Jeremiah 28

1 “This is what the Lord says: Look, I am stirring up a destroying, scorching wind against Babylon and against the Chaldeans who live there.”

2 “I will send arrogant men against Babylon, and they will treat her with contempt and ravage her land. Woe to Babylon from every side on the day of her suffering.”

3 “Let the archer bend his bow against her, and let the man who has armor put it on. Do not spare her young men; destroy her whole army.”

4 “The slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and men pierced through will fall outside her.”

5 “For Israel and Judah have not been left widowed by their God, the Lord Almighty. But their land was filled with wrongdoing against the holy things of Israel.”

6 “Flee out of Babylon. Each of you, save your own life. Do not be swept away in her wrongdoing, for this is the time of her vengeance from the Lord; he is paying her back what she is owed.”

7 “Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; that is why they were shaken.”

8 “Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her. Take balm for her wound; perhaps she may be healed.”

9 “We tried to heal Babylon, but she was not healed. Let us abandon her and go, each to his own land, for her judgment has reached up to heaven; it has risen to the stars.”

10 “The Lord has brought out his judgment. Come, let us tell in Zion what the Lord our God has done.”

11 “Prepare the arrows; fill the quivers. The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the king of the Medes, for his anger is set against Babylon, to destroy her completely. This is the Lord’s vengeance — vengeance for his people.”

12 “Lift up a signal on the walls of Babylon. Prepare the quivers, rouse the guards, make the weapons ready, for the Lord has taken the work in hand and will carry out what he spoke against the people of Babylon,”

13 “who live beside many waters, amid the abundance of her treasures. Your end has truly come, into your very depths.”

14 “For the Lord has sworn by his arm: I will fill you with men like locusts, and those who come down will raise the shout over you.”

15 “He made the earth by his power, prepared the world by his wisdom, and stretched out heaven by his understanding.”

16 “At his voice the waters in heaven roar, and he brings up clouds from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings light out of his storehouses.”

17 “Every man has been made a fool for all his knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved images, for what he casts is a lie; there is no breath in them.”

18 “They are vain works, objects of scorn. In the time of reckoning they will perish.”

19 “Jacob’s portion is not like these, for the one who formed all things — he is his inheritance. The Lord is his name.”

20 “You scatter the weapons of war for me. With you I will scatter nations, and with you I will destroy kings.”

21 “With you I will scatter horse and rider, and with you I will scatter chariots and their riders.”

22 “With you I will scatter young man and young woman, and with you I will scatter man and woman.”

23 “With you I will scatter the shepherd and his flock, with you I will scatter the farmer and his farmland, and with you I will scatter leaders and your captains.”

24 “I will repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans who live there for all the evil they did to Zion before your eyes, says the Lord.”

25 “Look, I am against you, ruined mountain that ruins the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burned-out mountain.”

26 “No one will take from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, for you will be a ruin forever, says the Lord.”

27 “Raise a banner on the earth and sound the trumpet among the nations. Set nations apart against Babylon. Summon the kingdoms of Ararat against her on my behalf, together with the people of Ashkenaz. Set siege engines against her and bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.”

28 “Set the nations apart against her — the king of the Medes and of the whole earth, his leaders and all his captains.”

29 “The earth has quaked and been in anguish, because the Lord’s purpose has risen against Babylon — to make the land of Babylon a ruin where no one lives.”

30 “Babylon’s warriors have given up fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is broken; they have become like women. Her dwellings have been set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.”

31 “Runner races to meet runner, and herald to meet herald, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured.”

32 “The river crossings at the far edge have been seized, the reservoirs burned with fire, and his fighting men are going out.”

33 “This is what the Lord says: The houses of the king of Babylon will be threshed like a ripe threshing floor. A little while, and her harvest will come.”

34 “He has devoured me, he has divided me up, he has seized me like a thin jar — Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He swallowed me like a serpent, filled his belly, and drove me out from my delicacies.”

35 “May my hardships and my miseries come on Babylon, the one who lives in Zion will say. May my blood be on the Chaldeans who live there, Jerusalem will say.”

36 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says: Look, I will judge your adversary and carry out vengeance for you. I will lay waste her sea and dry up her spring.”

37 “Babylon will become a ruin, and no one will live there.”

38 “Together they rose up like lions, like lion cubs.”

39 “When they are heated, I will pour them a drink and make them drunk, so that they will be dazed and sleep an everlasting sleep and never wake, says the Lord.”

40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with kids.”

41 “How the boast of the whole earth has been captured and snared! How Babylon has become a ruin among the nations!”

42 “The sea has risen over Babylon with the roar of its waves, and she is covered.”

43 “Her cities have become a dry, uninhabited land, where no one will live and no human being will stay.”

44 “I will take vengeance on Babylon and bring out of her mouth what she has swallowed, and the nations will no longer gather to her.”

49 “And in Babylon the slain of all the earth will fall.”

50 “You who have escaped from the land, go on your way; do not stand still. You who are far away, remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise in your hearts.”

51 “We are ashamed, because we have heard our reproach. Disgrace has covered our faces. Foreigners have entered our holy places, the house of the Lord.”

52 “Therefore the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will take vengeance on her carved images, and the slain will fall in all her land.”

53 “Though Babylon should rise as high as heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, destroyers will come against her from me, says the Lord.”

54 “The sound of a cry from Babylon, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans!”

55 “For the Lord has destroyed Babylon completely and silenced her great voice, which roared like mighty waters; he has given her voice over to destruction.”

56 “For distress has come on Babylon. Her warriors have been captured and their bows have failed, for God is repaying them; the Lord pays her back in full.”

57 “He will make her leaders, her wise men, and her captains completely drunk, says the King — the Lord Almighty is his name.”

58 “This is what the Lord says: The wall of Babylon was built broad, but it will be torn down to the ground, and her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will not labor in vain, and the nations will fail in their rule.”

59 This is the word that the Lord commanded the prophet Jeremiah to say to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon from Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the officer in charge of gifts.

60 Jeremiah wrote in one scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon — all these words written against Babylon.

61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah,

“When you arrive in Babylon, look, and read all these words aloud.”

62 “Then say, ‘Lord God, you have spoken against this place to destroy it, so that neither person nor animal will live here. It will remain a ruin forever.’”

63 “When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.”

64 “Then say, ‘This is how Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disasters I am bringing on it.’”