For there hath come up against her - a nation out of the North The same, shall make her land an astonishment, And there shall be none to dwell therein, - Both man and beast, have removed - have gone.

To Zion, shall they ask the way, Hitherward, their faces, Come and let us join ourselves unto Yahweh, In a covenant age-abiding, which shall not be forgotten.

Wandering sheep, have my people, been, Their own shepherds led them astray, On the mountains, they seduced them, From mountain to hill, have they gone, They have forgotten their couching-place.

Because they used to be glad Because they used to be uproarious When plundering mine inheritance, - Because they used to caper about as a heifer at grass, And bellow like bulls.

Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about All ye who tread the bow, Shoot at her, do not spare so much as an arrow, - For against Yahweh, hath she sinned.

Raise a shout against her round about She hath stretched forth her hand, Fallen are her buttresses, Torn down are her walls, - Because, the avenging of Yahweh it is, Take ye vengeance upon her, As she hath done, do ye, unto her.

Cut ye off the sower from Babylon, And him that graspeth the sickle in the time of harvest, From the face of the sword of the oppressor, Each, to his own people will they turn, and Each, to his own land will they flee.

In those days and in that time, Declareth Yahweh, The iniquity of Israel, shall be sought, and there shall be none, And the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; For I will grant pardon to them whom I suffer to remain.

Against the land of Merathaim, go thou up against her, And against the inhabitants of Pekod, - Lay waste and devote to destruction after them Declareth Yahweh, And do according to all which I have commanded thee.

Yahweh opened his armoury, and brought out his weapons of indignation, - For, a work, it is pertaining to My Lord, Yahweh of hosts, in the land of the Chaldeans,

Come ye against her from farthest parts, Throw open her granaries, Cast her up as heaps, and devote her to destruction, - Do not let her have a remnant.

Cut up all her bullocks, Let them go down to the slaughter, - Alas for them! For their day, hath come, Their time for punishment.

The voice Of them who are in flight and Of such as are escaping, out of the land of Babylon, - To tell in Zion The avenging of Yahweh our God, The avenging of his temple.

Publish against Babylon ye chiefs of all who tread the bow - Encamp against her round about Let there be none to escape, Recompense to her according to her work, According to all which she did, do ye to her, - For Against Yahweh, hath she acted presumptuously, Against the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore, shall her young men fall in her broadways, - And, all her men of war, be silenced in that day, Declareth Yahweh.

Behold me! against thee most insolent one, Declareth My Lord Yahweh of hosts; For thy day, hath come, Thy time for punishment;

So shall the most insolent one stumble and fall, And he shall have none to lift him up, - And I will kindle a fire in his cities which shall devour all who are round about him.

Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts - Oppressed were the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, together, - And, all who took them captive, Held them fast Refused to let them go: -

A sword, is against the praters, And they shall be shewn to be foolish, A sword, is against her heroes And they shall be dismayed:

Therefore hear ye, The counsel of Yahweh, which he hath counselled against Babylon, And his devices which he hath devised against the land a of the Chaldeans, - Surely the little ones of the flock, shall drag them away, Surely he will cause the pasture to be astounded over them.

And I will send to Babylon winnowers, And they shall winnow her, And shall empty her land, - For they are against her round about in the day of calamity.

Let not the archer tread his bow, Nor lift himself up in his coat of mail, - And do not spare her young men, Devote to destruction all her host.

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed, Leave her and let us go every one to his own land, - For her judgment, reacheth unto the heavens, And mounteth as far as the skies.

Polish the arrows, Lay hold of the shields, - Yahweh hath roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, For against Babylon, his purpose is, to destroy her, - For it is, The avenging of Yahweh, The avenging of his temple.

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 son of earth had become too brutish to know, - Every goldsmith, hath been put to shame, by a graven image, - For a falsehood, is his molten image Seeing there is no breath in them:

So will I recompense to Babylon, And to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, All their wickedness which they have committed against Zion before your eyes, - Declareth Yahweh.

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.

The heroes of Babylon have ceased to fight They have remained in the strongholds, Parched is their might, They have become women, - They have set fire to her habitations, Broken are her bars!

Runner to meet runner, shall they run, And teller to meet teller,-To tell the king of Babylon, That captured is his city at the end!

The violence done to me and to my flesh, be upon Babylon! Shall the inhabitress of Zion say, - Yea, my blood, be upon the inhabitant of Chaldea! Shall Jerusalem say.

I will bring them down As fat lambs to slaughter, - As rams with he-goats.

Then shall shout over Babylon - heavens and earth and all who are therein, - For out of the North, shall come to her the spoilers Declareth Yahweh.

Ye that have escaped the sword, depart do not stand still, - Remember, from afar Yahweh, Let, Jerusalem, come up on your heart:-

So Jeremiah wrote all the calamity which was to come unto Babylon in one scroll; even all these words which have been written against Babylon.

and thou shalt say - O Yahweh! thou, thyself, hast spoken against this place to cut it off, That there be in it no inhabitant Neither man nor beast, - But desolations age-abiding, shall it become!

Then shalt thou say, - In like manner, shall Babylon sink and not rise Because of the calamity which I am about to bring thereupon: So shall they perish. Thus far, are, the words of Jeremiah.

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

And he did that which was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh, - according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his force, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, - and he built against it a siege-wall round about.

In the fourth month on the ninth of the month, when the famine had become severe in the city, - and there had come to be no bread for the people of the land,

then was the city broken up, and all the men of war, beginning to flee went forth out of the city by night, by way of the gate between the two walls which was by the garden of the king the Chaldeans being near the city round about, - and they went the way towards the Waste Plain.

and the eyes of Zedekiah, put he out, - and bound him with fetters of bronze and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison - until the day of his death.

