Babylon

And I have recompensed to Babylon, And to all inhabitants of Chaldea, All the evil that they have done in Zion, Before your eyes--an affirmation of Jehovah.

And shake doth the land, and it is pained, For stood against Babylon have the purposes of Jehovah, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

Ceased have the mighty of Babylon to fight, They have remained in strongholds, Failed hath their might, they have become woman, They have burnt her tabernacles, Broken have been her bars.

Runner to meet runner doth run, And announcer to meet announcer, To announce to the king of Babylon, For, captured hath been his city--at the extremity.

For thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, The daughter of Babylon is as a threshing-floor, The time of her threshing--yet a little, And come hath the time of her harvest.

Devoured us, crushed us, hath Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, He hath set us as an empty vessel, He hath swallowed us as a dragon, He hath filled his belly with my dainties, He hath driven us away.

My wrong, and that of my flesh is on Babylon, Say doth the inhabitant of Zion, And my blood is on the inhabitants of Chaldea, Say doth Jerusalem.

And Babylon hath been for heaps, A habitation of dragons, An astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

How hath Sheshach been captured, Yea, caught is the praise of the whole earth, How hath Babylon been for an astonishment among nations.

Come up against Babylon hath the sea, With a multitude of its billows it hath been covered.

And I have seen after Bel in Babylon, And I have brought forth that which he swallowed--from his mouth, And flow no more unto him do nations, Also the wall of Babylon hath fallen.

Therefore, lo, days are coming, And I have seen after the graven images of Babylon. And all its land is ashamed, And all its pierced ones do fall in its midst.

And cried aloud against Babylon Have heavens and earth, and all that is in them, For, from the north come to it do the spoilers, An affirmation of Jehovah.

Even Babylon is to fall, ye pierced of Israel, Even they of Babylon have fallen, Ye pierced of all the earth.

Because Babylon goeth up to the heavens, And because it fenceth the high place of its strength, From Me come into it do spoilers, An affirmation of Jehovah.

A voice of a cry is from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldean.

For Jehovah is spoiling Babylon, And hath destroyed out of it a great voice, And sounded have its billows as many waters, Given forth a noise hath their voice.

For come in against it--against Babylon--hath a spoiler, And captured have been its mighty ones, Broken have been their bows, For the God of recompences--Jehovah--doth certainly repay.

Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, the wall of Babylon--The broad one--is utterly made bare, And her high gates with fire are burnt, And peoples labour in vain, And nations in fire, and have been weary!

The word that Jeremiah the prophet hath commanded Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, in his going with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign--and Seraiah is a quiet prince;

and Jeremiah writeth all the evil that cometh unto Babylon on one book--all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

And Jeremiah saith unto Seraiah, `When thou dost enter Babylon, then thou hast seen, and hast read all these words,

and said, Thus sink doth Babylon, and it doth not arise, because of the evil that I am bringing in against it, and they have been weary.' Hitherto are words of Jeremiah.

for, because of the anger of Jehovah, it hath been in Jerusalem and Judah till He hath cast them from before His face, and Zedekiah doth rebel against the king of Babylon.

And it cometh to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, come hath Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon--he and all his force--against Jerusalem, and they encamp against it, and build against it a fortification round about;