"Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

Therefore, hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the strategy that he devised against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely they'll drag the little ones of the flock away. Surely their pasture will be desolate because of them.

I'll send foreigners to Babylon, and they'll winnow her, and devastate her land. They'll come against her from every side on the day of her disaster.

Don't let the archer bend the bow; don't let him rise up in his armor. Don't spare her young men. Completely destroy her entire army.

The slain will fall in the land of Chaldea, pierced through in her streets.

Flee from Babylon, and each of you, escape with your life! Don't be destroyed because of her guilt, for it's time for the LORD's vengeance. He is paying back what is due to her.

Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine, therefore the nations have gone mad.

Suddenly, Babylon fell down and was shattered. Wail for her! Bring balm for her wound, perhaps she will be healed.

We tried to heal Babylon, but she wouldn't be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and is lifted up to the sky.

Lift up a battle standard in the land. Blow a trumpet among the nations. Consecrate the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz against her. Appoint a commander against her, bring up horses like bristling locusts.

Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors, their prefects, and every land under their domination.

The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting. They stay in their strongholds; their strength is dried up; they have become like women. Her buildings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it's pounded down. In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come."

Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to argue your case and take vengeance for you. I'll dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.

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.

"Come out of her, my people, flee for your lives from the LORD's anger!

Therefore, look, days are coming when I'll punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

Then the heavens and the earth and all that are in them will shout for joy about Babylon because the destroyers will come out of the north against her," declares the LORD.

"Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

Though Babylon should reach up to the heavens and fortify her high fortresses, from me destroyers will come to her," declares the LORD.

For the LORD is destroying Babylon, and he will make the loud sounds from her disappear. Their waves will roar like many waters, the noise of their voices will sound forth.

Indeed, the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon. Her warriors are captured, and her bows are broken. For the LORD is a God of recompense, and he will repay in full.

Then say, "Babylon will sink like this and won't rise from the disaster that I'm bringing on her. Her people will be exhausted.'" This concludes the writings of Jeremiah.

Bitterly she cries in the night, as tears stream down her cheeks. No one consoles her of all her friends. All her neighbors have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

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 roads that lead to Zion are in mourning, because no one travels to the festivals. All her gates are desolate; her priests are moaning. Her young women are grieving, and she is bitter.

Her adversaries dominate her, her enemies prosper. For the LORD has made her suffer because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away, taken into captivity in the presence of the enemy.

Fled from cherished Zion are all that were her splendor. Her princes have become like deer that cannot find their feeding grounds. They flee with strength exhausted from their pursuers.

Jerusalem remembers her time of affliction and misery; all her valued belongings of days gone by, when her people fell into enemy hands, with no one to help her, and her enemies stared at her, mocking her downfall.

Jerusalem sinned greatly, and she became unclean. All who honored her now despise her, because they saw her naked. She herself groans and turns her face away.

Uncleanness has soiled her skirts, and she gave no thought to what would follow. She fell in such a startling way, with no one to comfort her. Look, LORD, upon my affliction, because my enemy is boasting.

The adversary seized in his hands everything she valued. She watched the nations enter her sanctuary; those you forbade to enter your place of meeting.

All her people groaned as they searched for food. They traded their valuables in order to eat, to keep themselves alive. Look, LORD, and see how I have become dishonored.

Zion spreads out her hands; no one is there to comfort her. The LORD has issued an order against Jacob, that all who are around him are to be his enemies; Jerusalem has become unclean among them.

The Lord swallowed up without pity all of Jacob's habitations. In his wrath he tore down the strongholds of fair Judah. He cast to the ground in dishonor both her kingdom and its rulers.

The Lord has become like an enemy he has devoured Israel. He has devoured all of her palaces, destroying her fortresses. He filled cherished Judah with mourning and lament.

The Lord rejected his altar, disavowing his sanctuary. He gave up her palace walls to the control of the enemy. They shouted in the LORD's Temple, as though they were attending a day of celebration.

