Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon!

“Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand before Me?”

I will send also into Babylon fanners, to fan her out, and to destroy her land: for in the day of her trouble they shall be about her on every side.

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers!
The Lord has put it into the mind
of the kings of the Medes
because His plan is aimed at Babylon
to destroy her,
for it is the Lord’s vengeance,
vengeance for His temple.

Look, I am against you, devastating mountain—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you devastate the whole earth.
I will stretch out My hand against you,
roll you down from the cliffs,
and turn you into a charred mountain.

At their becoming hot I will set their banquets, and I will make them drunk, so that they will fall into a swoon, and they will sleep {an everlasting sleep}, and they will not wake up," {declares} Yahweh.

Its cities have been for a desolation, A dry land, and a wilderness, A land -- none doth dwell in them, Nor pass over into them doth a son of man.

And I will send punishment on Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what went into it; no longer will the nations be flowing together to him: truly, the wall of Babylon will come down.

Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's house.

Because Babylon goeth up to the heavens, And because it fenceth the high place of its strength, From Me come into it do spoilers, An affirmation of Jehovah.

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign, - now Seraiah, was travelling-marshal.

Then said Jeremiah unto Seraiah, - When thou comest into Babylon, then shalt thou look out and read all these words;

{And then} when you finish reading aloud this scroll, you must tie a stone on it, and you must throw it into the middle of [the] Euphrates.

and the city cometh into siege till the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.

And in the fifth month on the tenth of the month, the same, was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, chief of the royal executioners, - who stood before the king of Babylon into, Jerusalem;

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the artisans.

Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the Lord’s temple and the water carts and the bronze reservoir that were in the Lord’s temple, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.

The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.

These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews;

in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4,600 persons in all.

Judah has gone into exile with misery and under hard servitude; she lives among the nations, she has not found a resting place; all her pursuers have overtaken her amidst [her] distress.

Her adversaries have become chief, her foes, are at ease, for, Yahweh, hath grieved her, because of the multitude of her transgressions, - Her children, have gone into captivity, before the adversary.

Jerusalem hath remembered in the days of her humiliation and her fleeings - all her precious things, which have existed from the days of old, - Now that her people have been falling into the hand of the adversary, with none to help her, the adversaries have seen her, have mocked over her sabbath-keepings.

The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: For she hath seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, Concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly.

From heaven he sent fire, into my bones he let it descend. He spread out a net for my feet; he turned me back, he gave me devastation, fainting all day.

The yoke of my transgressions, hath been bound, by his hand - They have intertwined themselves, have come up on my neck, it hath paralysed my strength, - My Lord, hath delivered me, into the hands of those against whom I cannot rise up.

Righteous is Yahweh, for, against his bidding, had I rebelled, - Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and see my pain, My virgins and my young men, have gone into exile.

{Daleth} He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath fastened his righthand as an adversary: and everything that was pleasant to see, he hath smitten it down. He hath poured out his wrath like a fire, into the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

My Lord hath rejected his altar, hath abhorred his sanctuary, hath delivered, into the hand of the foe, the walls of her castles, - A voice, have they uttered in the house of Yahweh, as on the day of an appointed assembly.

Her gates have sunk into the earth; he has ruined and broken her bars, her kings and its princes [are] among the nations; there is no more law. Also, her prophets have not found a revelation from Yahweh.

To their mothers, they keep saying, Where are corn and wine? Swooning off, like one thrust through, in the broadways of the city, pouring out their life into the bosom of their mothers.

The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.

He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

They dropped me alive into a pit
and threw stones at me.

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy would have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

The enemy hunted our steps,
So that we could not walk in our streets;
Our end drew near,
Our days were finished
For our end had come.

The punishment of thy iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thy iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will disclose thy sins.

We get our bread at the risk of our lives
Because of the sword [of the Arabs] in the wilderness [who may attack if we go out to harvest the crop].

The joy of our heart hath ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

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

Then said he unto me, - Son of man. All my words which I shall speak unto thee, receive thou into thy heart and in thine ears, hear thou:

Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right standing with God) and sins, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood.

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

Then I arose, and went forth into the plain; and behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Kebar: and I fell on my face.

Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut thyself within thy house.

and you, son of man, look, they will place cords on you, and they will tie you up with them. Then you will not go out into the midst of them.

Thou, therefore take time a pan of iron, and set it for a wall of iron, between thee and the city, - then shalt thou direct thy face against it and it shall come into siege and thou shalt lay siege to it, a sign, shall it be to the house of Israel.

