Jeremiah 51 - Lamentations 4
New Century Version
51 This is what the Lord says:
“I will soon cause a destroying wind to blow
against Babylon and the Babylonian people.
2 I will send foreign people to destroy Babylon
like a wind that blows chaff away.
They will destroy the land.
Armies will surround the city
when the day of disaster comes upon her.
3 Don’t let the Babylonian soldiers prepare their bows to shoot.
Don’t even let them put on their armor.
Don’t feel sorry for the young men of Babylon,
but completely destroy her army.
4 They will be killed in the land of the Babylonians
and will die in her streets.
5 The Lord God All-Powerful
did not leave Israel and Judah,
even though they were completely guilty
in the presence of the Holy One of Israel.
6 “Run away from Babylon
and save your lives!
Don’t stay and be killed because of Babylon’s sins.
It is time for the Lord to punish Babylon;
he will give Babylon the punishment she deserves.
7 Babylon was like a gold cup in the Lord’s hand
that made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank Babylon’s wine,
so they went crazy.
8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and been broken.
Cry for her!
Get balm for her pain,
and maybe she can be healed.
9 “Foreigners in Babylon say, ‘We tried to heal Babylon,
but she cannot be healed.
So let us leave her and each go to his own country.
Babylon’s punishment is as high as the sky;
it reaches to the clouds.’
10 “The people of Judah say, ‘The Lord has shown us to be right.
Come, let us tell in Jerusalem
what the Lord our God has done.’
11 “Sharpen the arrows!
Pick up your shields!
The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
because he wants to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will punish them as they deserve
for destroying his Temple.
12 Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon!
Bring more guards.
Put the watchmen in their places,
and get ready for a secret attack!
The Lord will certainly do what he has planned
and what he said he would do against the people of Babylon.
13 People of Babylon, you live near much water
and are rich with many treasures,
but your end as a nation has come.
It is time to stop you from robbing other nations.
14 The Lord All-Powerful has promised in his own name:
‘Babylon, I will surely fill you with so many enemy soldiers they will be like a swarm of locusts.
They will stand over you and shout their victory.’
15 “The Lord made the earth by his power.
He used his wisdom to build the world
and his understanding to stretch out the skies.
16 When he thunders, the waters in the skies roar.
He makes clouds rise in the sky all over the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
17 “People are so stupid and know so little.
Goldsmiths are made ashamed by their idols,
because those statues are only false gods.
They have no breath in them.
18 They are worth nothing; people make fun of them.
When they are judged, they will be destroyed.
19 But God, who is Jacob’s Portion, is not like the idols.
He made everything,
and he chose Israel to be his special people.
The Lord All-Powerful is his name.
20 “You are my war club,
my battle weapon.
I use you to smash nations.
I use you to destroy kingdoms.
21 I use you to smash horses and riders.
I use you to smash chariots and drivers.
22 I use you to smash men and women.
I use you to smash old people and young people.
I use you to smash young men and young women.
23 I use you to smash shepherds and flocks.
I use you to smash farmers and oxen.
I use you to smash governors and officers.
24 “But I will pay back Babylon and all the Babylonians for all the evil things they did to Jerusalem in your sight,” says the Lord.
25 The Lord says,
“Babylon, you are a destroying mountain,
and I am against you.
You have destroyed the whole land.
I will put my hand out against you.
I will roll you off the cliffs,
and I will make you a burned-out mountain.
26 People will not find any rocks in Babylon big enough for cornerstones.
People will not take any rocks from Babylon to use for the foundation of a building,
because your city will be just a pile of ruins forever,” says the Lord.
27 “Lift up a banner in the land!
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Get the nations ready for battle against Babylon.
Call these kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz to fight against her.
Choose a commander to lead the army against Babylon.
Send so many horses that they are like a swarm of locusts.
28 Get the nations ready for battle against Babylon—
the kings of the Medes,
their governors and all their officers,
and all the countries they rule.
29 The land shakes and moves in pain,
because the Lord will do what he has planned to Babylon.
He will make Babylon an empty desert,
where no one will live.
30 Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting.
They stay in their protected cities.
Their strength is gone,
and they have become like frightened women.
Babylon’s houses are burning.
The bars of her gates are broken.
31 One messenger follows another;
messenger follows messenger.
