The Hebrew Prophets

Vanity are they--work of errors, In the time of their inspection they perish.

Not like these is the portion of Jacob, For He is former of all things, And Israel is the rod of His inheritance, Jehovah of Hosts is His name.

An axe art thou to me--weapons of war, And I have broken in pieces by thee nations, And I have destroyed by thee kingdoms,

And I have broken in pieces by thee horse and its rider, And I have broken in pieces by thee chariot and its charioteer,

And I have broken in pieces by thee man and woman, And I have broken in pieces by thee old and young, And I have broken in pieces by thee young man and virgin,

And I have broken in pieces by thee shepherd and his drove, And I have broken in pieces by thee husbandman and his team, And I have broken in pieces by thee governors and prefects.

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.

Lo, I am against thee, O destroying mount, An affirmation of Jehovah, That is destroying all the earth, And I have stretched out My hand against thee, And I have rolled thee from the rocks, And given thee for a burnt mountain.

And they take not out of thee a stone for a corner, And a stone for foundations, For desolations age-during art thou, An affirmation of Jehovah.

Lift ye up an ensign in the land, Blow a trumpet among nations, Sanctify against it nations, Summon against it the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz, Appoint against it an infant head, Cause the horse to ascend as the rough cankerworm.

Sanctify against it the nations with the kings of Media, Its governors and all its prefects, And all the land of its dominion.

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.

And the passages have been captured, And the reeds they have burnt with fire, And the men of war have been troubled.

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.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am pleading thy cause, And I have avenged thy vengeance, And dried up its sea, and made its fountains dry.

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

Together as young lions they roar, They have shaken themselves as lions' whelps.

In their heat I make their banquets, And I have caused them to drink, so that they exult, And have slept a sleep age-during, And awake not--an affirmation of Jehovah.

I cause them to go down as lambs to slaughter, As rams with he-goats.

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.