Jeremiah 47-52

New International Version

A Message About the Philistines

47 This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines^(A) before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:^(B)

²This is what the Lord says:

“See how the waters are rising in the north;^(C)
    they will become an overflowing torrent.
They will overflow the land and everything in it,
    the towns and those who live in them.
The people will cry out;
    all who dwell in the land will wail^(D)
³at the sound of the hooves of galloping steeds,
    at the noise of enemy chariots^(E)
    and the rumble of their wheels.
Parents will not turn to help their children;
    their hands will hang limp.^(F)
⁴For the day has come
    to destroy all the Philistines
and to remove all survivors
    who could help Tyre^(G) and Sidon.^(H)
The Lord is about to destroy the Philistines,^(I)
    the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.^[a]^(J)
⁵Gaza will shave^(K) her head in mourning;
    Ashkelon^(L) will be silenced.
You remnant on the plain,
    how long will you cut^(M) yourselves?

⁶“‘Alas, sword^(N) of the Lord,
    how long till you rest?
Return to your sheath;
    cease and be still.’^(O)
⁷But how can it rest
    when the Lord has commanded it,
when he has ordered it
    to attack Ashkelon and the coast?”^(P)

A Message About Moab^(Q)

48 Concerning Moab:^(R)

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

“Woe to Nebo,^(S) for it will be ruined.
    Kiriathaim^(T) will be disgraced and captured;
    the stronghold^[b] will be disgraced and shattered.
²Moab will be praised^(U) no more;
    in Heshbon^[c]^(V) people will plot her downfall:
    ‘Come, let us put an end to that nation.’^(W)
You, the people of Madmen,^[d] will also be silenced;
    the sword will pursue you.
³Cries of anguish arise from Horonaim,^(X)
    cries of great havoc and destruction.
⁴Moab will be broken;
    her little ones will cry out.^[e]
⁵They go up the hill to Luhith,^(Y)
    weeping bitterly as they go;
on the road down to Horonaim^(Z)
    anguished cries over the destruction are heard.
⁶Flee!^(AA) Run for your lives;
    become like a bush^[f] in the desert.^(AB)
⁷Since you trust in your deeds and riches,^(AC)
    you too will be taken captive,
and Chemosh^(AD) will go into exile,^(AE)
    together with his priests and officials.^(AF)
⁸The destroyer^(AG) will come against every town,
    and not a town will escape.
The valley will be ruined
    and the plateau^(AH) destroyed,
    because the Lord has spoken.
⁹Put salt^(AI) on Moab,
    for she will be laid waste^[g];^(AJ)
her towns will become desolate,
    with no one to live in them.

¹⁰“A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!
A curse on anyone who keeps their sword^(AK) from bloodshed!^(AL)

¹¹“Moab has been at rest^(AM) from youth,
    like wine left on its dregs,^(AN)
not poured from one jar to another—
    she has not gone into exile.
So she tastes as she did,
    and her aroma is unchanged.
¹²But days are coming,”
    declares the Lord,
“when I will send men who pour from pitchers,
    and they will pour her out;
they will empty her pitchers
    and smash her jars.
¹³Then Moab will be ashamed^(AO) of Chemosh,^(AP)
    as Israel was ashamed
    when they trusted in Bethel.^(AQ)

¹⁴“How can you say, ‘We are warriors,^(AR)
    men valiant in battle’?
¹⁵Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded;
    her finest young men^(AS) will go down in the slaughter,^(AT)”
    declares the King,^(AU) whose name is the Lord Almighty.^(AV)
¹⁶“The fall of Moab is at hand;^(AW)
    her calamity will come quickly.
¹⁷Mourn for her, all who live around her,
    all who know her fame;^(AX)
say, ‘How broken is the mighty scepter,^(AY)
    how broken the glorious staff!’

