The Doom of Babylon

24 I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong that they have done in Zion, says the Lord.

25 I am against you, O destroying mountain,

says the Lord,

that destroys the whole earth;

I will stretch out my hand against you,

and roll you down from the crags,

and make you a burned-out mountain.

26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner

and no stone for a foundation,

but you shall be a perpetual waste,

says the Lord.

27 Raise a standard in the land,

blow the trumpet among the nations;

prepare the nations for war against her,

summon against her the kingdoms,

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;

appoint a marshal against her,

bring up horses like bristling locusts.

28 Prepare the nations for war against her,

the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,

and every land under their dominion.

29 The land trembles and writhes,

for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand,

to make the land of Babylon a desolation,

without inhabitant.

30 The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting,

they remain in their strongholds;

their strength has failed,

they have become women;

her buildings are set on fire,

her bars are broken.

31 One runner runs to meet another,

and one messenger to meet another,

to tell the king of Babylon

that his city is taken from end to end:

32 the fords have been seized,

the marshes have been burned with fire,

and the soldiers are in panic.

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

Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor

at the time when it is trodden;

yet a little while

and the time of her harvest will come.

34 “King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me,

he has crushed me;

he has made me an empty vessel,

he has swallowed me like a monster;

he has filled his belly with my delicacies,

he has spewed me out.

35 May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,”

the inhabitants of Zion shall say.

“May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

Jerusalem shall say.

36 Therefore thus says the Lord:

I am going to defend your cause

and take vengeance for you.

I will dry up her sea

and make her fountain dry;

37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,

a den of jackals,

an object of horror and of hissing,

without inhabitant.

38 Like lions they shall roar together;

they shall growl like lions’ whelps.

39 When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink

and make them drunk, until they become merry

and then sleep a perpetual sleep

and never wake, says the Lord.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

like rams and goats.

41 How Sheshachd is taken,

the pride of the whole earth seized!

How Babylon has become

an object of horror among the nations!

42 The sea has risen over Babylon;

she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.

43 Her cities have become an object of horror,

a land of drought and a desert,

a land in which no one lives,

and through which no mortal passes.

44 I will punish Bel in Babylon,

and make him disgorge what he has swallowed.

The nations shall no longer stream to him;

the wall of Babylon has fallen.

45 Come out of her, my people!

Save your lives, each of you,

from the fierce anger of the Lord!

46 Do not be fainthearted or fearful

at the rumors heard in the land—

one year one rumor comes,

the next year another,

rumors of violence in the land

and of ruler against ruler.

47 Assuredly, the days are coming

when I will punish the images of Babylon;

her whole land shall be put to shame,

and all her slain shall fall in her midst.

48 Then the heavens and the earth,

and all that is in them,

shall shout for joy over Babylon;

for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,

says the Lord.

49 Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,

as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

50 You survivors of the sword,

go, do not linger!

Remember the Lord in a distant land,

and let Jerusalem come into your mind:

51 We are put to shame, for we have heard insults;

dishonor has covered our face,

for aliens have come

into the holy places of the Lord’s house.

52 Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord,

when I will punish her idols,

and through all her land

the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,

and though she should fortify her strong height,

from me destroyers would come upon her,

says the Lord.

54 Listen!—a cry from Babylon!

A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For the Lord is laying Babylon waste,

and stilling her loud clamor.

Their waves roar like mighty waters,

the sound of their clamor resounds;

56 for a destroyer has come against her,

against Babylon;

her warriors are taken,

their bows are broken;

for the Lord is a God of recompense,

he will repay in full.

57 I will make her officials and her sages drunk,

also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors;

they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake,

says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

58 Thus says the Lord of hosts:

The broad wall of Babylon

shall be leveled to the ground,

and her high gates

shall be burned with fire.

The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,

and the nations weary themselves only for fire.e