Chapter 28

¹ Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I stir up against Babylon, and against the Chaldeans dwelling therein, a deadly burning wind. ² And I will send forth against Babylon spoilers, and they shall spoil her, and shall ravage her land. Woe to Babylon round about her in the day of her affliction. ³ Let the archer bend his bow, and him that has armour put it on: and spare ye not her young men, but destroy ye all her host. ⁴ And slain men shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and men pierced through shall fall without it.

⁵ For Israel and Juda have not been ¹forsaken of their God, of the Lord Almighty; whereas their land was filled with iniquity against the holy things of Israel. ⁶ Flee ye out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every one his soul: and be not overthrown in her iniquity; for it is the time of her retribution from the Lord; he is rendering to her a recompence. ⁷ Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, causing all the earth to be drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore they were shaken. ⁸ And Babylon is fallen suddenly, and is broken to pieces: lament for her; take balm for her deadly wound, if by any means she may be healed. ⁹ We tried to heal Babylon, but she was not healed: let us forsake her, and depart every one to his own country: for her judgment has reached to the heaven, it has mounted up to the stars. ¹⁰ The Lord has brought forth his judgment: come, and let us declare in Sion the works of the Lord our God.

¹¹ Prepare the arrows; fill the quivers: the Lord has stirred up the spirit of the king of the Medes: for his wrath is against Babylon, to destroy it utterly; for it is the Lord's vengeance, it is the vengeance of his people. ¹² Lift up a standard on the walls of Babylon, prepare the quivers, rouse the guards, prepare the weapons: for the Lord has taken the work in hand, and will execute what he has spoken against the inhabitants of Babylon, ¹³ dwelling on many waters, and amidst the abundance of her treasures; thine end is come verily into thy bowels. ¹⁴ For the Lord has sworn by his arm, saying,I will fill thee with men as with locusts; and they that come down shall cry against thee.

¹⁵ The Lord made the earth by his power, preparing the world by his wisdom, by his understanding he stretched out the heaven. ¹⁶ At his voice he makes a sound of water in the heaven, and brings up clouds from the extremity of the earth; he makes lightnings for rain, and brings light out of his treasures. ¹⁷ Every man has ²completely lost understanding; every goldsmith is confounded because of his graven images: for they have cast false gods, there is no breath

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in them. ¹⁸ They are vain works, objects of scorn; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁹ Not such is Jacob's portion; for he that formed all things, he is his inheritance; the Lord is his name.

²⁰ Thou scatterest for me the weapons of war: and I will scatter nations by thee, and will destroy kings by means of thee. ²¹ And by thee I will scatter the horse and his rider; and by thee I will scatter chariots and them that ride in them. ²² And by thee I will scatter youth and maid; and by thee I will scatter man and woman. ²³ And by thee I will scatter the shepherd and his flock; and by thee I will scatter the husbandman and his husbandry; and by thee I will scatter leaders and the captains. ²⁴ And I will recompense to Babylon and to all the Chaldeans that dwell there all their mischiefs that they have done to Sion before your eyes, saith the Lord.

²⁵ Behold, I am against thee, the ruined mountain, that destroys the whole earth; and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will roll thee down upon the rocks, and will make thee as a burnt mountain. ²⁶ And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation: for thou shalt be a desolation for ever, saith the Lord.

²⁷ Lift up a standard in the land, sound the trumpet among the nations, ³consecrate the nations against her, raise up kings against her by me, and that for the people of Achanaz; set against her engines of war; bring up against her ⁴horses as a multitude of locusts. ²⁸ Bring up nations against her, even the king of the Medes and of the whole earth, his rulers, and all his captains.^{5 29} The earth has quaked and been troubled, because the purpose of the Lord has risen up against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, and uninhabitable.

³⁰ The warrior of Babylon has failed to fight; they shall sit there in the siege; their power is broken; they are become like women; her tabernacles have been set on fire; her bars are broken. ³¹ One shall rush, running to meet another runner, and one shall go with tidings to meet another with tidings, to bring tidings to the king of Babylon, that his city is taken. ³² At the end of his passages they were taken, and his cisterns they have burnt with fire, and his warriors are going forth.

³³ For thus saith the Lord, The houses of the king of Babylon shall be threshed as a floor in the season; yet a little while, and her harvest shall come.

³⁴ He has devoured me, he has torn me asunder, airy darkness has come upon me; Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon has swallowed me up, as a dragon has he filled his belly with my delicacies. ³⁵ My troubles and my distresses have driven me out into Babylon, shall she that dwells in Sion say; and my blood shall be upon the Chaldeans dwelling there, shall Jerusalem say.

³⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will judge thine adversary, and I will execute vengeance for thee; and I will waste her sea, and dry up her fountain. ³⁷ And

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Babylon shall be a desolation, and shall not be inhabited. ³⁸ For they rose up together as lions, and as lions' whelps. ³⁹ In their heat I will give them a draught, and make them drunk, that they may be stupified, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and not awake, saith the Lord. ⁴⁰ And bring thou them down as lambs to the slaughter, and rams with kids.

⁴¹ How has the boast of all the earth been taken and caught in a snare! how has Babylon become a desolation among the nations! ⁴² The sea has come up upon Babylon with the sound of its waves, and she is covered. ⁴³ Her cities are become like a dry and trackless land; not so much as one man shall dwell in it, neither shall a son of man lodge in it. ⁴⁴ And I will take vengeance on Babylon, and bring forth out of her mouth what she has swallowed down, and the nations shall no more be gathered to her: ⁴⁹ and in Babylon the slain men of all the earth shall fall. ⁵⁰ Go forth of the land, ye that escape, and stay not; ye that are afar off, remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem come into your ⁶mind. ⁵¹ We are ashamed, because we have heard our reproach; disgrace has covered our face; aliens are come into our sanctuary, even into the house of the Lord.

⁵² Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will take vengeance upon her graven images: and slain men shall fall in all her land. ⁵³ For though Babylon should go up as the heaven, and though she should strengthen her walls with her power, from me shall come they that shall destroy her, saith the Lord. ⁵⁴ A sound of a cry in Babylon, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans: ⁵⁵ for the Lord has utterly destroyed Babylon, and cut off from her the great voice sounding as many waters: he has consigned her voice to destruction. ⁵⁶ For distress has come upon Babylon, her warriors are taken, their bows are useless: for God recompenses them. ⁵⁷ The Lord recompenses, and will make her leaders and her wise men and her captains completely drunk, saith the King, the Lord Almighty is his name.

⁵⁸ Thus saith the Lord, The wall of Babylon was made broad, but it shall be completely broken down, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire; and the peoples shall not labour in vain, nor the nations fail in their rule.

⁵⁹ The Word which the Lord commanded the Prophet Jeremias to say to Saræas son of Nerias, son of Maasæas, when he went from Sedekias king of Juda to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. And Saræas was over the bounties. ⁶⁰ And Jeremias wrote in a book all the evils which should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. ⁶¹ And Jeremias said to Saræas, When thou art come to Babylon, and shalt see and read all these words; ⁶² then thou shalt say, ⁷O Lord God, thou hast spoken against this place, to destroy it, and that there should be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast; for it shall be a desolation for ever. ⁶³ And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt cease

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from reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone upon it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates; ⁶⁴ and shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and not rise, because of the evils which I bring upon it.