They announce to the king of Babylon
that his whole city has been captured.
32 The river crossings have been captured,
and the swamplands are burning.
All of Babylon’s soldiers are terribly afraid.”
33 This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says:
“The city of Babylon is like a threshing floor,
where people crush the grain at harvest time.
The time to harvest Babylon is coming soon.”
34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has defeated and destroyed us.
In the past he took our people away,
and we became like an empty jar.
He was like a giant snake that swallowed us.
He filled his stomach with our best things.
Then he spit us out.
35 Babylon did terrible things to hurt us.
Now let those things happen to Babylon,”
say the people of Jerusalem.
“The people of Babylon killed our people.
Now let them be punished for what they did,” says Jerusalem.
36 So this is what the Lord says:
“I will soon defend you, Judah,
and make sure that Babylon is punished.
I will dry up Babylon’s sea
and make her springs become dry.
37 Babylon will become a pile of ruins,
a home for wild dogs.
People will be shocked by what happened there.
No one will live there anymore.
38 Babylon’s people roar like young lions;
they growl like baby lions.
39 While they are stirred up,
I will give a feast for them
and make them drunk.
They will shout and laugh.
And they will sleep forever and never wake up!” says the Lord.
40 “I will take the people of Babylon to be killed.
They will be like lambs,
like sheep and goats waiting to be killed.
41 “How Babylon has been defeated!
The pride of the whole earth has been taken captive.
People from other nations are shocked at what happened to Babylon,
and the things they see make them afraid.
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;
its roaring waves cover her.
43 Babylon’s towns are ruined and empty.
It has become a dry, desert land,
a land where no one lives.
People do not even travel through Babylon.
44 I will punish the god Bel in Babylon.
I will make him spit out what he has swallowed.
Nations will no longer come to Babylon;
even the wall around the city will fall.
45 “Come out of Babylon, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the Lord’s great anger.
46 Don’t lose courage;
rumors will spread through the land, but don’t be afraid.
One rumor comes this year, and another comes the next year.
There will be rumors of terrible fighting in the country,
of rulers fighting against rulers.
47 The time will surely come
when I will punish the idols of Babylon,
and the whole land will be disgraced.
There will be many dead people lying all around.
48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy about Babylon.
They will shout because the army comes from the north
to destroy Babylon,” says the Lord.
49 “Babylon must fall, because she killed people from Israel.
She killed people from everywhere on earth.
50 You who have escaped being killed with swords,
leave Babylon! Don’t wait!
Remember the Lord in the faraway land
and think about Jerusalem.”
51 “We people of Judah are disgraced,
because we have been insulted.
We have been shamed,
because strangers have gone into
the holy places of the Lord’s Temple!”
52 So the Lord says, “The time is coming soon
when I will punish the idols of Babylon.
Wounded people will cry with pain
all over that land.
53 Even if Babylon grows until she touches the sky,
and even if she makes her highest cities strong,
I will send people to destroy her,” says the Lord.
54 “Sounds of people crying are heard in Babylon.
Sounds of people destroying things
are heard in the land of the Babylonians.
55 The Lord is destroying Babylon
and making the loud sounds of the city become silent.
Enemies come roaring in like ocean waves.
The roar of their voices is heard all around.
56 The army has come to destroy Babylon.
Her soldiers have been captured,
and their bows are broken,
because the Lord is a God who punishes people for the evil they do.
He gives them the full punishment they deserve.
57 I will make Babylon’s rulers and wise men drunk,
and her governors, officers, and soldiers, too.
Then they will sleep forever and never wake up,” says the King,
whose name is the Lord All-Powerful.
58 This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
“Babylon’s thick wall will be completely pulled down
and her high gates burned.
The people will work hard, but it won’t help;
their work will only become fuel for the flames!”
A Message to Babylon
59 This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the officer Seraiah son of Neriah, who was the son of Mahseiah. Seraiah went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year Zedekiah was king of Judah. His duty was to arrange the king’s food and housing on the trip. 60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll all the terrible things that would happen to Babylon, all these words about Babylon. 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, be sure to read this message so all the people can hear you. 62 Then say, ‘Lord, you have said that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals will live in it. It will be an empty ruin forever.’ 63 After you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates River. 64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and will not rise again because of the terrible things I will make happen here. Her people will fall.’”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
The Fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah,[a] and she was from Libnah. 2 Zedekiah did what the Lord said was wrong, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he threw them out of his presence.
Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon. 4 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They made a camp around the city and built devices all around the city walls to attack it. This happened on Zedekiah’s ninth year, tenth month, and tenth day as king. 5 And the city was under attack until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king.
6 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger was terrible in the city; there was no food for the people to eat. 7 Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army of Judah ran away at night. They left the city through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden. Even though the Babylonians were surrounding the city, Zedekiah and his men headed toward the Jordan Valley.
8 But the Babylonian army chased King Zedekiah and caught him in the plains of Jericho. All of his army was scattered from him. 9 So the Babylonians captured Zedekiah and took him to the king of Babylon at the town of Riblah in the land of Hamath. There he passed sentence on Zedekiah. 10 At Riblah the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons as he watched. The king also killed all the officers of Judah. 11 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and put bronze chains on him, and took him to Babylon. And the king kept Zedekiah in prison there until the day he died.
12 Nebuzaradan, commander of the king’s special guards and servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem on the tenth day of the fifth month. This was in Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year as king of Babylon. 13 Nebuzaradan set fire to the Temple of the Lord, the palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every important building was burned. 14 The whole Babylonian army, led by the commander of the king’s special guards, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Nebuzaradan, the commander of the king’s special guards, took captive some of the poorest people, those who were left in Jerusalem, those who had surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the skilled craftsmen who were left in Jerusalem. 16 But Nebuzaradan left behind some of the poorest people of the land to take care of the vineyards and fields.
17 The Babylonians broke into pieces the bronze pillars, the bronze stands, and the large bronze bowl, called the Sea, which were in the Temple of the Lord. Then they carried all the bronze pieces to Babylon. 18 They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, bowls, dishes, and all the bronze objects used to serve in the Temple. 19 The commander of the king’s special guards took away bowls, pans for carrying hot coals, large bowls, pots, lampstands, pans, and bowls used for drink offerings. He took everything that was made of pure gold or silver.
20 There was so much bronze that it could not be weighed: two pillars, the large bronze bowl called the Sea with the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the Temple of the Lord.
21 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet high, eighteen feet around, and hollow inside. The wall of each pillar was three inches thick. 22 The bronze capital on top of the one pillar was about seven and one-half feet high. It was decorated with a net design and bronze pomegranates all around it. The other pillar also had pomegranates and was like the first pillar. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides of the pillars. There was a total of a hundred pomegranates above the net design.
24 The commander of the king’s special guards took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25 He also took from the city the officer in charge of the soldiers, seven people who advised the king, the royal secretary who selected people for the army, and sixty other men from Judah who were in the city when it fell. 26 Nebuzaradan, the commander, took these people and brought them to the king of Babylon at the town of Riblah. 27 There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them killed.
So the people of Judah were led away from their country as captives. 28 This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar took away as captives: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; 29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, commander of the king’s special guards, took 745 Jews as captives.
In all 4,600 people were taken captive.
Jehoiachin Is Set Free
31 Jehoiachin king of Judah was in prison in Babylon for thirty-seven years. The year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon he let Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison. He set Jehoiachin free on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. 32 Evil-Merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin put away his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life, he ate at the king’s table. 34 Every day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin an allowance. This lasted as long as he lived, until the day Jehoiachin died.
Jerusalem Cries over Her Loss
1 Jerusalem once was full of people,
but now the city is empty.
Jerusalem once was a great city among the nations,
but now she[b] is like a widow.
She was like a queen of all the other cities,
but now she is a slave.
2 She cries loudly at night,
and tears are on her cheeks.
There is no one to comfort her;
all who loved her are gone.
All her friends have turned against her
and are now her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into captivity
where she suffers and works hard.
She lives among other nations,
but she has found no rest.
Those who chased her caught her
when she was in trouble.
4 The roads to Jerusalem are sad,
because no one comes for the feasts.
No one passes through her gates.
Her priests groan,
her young women are suffering,
and Jerusalem suffers terribly.
5 Her foes are now her masters.
Her enemies enjoy the wealth they have taken.
The Lord is punishing her
for her many sins.
Her children have gone away
as captives of the enemy.
6 The beauty of Jerusalem
has gone away.
