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!

And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;

and hast said: Jehovah, Thou, Thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that there is none dwelling in it, from man even unto cattle, for it is a desolation age-during.

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.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord's anger when he drove them out of his sight. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

and in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He encamped near it and set up siege works all around it.

And the Chaldaean army went after King Zedekiah and overtook him on the other side of Jericho, and all his army went in flight from him in every direction.

And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem on every side.

The Chaldeans also brake the brazen pillars that were in the house of the LORD; yea, the seat and the brazen laver that was in the house of the LORD; and carried all the metal of them unto Babylon.

The chief Captain took also the two pillars, the laver, and the twelve brazen bullocks that stood under the seat, which king Solomon made in the house of the LORD: and all the vessel contained so much metal, that it might not be weighed.

And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about.

and out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war; and seven men of them that saw the king's face, that were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.

And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon,

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

Judah has gone into exile to escape affliction and servitude. She that sat among the nations, has found no rest. All her pursuers overtook her amid narrow passes.

The ways of Zion are sad, because no one comes to the holy meeting; all her doorways are made waste, her priests are breathing out sorrow: her virgins are troubled, and it is bitter for her.

כ KafAll her people groan
while they search for bread.
They have traded their precious belongings for food
in order to stay alive.
Lord, look and see
how I have become despised.

From height he sent fire into my bones, and it brought them down: he spread a net for my feet, he turned me away behind: he gave me desolation, being sad all the day.

“The yoke of my transgressions is bound;
By His hand they are knit and woven together.
They have come upon my neck.
He has made my strength fail;
The Lord has put me into the hand
Of those against whom I cannot stand.

The Lord hath set at nought all my mighty men in the midst of me; He hath called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men: The Lord hath trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

(Ayin) I weep because of these things; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one in sight who can comfort me or encourage me. My children are desolated because an enemy has prevailed.

All their evil shall come before thee; and do evil to them according as thou didst evil to me for all my transgressions: for many my groanings, and any heart being sad.

He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth on every side.

He has bent His bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And slain all that were delightful and pleasing to the eye;
In the tent of the Daughter of Zion
He has poured out His wrath like fire.

And he hath violently cast down his enclosure as a garden; he hath destroyed his place of assembly: Jehovah hath caused set feast and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger king and priest.

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath rejected his sanctuary; he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: they have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as on the day of a set feast.

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

{Lamed} Even when they spake to their mothers, "Where is meat and drink?" For while they so said, they fell down in the streets of the city, like as they had been wounded, and some died in their mothers' bosom.

What can be said about you? To what should you be compared, fair Jerusalem? To what may I liken you, so I may comfort you, fair one of Zion? Indeed, your wound is as deep as the sea who can heal you?

Clapped hands at thee have all passing by the way, They have hissed -- and they shake the head At the daughter of Jerusalem: 'Is this the city of which they said: The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the land?'

Opened against thee their mouth have all thine enemies, They have hissed, yea, they gnash the teeth, They have said: 'We have swallowed her up, Surely this is the day that we looked for, We have found -- we have seen.'

The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

See, O Lord, and look!
With whom have You dealt this way?
Should women eat their offspring,
The little ones who were born healthy and beautiful?
Should priest and prophet be killed
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

Thou hast called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side; And there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah's anger: Those that I have dandled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

He has set a fence around me and I cannot go out; He has made my bronze chain heavy.

By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.

He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To enter my inner parts.

And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

My portion is Jehovah, hath my soul said, Therefore I hope for Him.

Good! when one doth stay and stand still For the salvation of Jehovah.

Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he hath laid it upon him.

Who is this -- he hath said, and it is, And the Lord hath not commanded it?

Thou didst set us the offscouring and despising in the midst of peoples.

Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

Thou hast drawn near in the day I call Thee, Thou hast said, Fear not.

When they sit and when they rise, look,
I am mocked by their songs.

Their appearance is [now] blacker than soot [because of the prolonged famine];
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin clings to their bones;
It is withered, and it has become [dry] like wood.

They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

Our pursuers were swifter than [the] eagles of [the] heavens; they chased us on the mountains, they have set an ambush for us in the desert.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

Slaves, have ruled over us, There is none to set free from their hand.

The elders sit no more under the gates, and the young men use no more the playing of Music.

You, O Yahweh, will sit forever [on] your throne for generation to generation.

As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

Such were their faces. Their wings were stretched out upward; two [wings] of each one were touching another [the wings of the beings on either side of it], and [the remaining] two [wings of each being] were covering their bodies.

Now while I was looking at the four living beings, I saw one wheel on the earth, by the side of the living beings, for the four of them.

The four of them went straight forward without turning to one side.

And when the living beings went on, the wheels went by their side; and when the living beings were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

Wherever the spirit was to go they went; and the wheels were lifted up by their side: for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.

When these went on, the others went; and when these came to rest, the others came to rest; and when these were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up by their side: for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.

And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.

And on the top of the arch which was over their heads was the form of a king's seat, like a sapphire stone; and on the form of the seat was the form of a man seated on it on high.

I beheld him, and he was like a clear light, as it had been all of fire within from his loins upward. And beneath when I looked upon him under the loins, methought he was like a shining fire, that giveth light on every side.

And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.

And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

And the sons are brazen-faced and hard-hearted to whom I am sending thee, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah:

And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words; though briars and thorns are all around you and you sit among scorpions, neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house.

And he will spread it out before me: and it was written the face and the back side: and written upon it lamentations, sighing, and Wo.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

and go, enter in unto the Removed, unto the sons of thy people, and thou hast spoken unto them, and hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: whether they hear, or whether they forbear.'

And there was the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another, and the sound of the wheels at their side, the sound of a great rushing.

Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

And when the seven days were expired, the LORD said unto me,

"Son of Man," he said, "I've appointed you to be a watchman over the house of Israel. Therefore when you hear a message that comes from me, you are to warn them for me.

"When a righteous man abandons his righteousness to practice unrighteousness, I'll set a stumbling block before him. He'll die. If you don't warn him, he'll die in his sin and the righteous deeds that he had practiced won't be remembered, but you'll be held responsible for his death.

And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.

Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.

And in My speaking with thee, I do open thy mouth, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah; the hearer doth hear, and the forbearer doth forbear; for a rebellious house are they.

“Now you, son of man, take a brick, set it in front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.

And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.

And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

"And you, son of man, take for yourself a sword, sharp [as] {a barber's razor}. Take it for yourself, and you must cause [it] to pass over your head and over your beard, and you must take for yourself a set of scales for weighing, and you must divide them.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.