The Hebrew Prophets

Her cities are become an astonishment, a land uninhabited and desolate, a land wherein none can dwell, nor son of man pass through it.

And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he had swallowed down: and the nations shall no more flow together to him, for the wall also of Babylon shall fall.

Go out of the midst of her, my people: that every man may save his life from the fierce wrath of the Lord.

And lest your hearts faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land: and a rumour shall come in one year, and after this year another rumour: and iniquity in the land, and ruler upon ruler.

Therefore behold the days come, and I will visit the idols of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

And the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them shall give praise for Babylon: for spoilers shall come to her from the north, saith the Lord.

And as Babylon caused that there should fall slain in Israel: so of Babylon there shall fall slain in all the earth.

You that have escaped the sword, come away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: because strangers are come upon the sanctuaries of the house of the Lord.

Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit her graven things, and in all her land the wounded shall groan:

If Babylon should mount up to heaven, and establish her strength on high: from me there should come spoilers upon her, saith the Lord.

The noise of a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

Because the Lord hath laid Babylon waste, and destroyed out of her the great voice: and their wave shall roar like many waters: their voice hath made a noise:

Because the spoiler is come upon her, that is, upon Babylon, and her valiant men are taken, and their bow is weakened, because the Lord, who is a strong revenger, will surely repay.

And I will make her princes drunk, and her wise men, and her captains, and her rulers, and her valiant men: and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall awake no more, saith the king whose name is Lord of hosts.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the labours of the people shall come to nothing, and of the nations shall go to the fire, and shall perish.

The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Saraias the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, when he went with king Sedecias to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign: now Saraias was chief over the prophecy.

And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon: all these words that are written against Babylon.

And Jeremiah said to Saraias: When thou shalt come into Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words,

Thou shalt say: O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place to destroy it: so that there should be neither man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be desolate for ever.

And when thou shalt have made an end of reading this book, thou shalt tie a stone to it, and shalt throw it into the midst of the Euphrates:

And thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and she shall not rise up from the affliction that I will bring upon her, and she shall be utterly destroyed. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremiah of Lobna.

And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done.

For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and against Juda, till he cast them out from his presence: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.