Her rulers are like deer
that cannot find food.
They are weak
and run from the hunters.
7 Jerusalem is suffering and homeless.
She remembers all the good things
from the past.
But her people were defeated by the enemy,
and there was no one to help her.
When her enemies saw her,
they laughed to see her ruined.
8 Jerusalem sinned terribly,
so she has become unclean.
Those who honored her now hate her,
because they have seen her nakedness.
She groans
and turns away.
9 She made herself dirty by her sins
and did not think about what would happen to her.
Her defeat was surprising,
and no one could comfort her.
She says, “Lord, see how I suffer,
because the enemy has won.”
10 The enemy reached out and took
all her precious things.
She even saw foreigners
enter her Temple.
The Lord had commanded foreigners
never to enter the meeting place of his people.
11 All of Jerusalem’s people groan,
looking for bread.
They are trading their precious things for food
so they can stay alive.
The city says, “Look, Lord, and see.
I am hated.”
12 Jerusalem says, “You who pass by on the road don’t seem to care.
Come, look at me and see:
Is there any pain like mine?
Is there any pain like that he has caused me?
The Lord has punished me
on the day of his great anger.
13 “He sent fire from above
that went down into my bones.
He stretched out a net for my feet
and turned me back.
He made me so sad and lonely
that I am weak all day.
14 “He has noticed my sins;
they are tied together by his hands;
they hang around my neck.
He has turned my strength into weakness.
The Lord has handed me over
to those who are stronger than I.
15 “The Lord has rejected
all my mighty men inside my walls.
He brought an army against me
to destroy my young men.
As if in a winepress, the Lord has crushed
the capital city of Judah.
16 “I cry about these things;
my eyes overflow with tears.
There is no one near to comfort me,
no one who can give me strength again.
My children are left sad and lonely,
because the enemy has won.”
17 Jerusalem reaches out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord commanded the people of Jacob
to be surrounded by their enemies.
Jerusalem is now unclean
like those around her.
18 Jerusalem says, “The Lord is right,
but I refused to obey him.
Listen, all you people,
and look at my pain.
My young women and men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called out to my friends,
but they turned against me.
My priests and my elders
have died in the city
while looking for food
to stay alive.
20 “Look at me, Lord. I am upset
and greatly troubled.
My heart is troubled,
because I have been so stubborn.
Out in the streets, the sword kills;
inside the houses, death destroys.
21 “People have heard my groaning,
and there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble,
and they are happy you have done this to me.
Now bring that day you have announced
so that my enemies will be like me.
22 “Look at all their evil.
Do to them what you have done to me
because of all my sins.
I groan over and over again,
and I am afraid.”
The Lord Destroyed Jerusalem
2 Look how the Lord in his anger
has brought Jerusalem to shame.
He has thrown down the greatness of Israel
from the sky to the earth;
he did not remember the Temple, his footstool,
on the day of his anger.
2 The Lord swallowed up without mercy
all the houses of the people of Jacob;
in his anger he pulled down
the strong places of Judah.
He threw her kingdom and its rulers
down to the ground in dishonor.
3 In his anger he has removed
all the strength of Israel;
he took away his power from Israel
when the enemy came.
He burned against the people of Jacob like a flaming fire
that burns up everything around it.
4 Like an enemy, he prepared to shoot his bow,
and his hand was against us.
Like an enemy, he killed
all the good-looking people;
he poured out his anger like fire
on the tents of Jerusalem.
5 The Lord was like an enemy;
he swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all her palaces
and destroyed all her strongholds.
He has caused more moaning and groaning
for Judah.
6 He cut down his Temple like a garden;
he destroyed the meeting place.
The Lord has made Jerusalem forget
the set feasts and Sabbath days.
He has rejected the king and the priest
in his great anger.
7 The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his Temple.
He has handed over to the enemy
the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces.
Their uproar in the Lord’s Temple
was like that of a feast day.
8 The Lord planned to destroy
the wall around Jerusalem.
He measured the wall
and did not stop himself from destroying it.
He made the walls and defenses sad;
together they have fallen.
9 Jerusalem’s gates have fallen to the ground;
he destroyed and smashed the bars of the gates.
Her king and her princes are among the nations.
The teaching of the Lord has stopped,
and the prophets do not have
visions from the Lord.