¹⁸“Come down from your glory
    and sit on the parched ground,^(AZ)
    you inhabitants of Daughter Dibon,^(BA)
for the one who destroys Moab
    will come up against you
    and ruin your fortified cities.^(BB)
¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,
    you who live in Aroer.^(BC)
Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping,
    ask them, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered.
    Wail^(BD) and cry out!
Announce by the Arnon^(BE)
    that Moab is destroyed.
²¹Judgment has come to the plateau^(BF)—
    to Holon,^(BG) Jahzah^(BH) and Mephaath,^(BI)
²²    to Dibon,^(BJ) Nebo^(BK) and Beth Diblathaim,
²³    to Kiriathaim,^(BL) Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,^(BM)
²⁴    to Kerioth^(BN) and Bozrah^(BO)—
    to all the towns^(BP) of Moab, far and near.
²⁵Moab’s horn^[h]^(BQ) is cut off;
    her arm^(BR) is broken,”
declares the Lord.

²⁶“Make her drunk,^(BS)
    for she has defied^(BT) the Lord.
Let Moab wallow in her vomit;^(BU)
    let her be an object of ridicule.^(BV)
²⁷Was not Israel the object of your ridicule?^(BW)
    Was she caught among thieves,^(BX)
that you shake your head^(BY) in scorn^(BZ)
    whenever you speak of her?
²⁸Abandon your towns and dwell among the rocks,
    you who live in Moab.
Be like a dove^(CA) that makes its nest
    at the mouth of a cave.^(CB)

²⁹“We have heard of Moab’s pride^(CC)—
    how great is her arrogance!—
of her insolence, her pride, her conceit
    and the haughtiness^(CD) of her heart.
³⁰I know her insolence but it is futile,”
declares the Lord,
    “and her boasts^(CE) accomplish nothing.
³¹Therefore I wail^(CF) over Moab,
    for all Moab I cry out,
    I moan for the people of Kir Hareseth.^(CG)
³²I weep for you, as Jazer^(CH) weeps,
    you vines of Sibmah.^(CI)
Your branches spread as far as the sea^[i];
    they reached as far as^[j] Jazer.
The destroyer has fallen
    on your ripened fruit and grapes.
³³Joy and gladness are gone
    from the orchards and fields of Moab.
I have stopped the flow of wine^(CJ) from the presses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy.^(CK)
Although there are shouts,
    they are not shouts of joy.

³⁴“The sound of their cry rises
    from Heshbon^(CL) to Elealeh^(CM) and Jahaz,^(CN)
from Zoar^(CO) as far as Horonaim^(CP) and Eglath Shelishiyah,
    for even the waters of Nimrim are dried up.^(CQ)
³⁵In Moab I will put an end
    to those who make offerings on the high places^(CR)
    and burn incense^(CS) to their gods,”
declares the Lord.
³⁶“So my heart laments^(CT) for Moab like the music of a pipe;
    it laments like a pipe for the people of Kir Hareseth.^(CU)
    The wealth they acquired^(CV) is gone.
³⁷Every head is shaved^(CW)
    and every beard^(CX) cut off;
every hand is slashed
    and every waist is covered with sackcloth.^(CY)
³⁸On all the roofs in Moab
    and in the public squares^(CZ)
there is nothing but mourning,
    for I have broken Moab
    like a jar^(DA) that no one wants,”
declares the Lord.
³⁹“How shattered^(DB) she is! How they wail!
    How Moab turns her back in shame!
Moab has become an object of ridicule,^(DC)
    an object of horror to all those around her.”

⁴⁰This is what the Lord says:

“Look! An eagle is swooping^(DD) down,
    spreading its wings^(DE) over Moab.
⁴¹Kerioth^[k]^(DF) will be captured
    and the strongholds taken.
In that day the hearts of Moab’s warriors^(DG)
    will be like the heart of a woman in labor.^(DH)
⁴²Moab will be destroyed^(DI) as a nation^(DJ)
    because she defied^(DK) the Lord.
⁴³Terror^(DL) and pit and snare^(DM) await you,
    you people of Moab,”
declares the Lord.
⁴⁴“Whoever flees^(DN) from the terror
    will fall into a pit,
whoever climbs out of the pit
    will be caught in a snare;
for I will bring on Moab
    the year^(DO) of her punishment,”
declares the Lord.

