¹ The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. ² Declare you among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. ³ For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which will make her land desolate, and none will dwell in it: they will remove, they will depart, both man and beast. ⁴ In those days, and in that time, says the LORD, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they will go, and seek the LORD their God. ⁵ They will ask the way to Zion with their faces toward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten. ⁶ My people has been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. ⁷ All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers. ⁸ Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forward out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. ⁹ For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they will set themselves in array against her; from there she will be taken: their arrows will be as of a mighty expert man ; none will return in vain. ¹⁰ And Chaldea will be a spoil: all that spoil her will be satisfied, says the LORD. ¹¹ Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O you destroyers of mine heritage, because you are grown fat as the heifer at grass , and bellow as bulls; ¹² Your mother will be sorely confounded; she that bare you will be ashamed: see, the hindermost of the nations will be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. ¹³ Because of the wrath of the LORD it will not be inhabited, but it will be wholly desolate: every one that goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. ¹⁴ Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the LORD. ¹⁵ Shout against her round about: she has given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her. ¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they will turn every one to his people, and they will flee every one to his own land. ¹⁷ Israel is a scattered sheep the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria has devoured him and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones. ¹⁸ Therefore so says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; See, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul will be satisfied on mount Ephraim and Gilead. ²⁰ In those days, and in that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none; and the sins of Judah, and they will not be found: for I will pardon them who I reserve. ²¹ Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, says the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded you. ²² A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. ²³ How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken ! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! ²⁴ I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, O Babylon, and you were not aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against the LORD. ²⁵ The LORD has opened his armoury, and has brought forward the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left. ²⁷ Kill all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. ²⁸ The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple. ²⁹ Call together the archers against Babylon: all you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her: for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore will her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war will be cut off in that day, says the LORD. ³¹ See, I am against you, O you most proud, says the Lord GOD of hosts: for your day is come, the time that I will visit you. ³² And the most proud will stumble and fall, and none will raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all round about him. ³³ So says the LORD of hosts The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast they refused to let them go. ³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he will throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. ³⁵ A sword is on the Chaldeans, says the LORD, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on her wise [men]. ³⁶ A sword is on the liars and they will dote: a sword is on her mighty men and they will be dismayed. ³⁷ A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they will become as women: a sword is on her treasures; and they will be robbed. ³⁸ A drought is on her waters; and they will be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad on their idols. ³⁹ Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands will dwell there, and the owls will dwell in it: and it will be no more inhabited forever; neither will it be dwelt in from generation to generation. ⁴⁰ As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities of it, says the LORD; so will no man abide there, neither will any son of man dwell in it. ⁴¹ See, a people will come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings will be raised up from the coasts of the earth. ⁴² They will hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice will roar like the sea, and they will ride on horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon. ⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands grew feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in labour. ⁴⁴ See, he will come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan to the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time ? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? ⁴⁵ Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock will draw them out: surely he will make their habitation desolate with them. ⁴⁶ At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.