10 The elders of Jerusalem
sit on the ground in silence.
They throw dust on their heads
and put on rough cloth to show their sadness.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground in sorrow.
11 My eyes have no more tears,
and I am sick to my stomach.
I feel empty inside,
because my people have been destroyed.
Children and babies are fainting
in the streets of the city.
12 They ask their mothers,
“Where is the grain and wine?”
They faint like wounded soldiers
in the streets of the city
and die in their mothers’ arms.
13 What can I say about you, Jerusalem?
What can I compare you to?
What can I say you are like?
How can I comfort you, Jerusalem?
Your ruin is as deep as the sea.
No one can heal you.
14 Your prophets saw visions,
but they were false and worth nothing.
They did not point out your sins
to keep you from being captured.
They preached what was false
and led you wrongly.
15 All who pass by on the road
clap their hands at you;
they make fun of Jerusalem
and shake their heads.
They ask, “Is this the city that people called
the most beautiful city,
the happiest place on earth?”
16 All your enemies open their mouths
to speak against you.
They make fun and grind their teeth in anger.
They say, “We have swallowed you up.
This is the day we were waiting for!
We have finally seen it happen.”
17 The Lord has done what he planned;
he has kept his word
that he commanded long ago.
He has destroyed without mercy,
and he has let your enemies laugh at you.
He has strengthened your enemies.
18 The people cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Jerusalem,
let your tears flow
like a river day and night.
Do not stop
or let your eyes rest.
19 Get up, cry out in the night,
even as the night begins.
Pour out your heart like water
in prayer to the Lord.
Lift up your hands in prayer to him
for the life of your children
who are fainting with hunger
on every street corner.
20 Jerusalem says: “Look, Lord, and see
to whom you have done this.
Women eat their own babies,
the children they have cared for.
Priests and prophets are killed
in the Temple of the Lord.
21 “People young and old
lie outside on the ground.
My young women and young men
have been killed by the sword.
You killed them on the day of your anger;
you killed them without mercy.
22 “You invited terrors to come against me on every side,
as if you were inviting them to a feast.
No one escaped or remained alive
on the day of the Lord’s anger.
My enemy has killed
those I cared for and brought up.”
The Meaning of Suffering
3 I am a man who has seen the suffering
that comes from the rod of the Lord’s anger.
2 He led me
into darkness, not light.
3 He turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
4 He wore out my flesh and skin
and broke my bones.
5 He surrounded me with sadness
and attacked me with grief.
6 He made me sit in the dark,
like those who have been dead a long time.
7 He shut me in so I could not get out;
he put heavy chains on me.
8 I cry out and beg for help,
but he ignores my prayer.
9 He blocked my way with a stone wall
and led me in the wrong direction.
10 He is like a bear ready to attack me,
like a lion in hiding.
11 He led me the wrong way and let me stray
and left me without help.
12 He prepared to shoot his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.
13 He shot me in the kidneys
with the arrows from his bag.
14 I was a joke to all my people,
who make fun of me with songs all day long.
15 The Lord filled me with misery;
he made me drunk with suffering.
16 He broke my teeth with gravel
and trampled me into the dirt.
17 I have no more peace.
I have forgotten what happiness is.
18 I said, “My strength is gone,
and I have no hope in the Lord.”
19 Lord, remember my suffering and my misery,
my sorrow and trouble.
20 Please remember me
and think about me.
21 But I have hope
when I think of this:
22 The Lord’s love never ends;
his mercies never stop.
23 They are new every morning;
Lord, your loyalty is great.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is mine,
so I hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who hope in him,
to those who seek him.
26 It is good to wait quietly
for the Lord to save.
27 It is good for someone to work hard
while he is young.
28 He should sit alone and be quiet;
the Lord has given him hard work to do.
29 He should bow down to the ground;
maybe there is still hope.
30 He should let anyone slap his cheek;
he should be filled with shame.
31 The Lord will not reject
his people forever.
32 Although he brings sorrow,
he also has mercy and great love.
33 He does not like to punish people
or make them sad.
34 He sees if any prisoner of the earth
is crushed under his feet;
35 he sees if someone is treated unfairly
before the Most High God;
36 the Lord sees
if someone is cheated in his case in court.
