For why? I have sworn by myself, sayeth the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a wilderness; an open shame; a laughingstock and cursing; and her cities shall be a continual desert.

Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken upon Idumaea: and his purpose, that he hath devised upon the citizens of Teman. The least of the flock shall tear them in pieces, and look: what fair thing they have, they shall make it waste, and themselves also.

Behold, the enemy shall come and flee up hither, like as it were an Eagle and spread his wings upon Bozrah. Then shall the hearts of the worthies in Edom be as the heart of a woman travailing of child."

"Upon Damascus, Hamath and Arpad shall come confusion, for they shall hear evil tidings: they shall be tossed to and fro like the sea that cannot stand still.

Damascus shall be sore afraid, and shall flee; trembling shall come upon her. Sorrow and pain shall overtake her as a woman travailing of child.

"As for Kedar and the kingdom of Hazor, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon smote down, the LORD hath spoken thus upon them: Arise, and get you up unto to Kedar, and destroy the people toward the east.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts,
‘Behold (listen carefully), I am going to break the bow of Elam,
The finest [weapon] of their strength.

And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:

They shall ask the way to Zion; thither shall they turn their faces, and come and hang upon thee, in a covenant that never shall be broken.

My people hath been a lost flock. My shepherds have deceived them, and have made them go astray upon the hills. They have gone from the mountains to the little hill, and forgotten their fold.

“All who came upon them have devoured them;
And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty,
Inasmuch as they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness,
Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’

"For lo, I will make up a host of people from the northern land, and bring them upon Babylon: these shall lay siege to it, and win it. Their arrows shall not miss, like as a cunning archer shooteth not wrong.

And Chaldea shall be a prey: all that prey upon her shall be satisfied, saith Jehovah.

Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

Israel is a hunted and scattered flock [driven here and there as prey]; the lions have chased them away. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken (gnawed) his bones.

And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.

"Go down, O thou avenger, into the enemies' land, and visit them that dwell therein: down with them, and smite them upon the backs, sayeth the LORD. Do according to all, that I have commanded thee.

"The LORD will open his armory, and bring out the weapons of his anger. Indeed, a work of the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will be in the land of the Chaldeans.

Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

Put all her young bulls to the sword;
Let them go down to the slaughter!
Woe be upon them, for their day has come,
The time of their punishment.

Listen to the voice of the refugees who flee and escape from the land of Babylon,
Proclaiming in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance [of the Lord against the Chaldeans] for [plundering and destroying] His temple.

Thus said Jehovah of armies: the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah being oppressed together: and all taking them captive held upon them; they refused to send them away.

A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.

A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.

A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

As soon as the king of Babylon heareth tell of them, his hands shall wax feeble: Sorrow and heaviness shall come upon him, as a woman travailing with child.

Therefore hear the counsel that the LORD hath given upon Babylon, and the device that he hath taken upon the land of the Chaldeans. The least among the people shall tear them in pieces, and look: what pleasant thing they have, they shall lay it waste.

Flee out of Babylon,
Let every one of you save his life!
Do not be destroyed in her punishment,
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
He is going to pay her what she has earned.

Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields [and cover yourselves]!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
Because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it;
For that is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance [on Babylon] for [plundering and destroying] His temple.

Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon.

O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

“You [Cyrus of Persia, soon to conquer Babylon] are My battle-axe and weapon of war—
For with you I shatter nations,
With you I destroy kingdoms.

through thee have I scattered horse and horseman; yea, the chariots, and such as sat upon them;

Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

And I will execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

And let not your heart be timid, nor be ye afraid, Because of the report that is reported in the earth When there shall come in one year, the report And after that in another year, the report, With violence in the earth, and ruler upon ruler.

Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

Heaven and earth, with all that is therein, shall rejoice over Babylon when the destroyers shall come upon her from the North, sayeth the LORD.