⁴⁵“In the shadow of Heshbon
    the fugitives stand helpless,
for a fire has gone out from Heshbon,
    a blaze from the midst of Sihon;^(DP)
it burns the foreheads of Moab,
    the skulls^(DQ) of the noisy boasters.
⁴⁶Woe to you, Moab!^(DR)
    The people of Chemosh are destroyed;
your sons are taken into exile
    and your daughters into captivity.

⁴⁷“Yet I will restore^(DS) the fortunes of Moab
in days to come,”
declares the Lord.

Here ends the judgment on Moab.

A Message About Ammon

49 Concerning the Ammonites:^(DT)

This is what the Lord says:

“Has Israel no sons?
    Has Israel no heir?
Why then has Molek^[l]^(DU) taken possession of Gad?^(DV)
    Why do his people live in its towns?
²But the days are coming,”
    declares the Lord,
“when I will sound the battle cry^(DW)
    against Rabbah^(DX) of the Ammonites;
it will become a mound of ruins,^(DY)
    and its surrounding villages will be set on fire.
Then Israel will drive out
    those who drove her out,^(DZ)”
says the Lord.
³“Wail, Heshbon,^(EA) for Ai^(EB) is destroyed!
    Cry out, you inhabitants of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth^(EC) and mourn;
    rush here and there inside the walls,
for Molek^(ED) will go into exile,^(EE)
    together with his priests and officials.
⁴Why do you boast of your valleys,
    boast of your valleys so fruitful?
Unfaithful Daughter Ammon,^(EF)
    you trust in your riches^(EG) and say,
    ‘Who will attack me?’^(EH)
⁵I will bring terror on you
    from all those around you,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
“Every one of you will be driven away,
    and no one will gather the fugitives.^(EI)

⁶“Yet afterward, I will restore^(EJ) the fortunes of the Ammonites,”
declares the Lord.

A Message About Edom^(EK)^(EL)

⁷Concerning Edom:^(EM)

This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?^(EN)
    Has counsel perished from the prudent?
    Has their wisdom decayed?
⁸Turn and flee, hide in deep caves,^(EO)
    you who live in Dedan,^(EP)
for I will bring disaster on Esau
    at the time when I punish him.
⁹If grape pickers came to you,
    would they not leave a few grapes?
If thieves came during the night,
    would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
¹⁰But I will strip Esau bare;
    I will uncover his hiding places,^(EQ)
    so that he cannot conceal himself.
His armed men are destroyed,
    also his allies and neighbors,
    so there is no one^(ER) to say,
¹¹‘Leave your fatherless children;^(ES) I will keep them alive.
    Your widows^(ET) too can depend on me.’”

¹²This is what the Lord says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup^(EU) must drink it, why should you go unpunished?^(EV) You will not go unpunished, but must drink it. ¹³I swear^(EW) by myself,” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah^(EX) will become a ruin and a curse,^[m] an object of horror^(EY) and reproach;^(EZ) and all its towns will be in ruins forever.”^(FA)

¹⁴I have heard a message from the Lord;
an envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Assemble yourselves to attack it!
Rise up for battle!”

¹⁵“Now I will make you small among the nations,
    despised by mankind.
¹⁶The terror you inspire
    and the pride^(FB) of your heart have deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks,^(FC)
    who occupy the heights of the hill.
Though you build your nest^(FD) as high as the eagle’s,
    from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.
¹⁷“Edom will become an object of horror;^(FE)
    all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff
    because of all its wounds.^(FF)
¹⁸As Sodom^(FG) and Gomorrah^(FH) were overthrown,
    along with their neighboring towns,”
says the Lord,
“so no one will live there;
    no people will dwell^(FI) in it.

¹⁹“Like a lion^(FJ) coming up from Jordan’s thickets^(FK)
    to a rich pastureland,
I will chase Edom from its land in an instant.
    Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?
Who is like^(FL) me and who can challenge me?^(FM)
    And what shepherd^(FN) can stand against me?”