Jerusalem's gates collapsed to the ground; he destroyed and broke the bars of her gates. Both king and prince have gone into captivity. There is no instruction, and the prophets receive no vision from the LORD.

All of your enemies insult you with gaping mouths. They hiss and grind their teeth while saying, "We have devoured her completely. Yes, this is the day that we anticipated! We found it at last; we have seen it!"

Get up and cry aloud in the night, at the beginning of every hour. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord! Lift up your hands toward him for the lives of your children, who are fainting away at every street corner.

The guilt of my cherished people surpasses the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, without a hand to help her.

Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk. Their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their beards like the color of precious stones.

Due to the sins committed by her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests who shed in her midst, the blood of the righteous,

"Go away! Unclean!" they shouted at them. "Go away! Go away! Don't touch!" When they fled away and wandered, those among the nations decreed, "They cannot live here!"

"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.

"Now as for you, Son of Man, you are to go find a sharp sword and use it like a barber's razor. You are to cut your hair and beard. Then you are to take a weighing scale and divide your shaved hair into three parts.

You are to preserve a few strands of hair and hide them in the folds of your garment.

"This is what the Lord GOD says, "This is Jerusalem. I placed her in the center of nations, with many nations surrounding her.

But she rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes. She practiced more evil than all the nations and territories around her. They rejected my ordinances and didn't live by my statutes.'

""The end is coming! ""The end is here! ""And it's looking in your direction! ""Look out! It's arrived!

The form of a hand reached out and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, brought me toward Jerusalem, and in visions that came from God took me through the doors of the inner gate that faced north, where an image that provoked God's jealous anger had been erected.

Then the Spirit told me, "Son of Man, don't you see what they're doing? The house of Israel practices awful, detestable things here, so I'm going far away from my sanctuary. But you're about to see things even more detestable than these."

Then he told me, "Go on through that entrance, so you may see the wicked, detestable things that they're committing here."

"Do you see this, Son of Man?" he asked me. "Is it an insignificant thing for Judah's house to commit the detestable things that they're doing here? They've filled the land with violence and turned away from me, causing me to become angry again. Look how they're sniffing with their noses!

"Son of Man, you live in a rebellious house that has eyes to see, but they can't see, and ears to hear, but they can't hear, since they're a rebellious house.

The prophets of Israel prophesied about Jerusalem and saw visions of peace concerning her, yet there's no peace,'" declares the Lord GOD.

But look! There will be a remnant who escapes, a few sons and daughters to be brought out. Look! They'll come out to you and you'll see how they've lived and what they've done, and you'll be comforted concerning the catastrophe that I brought on Jerusalem, including everything that I brought against her.

"Son of Man, make known to Israel her detestable practices.

I made you increase like sprouting grain in the field. As a result, you multiplied greatly. Eventually, you reached the age when young women start wearing jewelry. Your breasts were formed, your hair had grown, but you were still bare and naked."'"

who commits adultery, preferring a stranger over her husband!

You're the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You're the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children.

"Your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite. Your elder sister was Samaria. She and her daughters lived in the north, while your younger sister who lived in the south with her daughters was Sodom.

"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "your sister Sodom and her daughters didn't do what you and your daughters have done.

Look! This was the sin of your sister Sodom and her daughters: Pride, too much food, undisturbed peace, and failure to help the poor and needy.

"I'll bring them back from their captivity that is, from the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, along with the captivity of Samaria and her daughters and the captivity of your captives among them.

Your sister Sodom and her daughters will be restored to their former status. Samaria and her daughters will be restored to their former status. Then you and your daughters will be restored to your former status.

"Tell my rebellious house, "Don't you know what these things mean? Look! The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, captured her king and princes, and took them with him to Babylon.

if he doesn't eat at mountain shrines, and doesn't look to the idols that have been erected in Israel's house, if he doesn't defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman during her time of menstrual separation,

Tell them: "What a lioness your mother was among lions! She reared her cubs in the midst of fierce young males.

When she learned that her plans had been frustrated and that her hopes were dashed, she took another of her cubs and turned him into a fierce lion.

"Now, Son of Man, will you truly judge that blood-stained city? Then make her aware of all of her detestable practices.

"You are to say, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "The city keeps on shedding blood within her, hastening her time to be judged. She crafts idols that defile her.

"Son of Man, tell her, "You're a land that hasn't been purified, one that hasn't been rained on in the day of indignation.

There's a conspiracy of prophets within her, and like a roaring lion tearing its prey, they've devoured people, and confiscated treasures, and taken precious things. They've added to the population of widows within her.

Her priests have violated my Law and profaned my sacred things. They didn't differentiate between what's sacred and what's common. They didn't instruct others to discern clean from unclean things. They refused to keep my Sabbaths.

""I'm constantly being profaned among them. Her princes within her are like wolves tearing their prey apart. They shed blood, destroying souls, and make unjust gain.

""Her prophets whitewashed all of these things through false visions and lying divinations. They kept on saying, "This is what the Lord GOD says"", when the LORD has not spoken.

"Son of Man, here are two sisters who are daughters from the same mother.

The older one was named Oholah and her sister was named Oholibah. They belonged to me and gave birth to sons and daughters. Now as to their real identities, Oholah refers to Samaria and Oholibah to Jerusalem."

She bestowed her sexual favors on them all of them, the best of the Assyrians and with whomever she lusted for.

"She defiled herself with all their idols. She never abandoned the immorality that she practiced in Egypt during her youth, where they laid down with her and fondled her virgin breasts, lavishing her with all kinds of favors.

Therefore, I turned her over to the control of her lovers, that is, into the control of the Assyrians for whom she lusted.

They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters, and executed her with a sword. She became an object of ridicule among other nations when they punished her."

"Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more corrupt in her lust and sexual immorality than her sister had been in her own sexual immorality.

The Babylonians came to her love nest and defiled her with their sexual immorality. As a result, she was defiled by them. Even so, she turned away from them in disgust.

She displayed her immorality publicly and stripped herself naked, so I turned away in disgust from her, just as I had turned away in disgust from her sister.

She lusted after her paramours, whose genitals are like those of donkeys, and whose emissions are like those of horses.

You took the path of your sister, so I'll place her cup in your hand.'

The sound of a carefree multitude accompanied her. Men from a multitude of nations were coming including Sabeans from the wilderness, adorned with bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads.

"After she had worn herself out by her adulterous behavior, I asked her, "Will they continue with their sexual immorality and with their prostitution?'

They've gone to her, like men do, to have sex with a prostitute. They had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, those licentious women.

Her blood was in it. She poured it out onto bare rock. She didn't pour it out on the ground, intending to cover it with dirt.

and will destroy the city walls of Tyre. After they break down her fortified towers, I'll scrape away the city's debris, right down to the bare bedrock,

Furthermore, her citizens who live on the mainland will be executed with swords. That's how they'll learn that I am the LORD.'"

"This is what the Lord GOD says to Tyre: "When your wounded citizens groan while the slaughter takes place among you, the people who live in the coastlands will tremble in terror as they hear about your fall, will they not?

They'll sing this mourning song for you: "How lost you are, you inhabited city, that was built in the middle of the sea! How famous you were! How strong on the sea! She and her inhabitants inflicted terror to everyone who lived within her."

"Son of Man, turn your attention to Sidon and prophesy against her.

Tell her: "Pay attention to me, Sidon! I'm against you, and I'm going to glorify myself right in your midst.' They'll learn that I am the LORD when I carry out these punishments and manifest my holiness in her midst.

I'm going to send disease into that city and blood into her streets. People will drop dead in her midst from the violence done to her from every side. Then they'll learn that I am the Lord GOD."

I'll see to it that Egypt becomes a devastated land in the midst of devastated lands. Her cities deep inside her territories will be laid waste and desolate for 40 years. I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them throughout the land.'"