Ye that have escaped the sword: haste you, stand not still. Remember the LORD afar off, and think upon Jerusalem:

We have turned pale for we have heard a reproach, Confusion, hath covered our faces, - For aliens have entered upon the hallowed places of the house of Yahweh!

Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

“Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens,
And though she should fortify her lofty stronghold,
Yet destroyers will come on her from Me,” says the Lord.

Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.

So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against 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

And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

For upon the anger of Jehovah it was in Jerusalem and Judah, till his casting them away from his face, and Zedekiah will rebel against the king of Babel.

And the city will be broken up, and all the men of war will flee and will go forth from the city by night, the way of the gate between the walls, which was by the king's garden; (and the Chaldeans upon the city round about:) and they will go the way of the sterile region.

And so the Chaldeans followed upon them, and took Zedekiah the king in the field of Jericho, when his host was run from him.

Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him.

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.

And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about.

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.

Weeping, she will weep in the night, and her tears upon her cheeks: no comfort to her from all loving her: all her friends dealt faithlessly with her, they were to her for enemies.

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 hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is brought upon me, Wherewith Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

{Mem} From above hath he sent down a fire into my bones: and it burned them cruelly. He hath laid a net for my feet, and thrown me wide open: he hath made me desolate, so that I must ever be mourning.

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

Jehovah contemned all my mighty ones in my midst: he called an appointment upon me to break my chosen ones: Jehovah trod the wine-press to the virgin, the daughter of Judah.

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they are falling like the wounded in the open squares of the town, when their life is drained out on their mother's breast.

Thy prophets saw for thee vanity and a foolish thing, and they uncovered not upon thine iniquity to turn back thy captivity; and they will see for thee burdens of falsehood and seductions.

{Samekh} All they that go by thee clap their hands at thee - hissing and wagging their heads upon the daughter Jerusalem - and say, "Is this the city that men call so fair, wherein the whole land rejoiceth?"

All thine enemies open their mouth against thee, they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up; this is forsooth the day that we looked for: we have found, we have seen it.

See, O Jehovah, and look to whom thou didst accomplish this Shall the women eat their fruit, the children borne upon the hands? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the holy place of Jehovah?

{Shin} Young and old lie behind the streets, upon the ground; my maidens and young men are slain with the sword: whom thou in the day of thy wrathful indignation hast put to death. Yea, even thou hast put them to death, and not spared them.

Thou wilt call as the day of appointment my sojourning from round about, and in the day of the anger of Jehovah there was no escaping and surviving: those I bore upon my hands and brought up, the enemy finished.

Against me only he turneth his hand, and layeth it ever upon me.

{Gimel} He hath so hedged me in, that I cannot get out; and hath laid heavy links upon me.

I am laughed to scorn of all my people; they make songs upon me all the day long.

Remembering, my soul will remember, and will be bowed down upon me.

O how good is it, for a man, to take the yoke upon him from his youth up?

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

He layeth his face upon the earth, if, percase, there happen to be any hope.

{Nun} Let us look well upon our own ways, and remember ourselves, and turn again to the LORD.

We will lift up our hearts upon the hands to God in the heavens.

פ PeAll our enemies
open their mouths against us.

Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

They poured water upon my head, then thought I, "Now am I undone."

I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

O LORD, thou hast seen my blasphemers; take thou my cause upon thee.

You will harden their hearts;
Your curse will be upon them.

They eating for dainties were desolate in the streets: they trusting upon scarlet embraced dung hills.

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her.

The blind were shaken in the streets, they were stained with blood, so that they shall not be able to touch upon their garments.

{Ayin} The countenance of the LORD hath banished them, and shall never look more upon them: For they themselves neither regarded the priests, nor pitied the elders.

{Pe} Wherefore yet our eyes fail us, while we look for vain help: seeing we be ever waiting upon a people that can do us no good.

{Tsadi} They lay so sharp wait for us, that we can not go safe upon the streets: for our end is come, our days are fulfilled, our end is here.

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, dwelling in the land of Uz; also upon thee shall the cup pass: thou shalt be drunken, and make thyself naked.

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.