And the pillars of bronze that pertained to the house of Yahweh and the stands and the sea of bronze which was in the house of Yahweh, did the Chaldeans, break in pieces, - and they carried away all the bronze of them to Babylon;

and the caldrons and the shovels and the snuffers and the dashing bowls, and the spoons even all the utensils of bronze wherewith ministration used to he made did they take away;

As for the two pillars the one sea, and the twelve oxen of bronze which were under the stands which King Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh, without weight was the bronze of all these things.

and out of the city, took he one eunuch who was in charge over the men f war and seven men of them who used to watch the face of the king, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the prince of the host, who used to muster the people of the land, - and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.

then did the king of Babylon smite them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath, - thus carried he Judah captive away from off their own soil.

In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar - out of Jerusalem, eight hundred and thirty-two souls;

And it came to pass, in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, lifted up, the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison;

so he changed his prison garments, - and used to eat bread before his face continually, all the days of his life.

And his allowance, was a continual allowance given him from the king of Babylon the portion of the day upon its own day, until the day of his death, - all the days of his life.

She, weepeth sore, in the night, and, her tear, is on her cheek, She hath none to comfort her, of all her lovers, - All her friends, have betrayed her, have become her foes.

The ways to Zion, are mourning, because none come to her appointed feasts, All her gates, are desolate, her priests, are sighing, - her virgins, are grieved, and, she, it is bitter for her.

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.

Jerusalem, hath grievously sinned, For this cause, unto exile, hath she been delivered, - All who used to honour her, have despised her, for they have descried her unseemliness, yea, she herself, hath sighed, and turned back.

Her impurity, is in her skirts, She hath not remembered her hereafter, Therefore hath she come down wonderfully, none to comfort her, - Behold, O Yahweh, my humiliation, that the foe, hath made himself great.

His hand, hath the adversary spread out, over all her precious things, - for she saw that, the nations, entered her sanctuary, as to whom thou didst command they should not enter - in the convocation - unto thee!

All her people, are sighing, seeking bread, They have given their precious things for food, to bring back life, - Behold, O Yahweh, and discern, that I have become worthless.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Look around and see, whether there is pain like my pain, which is severely dealt out to me, - in that Yahweh, hath caused grief, in the day of the glow of his anger?

From on high, sent he fire, among my bones, and laid them prostrate, - He spread out a net for my feet, he made me turn back, he made me desolate, all the day, faint.

My Lord, hath flouted at all my magnates, in my midst, He hath called against me a host, to crush my young men, - A winepress, hath My Lord trodden, to the virgin, the daughter of Judah.

Zion, hath spread forth, her hands, there is none to comfort her, Yahweh, hath given command, respecting Jacob, unto them who surround him - his adversaries, - Jerusalem, hath become as a removed woman, in their midst.

I called to my lovers, they, deceived me, My priests and mine elders, in the city, have breathed their last, - for they sought them food, that they might bring back their life.

They have heard - that, sighing am, I, and am saying - There is none to comfort me, All my foes, - having heard of my calamity - have rejoiced, because, thou, hast done it, - thou hast brought in the day thou didst proclaim, So let them become like me.

How could My Lord, in his anger, enshroud in gloom, the daughter of Zion? have cast from the heavens to the earth, the beauty of Israel? and not have remembered his footstool, in the day of his anger?

My Lord hath swallowed up - without pity - all the pastures of Jacob, hath laid waste - in his indignation - the strongholds of the daughter of Judah, hath brought them down to the ground, - hath profaned the kingdom, and the princes thereof.

My Lord hath become like a foe, hath swallowed up Israel, hath swallowed up all her castles, ruined his strongholds, - and hath caused to abound, in the daughter of Judah, lamentation and mourning.

Thus hath he destroyed, like a garden, his pavilion, hath laid waste his place of assembly, - Yahweh, hath caused to be forgotten, in Zion, the appointed assembly and the sabbath, and hath spurned, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest.

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.

Yahweh hath devised to lay in ruins, the wall of the daughter of Zion, he hath stretched out a line, he hath not turned back his hand from swallowing up, - Thus hath he caused to mourn - rampart and wall, together, have they languished!

Seated on the ground, in silence, are the elders of the daughter of Zion, They have lifted up dust on their head, have girded themselves with sackcloth, - Bowed down to the ground is the head, of the virgins of Jerusalem.

Blinded with tears are mine eyes, In ferment is my body, Poured out to the earth is my grief, for the sore hurt of the daughter of my people, - when child and suckling are swooning, in the broadways of the city.

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.

How shall I solemnly admonish thee? What shall I liken to thee, thou daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with thee, that I may comfort thee, thou virgin, daughter of Zion? for, great as the sea, is thy grievous injury, Who can heal thee?

Thy prophets, have had visions for thee, false and foolish, and have not unveiled thine iniquity, to turn back thy captivity, - Yea they have had visions for thee, oracles of falsehood, and enticements!

All passing by, have clapped, over thee, their hands, have hissed and wagged their head over the daughter of Jerusalem, - saying , Is, this, the city, of which men used to say - The perfection of beauty! A joy to the whole earth!

All thy foes, have opened wide, over thee their mouth, They have hissed, and gnashed their teeth, They have said - We have swallowed her up! Surely, this, is the day for which we have waited, We have found! We have seen!

Their heart, hath made outcry, unto My Lord, - O wall of the daughter of Zion - Let tears run down as a torrent day and night, Do not give thyself relief, Let not the weeping of thine eye cease!

See, O Yahweh, and do consider, to whom thou hast acted thus severely, - Will women, devour, their own fruit - the children they have dandled? Shall priest and prophet, be slain in the sanctuary of My Lord?