Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for the LORD has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.

Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the maker of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.

They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever," says the LORD.

The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

Do not let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north," says the LORD.

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

For the LORD lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:

for the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the LORD is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary."

For through the anger of the LORD it happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, and the stands which king Solomon had made for the house of the LORD. The brass of all these vessels was without weight.

As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow.

and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.

Her filthiness was in her skirts; she did not remember her latter end; therefore her fall was astonishing; she has no comforter. "Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself."

The adversary has spread out his hand on all her precious things: for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their precious things for food to refresh the soul. "Look, LORD, and see, for I am despised."

From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it overcame them. He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all the day.

For these things I weep; my eyes, my eyes flow with tears; because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.

The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please listen all you people, and see my suffering. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city, while they searched for food to refresh their souls.

See, LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves, inside there is death.

Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.

What shall I testify of you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is great like the sea. Who can heal you?

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity, but have seen for you false and misleading oracles.

All your enemies have opened wide their mouth against you. They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, "We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it."

Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches. Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.

Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

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

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke while he is young.

For the Lord will not reject forever.

For though he may cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the abundance of his loving kindness.

For he is not predisposed to bring affliction or suffering to the children of men.

Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Lord, you have taken up the case for my soul; you have redeemed my life.

The nursing infant's tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one gives to them.

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant, and no hands were laid on her.

Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; those who waste away, pierced through, for lack of the fruits of the field.

Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets. Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

We have to pay for a drink of water; our wood is sold to us.

The crown is fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned.

For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes grow dim.

For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate; the foxes walk on it.

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

As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: the fire went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

As for their rims, they were high and awesome; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around.

They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.

For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.

and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD': He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

"Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.

"Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.

Then I said, "Ah Lord GOD. Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth."

Then he said to me, "Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon."

She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.'

when I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread;

Those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

"Thus says the Lord GOD: 'Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, "Alas." because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

The time has come, the day draws near: do not let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.

For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude.

As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it to them as an unclean thing.

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 profane it.

"Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.

So I went in and saw; and see, every form of creeping things, and abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall.

Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, 'The LORD doesn't see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.'"

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and behold, they put the branch to their nose.

Then he said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion: for they say, 'The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD doesn't see.'

As for me also, my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head."

There appeared in the cherubim the form of a man's hand under their wings.

As for their appearance, the four of them had the same likeness, like a wheel within a wheel.

As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, "the whirling wheels."

When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves; they went every one straight forward.

The Spirit of the LORD fell on me, and he said to me, "Speak, Thus says the LORD: 'Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.

and you shall know that I am the LORD: for you have not walked in my statutes, neither have you executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.'"

"Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, 'Go far away from the LORD. This land has been given to us for a possession.'

Therefore say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come."'

But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads,' says the Lord GOD."

"Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and do not see, who have ears to hear, and do not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

Therefore, you son of man, prepare your stuff for moving, and move by day in their sight; and you shall move from your place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house.

You shall bring forth your stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for moving; and you shall go forth yourself at even in their sight, as when men go forth into exile.

In their sight you shall bear it on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you do not see the land: for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel."