work; According to all that she has done, so do to her. For she has acted proudly against Jehovah, Against the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore her young men will fall in her open squares, And all her men of war will be silenced in that day, Declares Jehovah.

Indeed, I am against you, O Pride, Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts; For your day has come, The time that I visit you.

And Pride will stumble and fall, And there will be no one to raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, And it will devour all that is around him.

Thus says Jehovah of hosts, The children of Israel And the children of Judah are oppressed together; And all who took them captive held them fast; They refused to let them go.

Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of hosts is His name. He will surely plead their cause, That He may give rest to the land But trouble to the inhabitants of Babylon.

The sword is against the Chaldeans, declares Jehovah, And against the inhabitants of Babylon And against her princes and against her wise men.

The sword is against the liars, and they will become fools; The sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.

The sword is against their horses and against their chariots And against all the mingled people who are in her midst, And they will become like women. The sword is against her treasuries, And they will be plundered.

Drought is upon her waters, And they will dry up; For it is a land of graven images, And they are mad over terrifying idols.

Therefore desert animals will dwell there with hyenas, And ostriches will dwell in her. It will not be inhabited forever; It will not be dwelt in from generation to generation.

As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors, Declares Jehovah, So no one will dwell there; Nor will a son of man sojourn in it.

A people is now coming from the north, And a great nation and many kings Are stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.

They grasp bow and spear; They are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, And they ride upon horses, Set in array as a man for battle Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, And his hands are feeble; Distress has seized him, Pain like a woman in childbirth.

Indeed, one will come up like a lion From the majesty of the Jordan against a secure habitation; For I will suddenly make them run away from her; And whoever is chosen I will appoint over her. For who is like Me? And who can appoint Me a time? And who is that shepherd who can stand before Me?

Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, Which He purposed against Babylon, And His thoughts, which He has thought Against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they will drag them off, the little ones of the flock; Surely He will make their habitation a desolation because of them.

At the sound of Babylon being seized The earth trembles, And a cry is heard among the nations.