"And you, take for yourself wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and spelt, and you must put them in one vessel, and you must make them for yourself into a food [during] the number of days that you [are] lying on your side; three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it.

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

"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.

Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire: from which a fire shall come forth into all the house of Israel.

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are around her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword around thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

And I will make you into a desolate place and into a disgrace among the nations that surround you before the eyes of {every one who passes by}.

Violence hath risen into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.

All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall melt into water.

Their silver into the streets, shall they cast and Their gold for throwing away, shall serve, Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Yahweh, Their craving, shall they not satisfy, and Their belly, shall they not fill, For a stumbling-block, hath their iniquity become.

" 'And the beauty of its ornament {he made into a prideful thing} and made with it their detestable things and their vile idols; therefore I will make it into an impure thing for them.

And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.

My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

Then put he forth the similitude of a hand, and took me by the forelock of my head, - and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens and brought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God into the opening of the inner gate that looketh toward the north, where was the seat of the Statue of Jealousy. that provoketh to jealousy;

So he brought me into the opening of the court, - and I looked, and lo! a single hole in the wall.

Then he told me, "Son of Man, dig through the wall!" So I dug into the wall. That's when I uncovered an entrance!

So he brought me into the opening of the gate of the house of Yahweh, which was toward the north, - and Lo! there, women sitting, weeping for Tammuz.

And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs towards the temple of the LORD, and their faces towards the east; and they worshiped the sun towards the east.

And He calleth unto the man who is clothed with linen, who hath the scribe's inkhorn at his loins, and Jehovah saith unto him, 'Pass on into the midst of the city, into the midst of Jerusalem, and thou hast made a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sighing and who are groaning for all the abominations that are done in its midst.'

And to the others he said in mine ears, 'Pass on into the city after him, and smite; your eye doth not pity, nor do ye spare;

Yea and the sound of the Cherubims' wings was heard into the fore court, like as it had been the voice of the almighty God when he speaketh.

And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim, to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took of it, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen: who took it, and went out.

And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the east gate of the house of Yahweh which looketh eastward, and lo! in the opening of the gate, twenty-five men, - and I saw in their midst Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah princes of the people.

And the spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said to me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

Therefore say: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: And I have assembled you from the peoples, And I have gathered you from the lands, Into which ye have been scattered, And I have given to you the ground of Israel.

Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

And you, son of man, prepare for yourself [the] baggage of an exile, and go into exile by day before their eyes. And you must go into exile from your place to another place before their eyes; perhaps they will see that they [are] a house of rebellion.

Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at evening in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.

And I did {just as} I was commanded; my baggage, like [the] baggage of an exile, I brought out by day, and in the evening I dug through for myself into the wall with my hand in the dusk; I brought [the baggage] on [my] shoulder; I carried [it] before their eyes.

Say, I am your sign: as I have done, so shall it be done to them: they shall remove and go into captivity.

And the prince which is in the midst of them shall lift up upon the shoulder in thick darkness, and go forth: they shall break through into the wall to bring forth by it: he shall cover his face so that be shall not see the earth with the eye.

Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.

And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Because, even because they have been guiding my people into error, saying, Peace; when there is no peace; and in the building of a division wall they put whitewash on it:

Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?

Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel that taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;

For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separateth himself from me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Jehovah will answer him by myself:

And I will set my face against that person, and I will make him to [be] a sign and [make him] into [the subject of] proverbs; and I will cut him off from the midst of my people, and you will know I [am] Yahweh.

"'As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word -- I, the Lord, have made a fool of that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

Son of man, the land -- when it sinneth against Me to commit a trespass, and I have stretched out My hand against it, and broken for it the staff of bread, and sent into it famine, and cut off from it man and beast --

If I bring noisome beasts into the land to waste it up, and it be so desolate that no man may go therein for beasts;

Or, if I bring a sword over that land, and I say, 'Sword, let it cross over into the land!' And I will cut off from it [both] human and animal.

Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

This is what the Lord GOD says, "I'm sending four of my most destructive judgments military invasion, famine, wild animals, and pestilence into Jerusalem to destroy both human beings and livestock in it.

Shall there be taken from it wood, to be made into any work? Or will men take therefrom a peg, to hang thereon any vessel?

Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it suitable for any work?

Lo! when it was yet whole, it could not be made into any work, - how much less when !the fire hath devoured it. and it is charred, can it still be made into any work?