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29 The earth trembles and writhes in pain,
    for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged.
Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.

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43 Her cities now lie in ruins;
    she is a dry wasteland
    where no one lives or even passes by.

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11 Sharpen the arrows!
    Lift up the shields![a]
For the Lord has inspired the kings of the Medes
    to march against Babylon and destroy her.
This is his vengeance against those
    who desecrated his Temple.
12 Raise the battle flag against Babylon!
    Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen.
Prepare an ambush,
    for the Lord will fulfill all his plans against Babylon.

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Footnotes

  1. 51:11 Greek version reads Fill up the quivers.

16 “The snorting of the enemies’ warhorses can be heard
    all the way from the land of Dan in the north!
The neighing of their stallions makes the whole land tremble.
    They are coming to devour the land and everything in it—
    cities and people alike.

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The earth will tremble for your deeds,
    and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at floodtime;
    it will heave up, then sink again.

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45 Listen to the Lord’s plans against Babylon
    and the land of the Babylonians.
Even the little children will be dragged off like sheep,
    and their homes will be destroyed.

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13 Because of the Lord’s anger,
    Babylon will become a deserted wasteland.
All who pass by will be horrified
    and will gasp at the destruction they see there.

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10 But the Lord is the only true God.
    He is the living God and the everlasting King!
The whole earth trembles at his anger.
    The nations cannot stand up to his wrath.

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19 Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms,
    the flower of Chaldean pride,
will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah
    when God destroyed them.
20 Babylon will never be inhabited again.
    It will remain empty for generation after generation.
Nomads will refuse to camp there,
    and shepherds will not bed down their sheep.

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21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a huge millstone. He threw it into the ocean and shouted,

“Just like this, the great city Babylon
    will be thrown down with violence
    and will never be found again.
22 The sound of harps, singers, flutes, and trumpets
    will never be heard in you again.
No craftsmen and no trades
    will ever be found in you again.
The sound of the mill
    will never be heard in you again.
23 The light of a lamp
    will never shine in you again.
The happy voices of brides and grooms
    will never be heard in you again.
For your merchants were the greatest in the world,
    and you deceived the nations with your sorceries.
24 In your[a] streets flowed the blood of the prophets and of God’s holy people
    and the blood of people slaughtered all over the world.”

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Footnotes

  1. 18:24 Greek her.

He gave a mighty shout:

“Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen!
    She has become a home for demons.
She is a hideout for every foul[a] spirit,
    a hideout for every foul vulture
    and every foul and dreadful animal.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 18:2a Greek unclean; also in each of the two following phrases.
  2. 18:2b Some manuscripts condense the last two lines to read a hideout for every foul [unclean] and dreadful vulture.

10 The earth quakes as they advance,
    and the heavens tremble.
The sun and moon grow dark,
    and the stars no longer shine.

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62 Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy Babylon so that neither people nor animals will remain here. She will lie empty and abandoned forever.’ 63 When you have finished reading the scroll, tie it to a stone and throw it into the Euphrates River. 64 Then say, ‘In this same way Babylon and her people will sink, never again to rise, because of the disasters I will bring upon her.’”

This is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.

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43 The king of Babylon has heard reports about the enemy,
    and he is weak with fright.
Pangs of anguish have gripped him,
    like those of a woman in labor.

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39 “Soon Babylon will be inhabited by desert animals and hyenas.
    It will be a home for owls.
Never again will people live there;
    it will lie desolate forever.
40 I will destroy it as I[a] destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
    and their neighboring towns,” says the Lord.
“No one will live there;
    no one will inhabit it.

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Footnotes

  1. 50:40 Hebrew as God.

Prediction of Babylon’s Fall

47 “Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust.
    For your days of sitting on a throne have ended.
O daughter of Babylonia,[a] never again will you be
    the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
Take heavy millstones and grind flour.
    Remove your veil, and strip off your robe.
    Expose yourself to public view.[b]
You will be naked and burdened with shame.
    I will take vengeance against you without pity.”

Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    is the Holy One of Israel.

“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.
    Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.
For I was angry with my chosen people
    and punished them by letting them fall into your hands.
But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.
    You oppressed even the elderly.
You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’
    You did not reflect on your actions
    or think about their consequences.

“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom,
    living at ease and feeling secure.
You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.
    I will never be a widow or lose my children.’
Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment:
    widowhood and the loss of your children.
Yes, these calamities will come upon you,
    despite all your witchcraft and magic.

10 “You felt secure in your wickedness.
    ‘No one sees me,’ you said.
But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray,
    and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’
11 So disaster will overtake you,
    and you won’t be able to charm it away.
Calamity will fall upon you,
    and you won’t be able to buy your way out.
A catastrophe will strike you suddenly,
    one for which you are not prepared.

12 “Now use your magical charms!
    Use the spells you have worked at all these years!
Maybe they will do you some good.
    Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.
13 All the advice you receive has made you tired.
    Where are all your astrologers,
those stargazers who make predictions each month?
    Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
14 But they are like straw burning in a fire;
    they cannot save themselves from the flame.
You will get no help from them at all;
    their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.
15 And all your friends,
    those with whom you’ve done business since childhood,
will go their own ways,
    turning a deaf ear to your cries.

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Footnotes

  1. 47:1 Or Chaldea; also in 47:5.
  2. 47:2 Hebrew Bare your legs; pass through the rivers.

10 Only I can tell you the future
    before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
    for I do whatever I wish.
11 I will call a swift bird of prey from the east—
    a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding.
I have said what I would do,
    and I will do it.

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23 “I will make Babylon a desolate place of owls,
    filled with swamps and marshes.
I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction.
    I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”

A Message about Assyria

24 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath:

“It will all happen as I have planned.
    It will be as I have decided.

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16 Everyone there will stare at you and ask,
‘Can this be the one who shook the earth
    and made the kingdoms of the world tremble?

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13 For I will shake the heavens.
    The earth will move from its place
when the Lord of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath
    in the day of his fierce anger.”

14 Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle,
    like sheep without a shepherd.
They will try to find their own people
    and flee to their own land.

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36 The sword will strike her wise counselors,
    and they will become fools.
The sword will strike her mightiest warriors,
    and panic will seize them.

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