How deserted will that once-famous city be, that city that was once filled with joy!

For her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time," says the Lord who rules over all.

"I will set fire to the walls of Damascus; it will burn up the palaces of Ben Hadad."

Their tents and their flocks will be taken away. Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off. People will shout to them, 'Terror is all around you!'"

Their camels will be taken as plunder. Their vast herds will be taken as spoil. I will scatter to the four winds those desert peoples who cut their hair short at the temples. I will bring disaster against them from every direction," says the Lord.

"Hazor will become a permanent wasteland, a place where only jackals live. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it."

The Lord who rules over all said, "I will kill all the archers of Elam, who are the chief source of her military might.

I will cause enemies to blow through Elam from every direction like the winds blowing in from the four quarters of heaven. I will scatter the people of Elam to the four winds. There will not be any nation where the refugees of Elam will not go.

I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies, who are seeking to kill them. I will vent my fierce anger and bring disaster upon them," says the Lord. "I will send armies chasing after them until I have completely destroyed them.

I will establish my sovereignty over Elam. I will destroy their king and their leaders," says the Lord.

"Yet in days to come I will reverse Elam's ill fortune." says the Lord.

"Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: 'Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon's idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed.

For a nation from the north will attack Babylon. It will lay her land waste. People and animals will flee out of it. No one will inhabit it.'

"When that time comes," says the Lord, "the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God.

They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed.

Babylonia will be plundered. Those who plunder it will take all they want," says the Lord.

Because thou wilt be glad, because thou wilt exult, ye plundering mine inheritance, because thou wilt show off proudly as a heifer at grass, and thou wilt neigh as the strong ones;

But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.

After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.

Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!

“Cut off the sower from Babylon
And the one who wields the sickle at the time of harvest;
From before the sword of the oppressor
They will each turn back to his own people
And they will each flee to his own land.

So I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say: 'I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

But I will restore the flock of Israel to their own pasture. They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan. They will eat until they are full on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead.

When that time comes, no guilt will be found in Israel. No sin will be found in Judah. For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. I, the Lord, affirm it!'"

How was the hammer of all the earth cut off, and it will be broken! How was Babel for a desolation among the nations!

I'll set a trap for you, and you will be caught, Babylon, but you don't realize it. You will be found and also seized, because you challenged the LORD!

"The LORD will open his armory, and bring out the weapons of his anger. Indeed, a work of the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will be in the land of the Chaldeans.

"The sound of fugitives and refugees will come from the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his Temple.

So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time," says the Lord.

"Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city," says the Lord God who rules over all. "Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you.

You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you."

This is what the Lord of armies has said: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are crushed down together: all those who took them prisoner keep them in a tight grip; they will not let them go.

But the one who will rescue them is strong. He is known as the Lord who rules over all. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia.

"Destructive forces will come against the Babylonians," says the Lord. "They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom.

Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools! Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror!

Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!

A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear.

Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches will dwell in it too. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come.

I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it," says the Lord.

“Behold, a people is coming from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.

Bow and javelin, shall they grasp, Cruel, are they and will not have compassion, Their voice, like the sea, will roar, And, on horses, will they ride, - Set in array, as one man for battle, Against thee, O daughter of Babylon!

The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear when he hears news of their coming. Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.

"A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me.

So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.

The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations."

The Lord says, "I will cause a destructive wind to blow against Babylon and the people who inhabit Babylonia.

I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. They will winnow her and strip her land bare. This will happen when they come against her from every direction, when it is time to destroy her.

“They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
And pierced through in their streets.”

"For Israel and Judah will not be forsaken by their God, the Lord who rules over all. For the land of Babylonia is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done.

Babel a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk: the nations drank from her wine; for this the nations will be foolish.

But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed!

Foreigners living there will say, 'We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let's leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.'

The exiles from Judah will say, 'The Lord has brought about a great deliverance for us! Come on, let's go and proclaim in Zion what the Lord our God has done!'

"Sharpen your arrows! Fill your quivers! The Lord will arouse a spirit of hostility in the kings of Media. For he intends to destroy Babylonia. For that is how the Lord will get his revenge -- how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians' destruction of his temple.

Give the signal to attack Babylon's wall! Bring more guards! Post them all around the city! Put men in ambush! For the Lord will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon.

The Lord who rules over all has solemnly sworn, 'I will fill your land with enemy soldiers. They will swarm over it like locusts. They will raise up shouts of victory over it.'

For a voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he will bring up the clouds, from the extremity of the earth, making lightnings to the rain, and he will bring forth the wind from his treasures.

All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.

They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;

and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;

and with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen ; and with thee will I break in pieces governors and deputies.

"But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans," says the Lord.

The Lord says, "Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth. I will unleash my power against you; I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain.

No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever," says the Lord.

The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. For the Lord will carry out his plan. He plans to make the land of Babylonia a wasteland where no one lives.

The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. They will be as frightened as women. The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down.

One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon. One messenger after another will come bringing news. They will bring news to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured.

They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified.

For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, 'Fair Babylon will be like a threshing floor which has been trampled flat for harvest. The time for her to be cut down and harvested will come very soon.'

“May the violence done to me and to my flesh and blood be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say.

Therefore the Lord says, "I will stand up for your cause. I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. I will dry up their sea. I will make their springs run dry.

Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives.

“They will roar together like young lions,
They will growl like lions’ cubs.

When their appetites are all stirred up, I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up," says the Lord.

"I will lead them off to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats."

"How Sheshak will be captured, and the prince of all the earth seized! How Babylon will become an object of horror among the nations!

The sea will come up against Babylon, and she will be covered by wave upon wave.

Her cities will become an object of horror, a dry land and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no human being passes.

I will punish the god Bel in Babylon. I will make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not come streaming to him any longer. Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall."

Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler."

"So the time will certainly come when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst.

Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Babylon. For destroyers from the north will attack it," says the Lord.

As Babylon had the dead of Israel put to the sword, so in Babylon the dead of all the land will be stretched out.

Yes, but the time will certainly come," says the Lord, "when I will punish her idols. Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.

Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky and fortifies her elevated stronghold, I will send destroyers against her," says the Lord.

Cries of anguish will come from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon, and put an end to her loud noise. Their waves will roar like turbulent waters. They will make a deafening noise.

For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. For the Lord is a God who punishes; he pays back in full.

"I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, and warriors. They will fall asleep forever and never wake up," says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all.

This is what the Lord who rules over all says, "Babylon's thick wall will be completely demolished. Her high gates will be set on fire. The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed."

And Jeremiah will write all the evil which shall come to Babel, in one book, all these words being written against Babel

And Jeremiah will say to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babel, and thou sawest, and didst read all these words,

Then say, 'O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!'

And it will be that, when you have come to an end of reading this book, you are to have a stone fixed to it, and have it dropped into the Euphrates:

Then say, 'In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.'" The prophecies of Jeremiah end here.

And he will do evil in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all which Jehoiakim did.