37 Nobody can speak and have it happen
unless the Lord commands it.
38 Both bad and good things
come by the command of the Most High God.
39 No one should complain
when he is punished for his sins.
40 Let us examine and see what we have done
and then return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hands and pray from our hearts
to God in heaven:
42 “We have sinned and turned against you,
and you have not forgiven us.
43 “You wrapped yourself in anger and chased us;
you killed us without mercy.
44 You wrapped yourself in a cloud,
and no prayer could get through.
45 You made us like scum and trash
among the other nations.
46 “All of our enemies
open their mouths and speak against us.
47 We have been frightened and fearful,
ruined and destroyed.”
48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
because my people are destroyed.
49 My tears flow continually,
without stopping,
50 until the Lord looks down
and sees from heaven.
51 I am sad when I see
what has happened to all the women of my city.
52 Those who are my enemies for no reason
hunted me like a bird.
53 They tried to kill me in a pit;
they threw stones at me.
54 Water came up over my head,
and I said, “I am going to die.”
55 I called out to you, Lord,
from the bottom of the pit.
56 You heard me calling, “Do not close your ears
and ignore my gasps and shouts.”
57 You came near when I called to you;
you said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Lord, you have taken my case
and given me back my life.
59 Lord, you have seen how I have been wronged.
Now judge my case for me.
60 You have seen how my enemies took revenge on me
and made evil plans against me.
61 Lord, you have heard their insults
and all their evil plans against me.
62 The words and thoughts of my enemies
are against me all the time.
63 Look! In everything they do
they make fun of me with songs.
64 Pay them back, Lord,
for what they have done.
65 Make them stubborn,
and put your curse on them.
66 Chase them in anger, Lord,
and destroy them from under your heavens.
The Attack on Jerusalem
4 See how the gold has lost its shine,
how the pure gold has dulled!
The stones of the Temple are scattered
at every street corner.
2 The precious people of Jerusalem
were more valuable than gold,
but now they are thought of as clay jars
made by the hands of a potter.
3 Even wild dogs give their milk
to feed their young,
but my people are cruel
like ostriches in the desert.
4 The babies are so thirsty
their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths.
Children beg for bread,
but no one gives them any.
5 Those who once ate fine foods
are now starving in the streets.
People who grew up wearing nice clothes
now pick through trash piles.
6 My people have been punished
more than Sodom was.
Sodom was destroyed suddenly,
and no hands reached out to help her.
7 Our princes were purer than snow,
and whiter than milk.
Their bodies were redder than rubies;
they looked like sapphires.
8 But now they are blacker than coal,
and no one recognizes them in the streets.
Their skin hangs on their bones;
it is as dry as wood.
9 Those who were killed in the war were better off
than those killed by hunger.
They starve in pain and die,
because there is no food from the field.
10 With their own hands kind women
cook their own children.
They became food
when my people were destroyed.
11 The Lord turned loose all of his anger;
he poured out his strong anger.
He set fire to Jerusalem,
burning it down to the foundations.
12 Kings of the earth and people of the world
could not believe
that enemies and foes
could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13 It happened because her prophets sinned
and her priests did evil.
They killed in the city
those who did what was right.
14 They wandered in the streets
as if they were blind.
They were dirty with blood,
so no one would touch their clothes.
15 “Go away! You are unclean,” people shouted at them.
“Get away! Get away! Don’t touch us!”
So they ran away and wandered.
Even the other nations said, “Don’t stay here.”
16 The Lord himself scattered them
and did not look after them anymore.
No one respects the priests
or honors the elders.
17 Also, our eyes grew tired,
looking for help that never came.
We kept watch from our towers
for a nation to save us.
18 Our enemies hunted us,
so we could not even walk in the streets.
Our end is near. Our time is up.
Our end has come.
19 Those who chased us
were faster than eagles in the sky.
They ran us into the mountains
and ambushed us in the desert.
20 The Lord’s appointed king, who was our very breath,
was caught in their traps.
We had said about him, “We will be protected by him
among the nations.”
21 Be happy and glad, people of Edom,
you who live in the land of Uz.
The cup of God’s anger will come to you;
then you will get drunk and go naked.
22 Your punishment is complete, Jerusalem.
He will not send you into captivity again.
But the Lord will punish the sins of Edom;
he will uncover your evil.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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