²⁰Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned against Edom,^(FO)
    what he has purposed^(FP) against those who live in Teman:^(FQ)
The young of the flock^(FR) will be dragged away;
    their pasture will be appalled at their fate.^(FS)
²¹At the sound of their fall the earth will tremble;^(FT)
    their cry^(FU) will resound to the Red Sea.^[n]
²²Look! An eagle will soar and swoop^(FV) down,
    spreading its wings over Bozrah.^(FW)
In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors^(FX)
    will be like the heart of a woman in labor.^(FY)

A Message About Damascus

²³Concerning Damascus:^(FZ)

“Hamath^(GA) and Arpad^(GB) are dismayed,
    for they have heard bad news.
They are disheartened,
    troubled like^[o] the restless sea.^(GC)
²⁴Damascus has become feeble,
    she has turned to flee
    and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her,
    pain like that of a woman in labor.^(GD)
²⁵Why has the city of renown not been abandoned,
    the town in which I delight?
²⁶Surely, her young men^(GE) will fall in the streets;
    all her soldiers will be silenced^(GF) in that day,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
²⁷“I will set fire^(GG) to the walls of Damascus;^(GH)
    it will consume^(GI) the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.^(GJ)”

A Message About Kedar and Hazor

²⁸Concerning Kedar^(GK) and the kingdoms of Hazor,^(GL) which Nebuchadnezzar^(GM) king of Babylon attacked:

This is what the Lord says:

“Arise, and attack Kedar
    and destroy the people of the East.^(GN)
²⁹Their tents and their flocks^(GO) will be taken;
    their shelters will be carried off
    with all their goods and camels.
People will shout to them,
    ‘Terror^(GP) on every side!’

³⁰“Flee quickly away!
Stay in deep caves,^(GQ) you who live in Hazor,^(GR)”
declares the Lord.
“Nebuchadnezzar^(GS) king of Babylon has plotted against you;
he has devised a plan against you.

³¹“Arise and attack a nation at ease,
    which lives in confidence,”
declares the Lord,
“a nation that has neither gates nor bars;^(GT)
    its people live far from danger.
³²Their camels^(GU) will become plunder,
    and their large herds^(GV) will be spoils of war.
I will scatter to the winds^(GW) those who are in distant places^[p]^(GX)
    and will bring disaster on them from every side,”
declares the Lord.
³³“Hazor^(GY) will become a haunt of jackals,^(GZ)
    a desolate^(HA) place forever.
No one will live there;
    no people will dwell^(HB) in it.”

A Message About Elam

³⁴This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam,^(HC) early in the reign of Zedekiah^(HD) king of Judah:

³⁵This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“See, I will break the bow^(HE) of Elam,
    the mainstay of their might.
³⁶I will bring against Elam the four winds^(HF)
    from the four quarters of heaven;^(HG)
I will scatter them to the four winds,
    and there will not be a nation
    where Elam’s exiles do not go.
³⁷I will shatter Elam before their foes,
    before those who want to kill them;
I will bring disaster on them,
    even my fierce anger,”^(HH)
declares the Lord.
“I will pursue them with the sword^(HI)
    until I have made an end of them.
³⁸I will set my throne in Elam
    and destroy her king and officials,”
declares the Lord.

³⁹“Yet I will restore^(HJ) the fortunes of Elam
in days to come,”
declares the Lord.

A Message About Babylon^(HK)

50 This is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon^(HL) and the land of the Babylonians^[q]:

²“Announce and proclaim^(HM) among the nations,
    lift up a banner^(HN) and proclaim it;
    keep nothing back, but say,
‘Babylon will be captured;^(HO)
    Bel^(HP) will be put to shame,^(HQ)
    Marduk^(HR) filled with terror.
Her images will be put to shame
    and her idols^(HS) filled with terror.’
³A nation from the north^(HT) will attack her
    and lay waste her land.
No one will live^(HU) in it;
    both people and animals^(HV) will flee away.

