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 have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.

From the voice: Captured was Babylon, Hath the earth been shaken, And a cry among nations hath been heard!

For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations have gone mad.

Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered.
Wail for her;
get balm for her wound—
perhaps she can be healed.

We healed Babylon, and she was not healed, Forsake her, and we go, each to his land, For come unto the heavens hath its judgment, And it hath been lifted up unto the clouds.

By the voice that he uttered, there was a tumult of waters in the heavens, And he caused vapours to ascend from the end of the earth, - Lightnings for the rain, made he, And brought forth wind out of his treasures.

Every man was brutish from knowledge; every founder was ashamed from his carved image: for his founding is a falsehood, and no spirit in them.

Then did the land tremble and was in pain, - For the plans of Yahweh, had been established against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon an astonishment, without inhabitant.

A runner shall run to meet a runner, and he announcing, to meet him announcing, to announce to the king of Babel that his city was taken from the extremity.

He hath taken my substance away and the thing that was left me hath he carried unto Babylon,' sayeth the daughter that dwelleth in Zion. 'Yea, and my blood also, unto the Chaldeans,' sayeth Jerusalem.

And Babel was for heaps, a habitation of jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, from none inhabiting.

O how was Sheshach won? O, how was the glory of the whole land taken? How happeneth it that Babylon is so wondered at among the Heathen?

The sea came up against Babel: with the multitude of rolling waves was she covered.

Even if Babylon was lifted up to heaven, even if she had the high places of her strength shut in with walls, still I would send against her those who will make her waste, says the Lord.

For Jehovah laid Babel waste, and he destroyed from her the great voice: and the billows roared as many waters, and a noise of their voice was given.

For he spoiling came upon her, upon Babel, and her strong ones were taken, their bow was broken: for the God of recompenses, Jehovah requiting will requite.

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.

And Jeremiah put in a book all the evil which was to come on Babylon.

And it was as thou finishedst to read this book, thou shalt bind upon it a stone and cast it into the midst of Phrath

Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

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

For, because the anger of Jehovah was against Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

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

Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

The king of Babylon had Zedekiah's sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah.

He had Zedekiah's eyes put out and had him bound in chains. Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.

Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,

And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the Chaldaean army which was with the captain.

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took away into exile some of the poorest of the people, those who were left in the city [at the time it was captured], along with those who deserted to join the king of Babylon [during the siege] and the rest of the artisans.

Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.

They took away also the Caldrons, shovels, flesh hooks, sprinklers, spoons, and all the brazen vessel that was occupied in the service;

And the basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the captain of the guard away.

The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.

And a chapiter of brass was upon it; and the height of one chapiter was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the chapiters round about, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these.

There were ninety-six apples on the outside; the number of apples all round the network was a hundred.

The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers.

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 the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.

In the thirty seventh year after that Jehoiachin the king of Judah was carried away in the twenty fifth day of the twelfth Month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, the same year that he reigned, gave Jehoiachin the king of Judah his pardon, and let him out of prison,

And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at the king's table every day for the rest of his life.

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

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!

{Gimel} Judah is taken prisoner, because she was defiled: and for serving so many strange gods, she dwelleth now among the heathen. She findeth no rest: all they that persecuted her, took her in strait places where she could not escape.

In the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious things
That she had from the days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the adversary,
And no one helped her,
The enemy saw her,
They mocked at her downfall.

Jerusalem sinned a sin; for this she was for a removing: all honoring her despised her, for they saw her nakedness: also she sighed, and she will turn away behind.

Her filthiness was in her skirts; she remembered not her latter end; Therefore is she come down wonderfully; she hath no comforter: Behold, O Jehovah, my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.

All her people sighing, seeking bread; they gave from their delights for food to turn back the soul: see, O Jehovah, and regard; for I was despised.

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was severely dealt out to me,
Which the Lord has inflicted [on me] on the day of His fierce anger.

My rebellion was bound [as] a yoke, with his hand it was fastened together; it was put on my neck [and] caused my strength to fail. The Lord gave me into the hands [of those whom] I cannot withstand.

Zion spread forth her hands, none comforting for her: Jehovah commanded for Jacob, his adversaries round about him: Jerusalem was for uncleanness within them.

(Resh) Look, O Lord! I am distressed; my stomach is in knots! My heart is pounding inside me. Yes, I was terribly rebellious! Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children; Inside the house death is present.

They hear that I was groaning; [there is] no comforter for me. All my enemies have heard my misery, they are pleased that you have done it. Bring [that] day that you have proclaimed, And let them be like me.

{Aleph} Alas, how hath the LORD darkened the daughter of Zion so sore in his wrath? As for the honour of Israel, he hath casten it down from heaven: How happeneth it, that he remembered not his own foot stool when he was angry?

(Gimel) In fierce anger he destroyed the whole army of Israel. He withdrew his right hand as the enemy attacked. He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; it consumed everything around it.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy; he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and hath slain all that was pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he hath poured out his fury like fire.

The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

{Vav} Her tabernacle - which was like a garden of pleasure - hath he destroyed; her high solemn feasts hath he put down. The LORD hath brought it so to pass, that the high solemn feasts and Sabbaths in Zion are clean forgotten. In his heavy displeasure hath he made the king and priests to be despised.

(Khet) The Lord was determined to tear down Daughter Zion's wall. He prepared to knock it down; he did not withdraw his hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and fortified walls lament; together they mourned their ruin.

Mine eyes failed with tears, my bowels were in a ferment, my liver was poured out to the earth, upon the breaking of the daughter of my people; in the fainting of the child and suckling in the wide places of the city.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

All who pass along the way
Clap their hands in derision at you;
They scoff and shake their heads
At the Daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
“Is this the city that was called
‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of all the earth’?”

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.

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 was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

Who was it that spake, and it was done, when , My Lord, had not commanded?

They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird;

The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die.

I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison.

The valued sons of Zion, whose price was the best gold, are looked on as vessels of earth, the work of the hands of the potter!

The tongue of the suckling, cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst, - Young children, have asked bread, there was none, to break, it to them.

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

Their form dark above blackness; they were not known in the streets: their skin adhered to their bones; it was dried up, it was as wood.

They wandered, blind, in the streets;
They were defiled with blood
So that no one could touch their garments.

They cried unto them, Depart! Unclean! Depart! depart, touch not! When they fled away, and wandered about, it was said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn there.

Yet our eyes failed,
Looking for help was useless;
In our watching we have watched
For a nation that could not save.

They hunted our steps from going in our streets; our end was near, our days were fulfilled, for our end has come.

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.

Thine iniquity was finished, O daughter of Zion; he will not add to carry thee into exile: reviewing thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he uncovered upon thy sins.

Remember, O Jehovah, what was to us: look and see our reproach.

Our inheritance was turned to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

The joy of our heart ceased; our dance was turned to mourning.

For this our heart was languid; for this our eyes were darkened.

For mount Zion was laid waste, the foxes went upon it.

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.

And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

And the likeness of their faces was the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle.

And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.

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