The Hebrew Prophets

Her cities have become desolate - parched, arid land, a land where no one lives; nobody even passes through.

"I will punish Bel in Bavel and make him disgorge what he swallowed. The nations will no longer flow to him. Bavel's wall will fall.

Get out of her, my people! Each one, save yourself from ADONAI's furious anger!

Don't be fainthearted, don't be afraid of the rumors spreading abroad in the land. One year one rumor comes, the next year another one, rumors of violence in the land and rulers fighting rulers.

Therefore, listen! The days are coming when I will pass judgment on Bavel's idols. Her whole land will be put to shame, as all her slain fall on home soil.

Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Bavel; for the plunderers from the north are coming to her," says ADONAI.

Just as Bavel caused the slain of Isra'el to fall, so at Bavel will fall the slain of all the land.

You who escaped the sword, go! Don't stand still! Remember ADONAI from afar, let Yerushalayim come into your minds.

"The reproaches we have heard have put us to shame, disgrace covers our faces; because foreigners have entered the sanctuaries of ADONAI's house."

"Therefore," says ADONAI, "the days are coming when I will pass judgment on her idols, and the wounded will groan throughout her land.

Even if Bavel scales the heavens or reinforces her lofty stronghold, plunderers will come to her from me," says ADONAI.

An agonized cry is heard from Bavel! Great destruction in the land of the Kasdim!

For ADONAI is plundering Bavel and silencing her noisy din their waves roar like the raging ocean, their clamor sounds and resounds.

Yes, the plunderer has fallen upon her, fallen on Bavel. Her warriors are captured, their bows are broken. For ADONAI is a God of retribution; he will surely repay.

"I will intoxicate her leaders and sages, her governors, deputies and warriors. They will sleep forever and never wake up," says the king, whose name is ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: "The wide walls of Bavel will be razed to the ground, her lofty gates will be set on fire. The peoples are toiling for nothing, the nation's labor goes up in flames, and everyone is exhausted."

This is the order which Yirmeyahu the prophet gave to S'rayah the son of Neriyah, the son of Machseyah, when he went to Bavel with Tzidkiyahu the king of Y'hudah in the fourth year of his reign. S'rayah was quartermaster.

Yirmeyahu had written on a separate scroll all the above words describing the disaster that was to befall Bavel.

Yirmeyahu said to S'rayah, "See to it that when you arrive in Bavel you read all these words aloud. Then say,

'ADONAI, you have promised to destroy this place, that no one will live here, neither human nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.'

When you finish reading this scroll, tie a rock to it, throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,

and say, 'Like this, Bavel will sink, never to rise again, because of the disaster I am bringing on her; and they will grow weary.'" (Up to here, these have been the words of Yirmeyahu.)

Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah.

He did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, following the example of everything Y'hoyakim had done.

And it was because of ADONAI's anger that all these things happened to Yerushalayim and Y'hudah, until he had thrown them out of his presence. Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel;