Jeremiah 51:20–46

20 He says, “You are My 1awar-club, My weapon of war;

And with you I bshatter nations,

And with you I destroy kingdoms.

21 “With you I ashatter the horse and his rider,

And with you I shatter the bchariot and its rider,

22 And with you I shatter aman and woman,

And with you I shatter old man and byouth,

And with you I shatter young man and virgin,

23 And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,

And with you I shatter the farmer and his team,

And with you I shatter governors and prefects.

24 “But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of aChaldea for ball their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares the Lord.

25 “Behold, aI am against you, bO destroying mountain,

Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the Lord,

“And I will stretch out My hand against you,

And roll you down from the crags,

And I will make you a cburnt out mountain.

26 “They will not take from you even a stone for a corner

Nor a stone for foundations,

But you will be adesolate forever,” declares the Lord.

27 aLift up a 1signal in the land,

Blow a trumpet among the nations!

Consecrate the nations against her,

Summon against her the bkingdoms of cArarat, Minni and dAshkenaz;

Appoint a marshal against her,

Bring up the ehorses like bristly locusts.

28 Consecrate the nations against her,

The kings of the Medes,

1Their governors and all 1their 2prefects,

And every land of 3their dominion.

29 So the aland quakes and writhes,

For the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand,

To make the land of Babylon

1A bdesolation without inhabitants.

30 The amighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,

They stay in the strongholds;

bTheir strength is 1exhausted,

They are becoming blike women;

Their dwelling places are set on fire,

The cbars of her gates are broken.

31 One 1acourier runs to meet 1another,

And one 2bmessenger to meet 2another,

To tell the king of Babylon

That his city has been captured from end to end;

32 The fords also have been seized,

And they have burned the marshes with fire,

And the men of war are terrified.

33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a athreshing floor

At the time 1it is stamped firm;

Yet in a little while the time of bharvest will come for her.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has adevoured me and crushed me,

He has set me down like an bempty vessel;

He has cswallowed me like a monster,

He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;

He has washed me away.

35 “May the aviolence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”

The 1inhabitant of Zion will say;

And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

Jerusalem will say.

36 Therefore thus says the Lord,

“Behold, I am going to aplead your case

And bexact full vengeance for you;

And cI will dry up her 1sea

And make her fountain dry.

37 “aBabylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,

An bobject of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

38 “They will roar together like ayoung lions,

They will growl like lions’ cubs.

39 “When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet

And amake them drunk, that they may become jubilant

And may bsleep a perpetual sleep

And not wake up,” declares the Lord.

40 “I will bring them down like 1lambs ato the slaughter,

Like rams together with male goats.

41 “How 1aSheshak has been captured,

And bthe praise of the whole earth been seized!

How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

42 “The 1asea has come up over Babylon;

She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.

43 “Her cities have become an aobject of horror,

A parched land and a desert,

A land in which bno man lives

And through which no son of man passes.

44 “aI will punish Bel in Babylon,

And I will make what he has swallowed bcome out of his mouth;

And the nations will no longer cstream to him.

Even the dwall of Babylon has fallen down!

45 “aCome forth from her midst, My people,

And each of you bsave yourselves

From the fierce anger of the Lord.

46 “Now aso that your heart does not grow faint,

And you are not afraid at the breport that will be heard in the land—

For the report will come 1one year,

And after that 2another report in 2another year,

And violence will be in the land

With cruler against ruler—