⁴“In those days, at that time,”
    declares the Lord,
“the people of Israel and the people of Judah together^(HW)
    will go in tears^(HX) to seek^(HY) the Lord their God.
⁵They will ask the way^(HZ) to Zion
    and turn their faces toward it.
They will come^(IA) and bind themselves to the Lord
    in an everlasting covenant^(IB)
    that will not be forgotten.

⁶“My people have been lost sheep;^(IC)
    their shepherds^(ID) have led them astray^(IE)
    and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill^(IF)
    and forgot their own resting place.^(IG)
⁷Whoever found them devoured^(IH) them;
    their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty,^(II)
for they sinned against the Lord, their verdant pasture,
    the Lord, the hope^(IJ) of their ancestors.’

⁸“Flee^(IK) out of Babylon;^(IL)
    leave the land of the Babylonians,
    and be like the goats that lead the flock.
⁹For I will stir^(IM) up and bring against Babylon
    an alliance of great nations^(IN) from the land of the north.^(IO)
They will take up their positions against her,
    and from the north she will be captured.^(IP)
Their arrows^(IQ) will be like skilled warriors
    who do not return empty-handed.
¹⁰So Babylonia^[r] will be plundered;^(IR)
    all who plunder her will have their fill,”
declares the Lord.

¹¹“Because you rejoice and are glad,
    you who pillage my inheritance,^(IS)
because you frolic like a heifer^(IT) threshing grain
    and neigh like stallions,
¹²your mother will be greatly ashamed;
    she who gave you birth will be disgraced.^(IU)
She will be the least of the nations—
    a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.^(IV)
¹³Because of the Lord’s anger she will not be inhabited
    but will be completely desolate.^(IW)
All who pass Babylon will be appalled;^(IX)
    they will scoff^(IY) because of all her wounds.^(IZ)

¹⁴“Take up your positions around Babylon,
    all you who draw the bow.^(JA)
Shoot at her! Spare no arrows,^(JB)
    for she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵Shout^(JC) against her on every side!
    She surrenders, her towers fall,
    her walls^(JD) are torn down.
Since this is the vengeance^(JE) of the Lord,
    take vengeance on her;
    do to her^(JF) as she has done to others.^(JG)
¹⁶Cut off from Babylon the sower,
    and the reaper with his sickle at harvest.
Because of the sword^(JH) of the oppressor
    let everyone return to their own people,^(JI)
    let everyone flee to their own land.^(JJ)

¹⁷“Israel is a scattered flock^(JK)
    that lions^(JL) have chased away.
The first to devour^(JM) them
    was the king^(JN) of Assyria;
the last to crush their bones^(JO)
    was Nebuchadnezzar^(JP) king^(JQ) of Babylon.”

¹⁸Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

“I will punish the king of Babylon and his land
    as I punished the king^(JR) of Assyria.^(JS)
¹⁹But I will bring^(JT) Israel back to their own pasture,
    and they will graze on Carmel and Bashan;
their appetite will be satisfied^(JU)
    on the hills^(JV) of Ephraim and Gilead.^(JW)
²⁰In those days, at that time,”
    declares the Lord,
“search will be made for Israel’s guilt,
    but there will be none,^(JX)
and for the sins^(JY) of Judah,
    but none will be found,
    for I will forgive^(JZ) the remnant^(KA) I spare.

²¹“Attack the land of Merathaim
    and those who live in Pekod.^(KB)
Pursue, kill and completely destroy^[s] them,”
declares the Lord.
    “Do everything I have commanded you.
²²The noise^(KC) of battle is in the land,
    the noise of great destruction!
²³How broken and shattered
    is the hammer^(KD) of the whole earth!^(KE)
How desolate^(KF) is Babylon
    among the nations!
²⁴I set a trap^(KG) for you, Babylon,
    and you were caught before you knew it;
you were found and captured^(KH)
    because you opposed^(KI) the Lord.
²⁵The Lord has opened his arsenal
    and brought out the weapons^(KJ) of his wrath,
for the Sovereign Lord Almighty has work to do
    in the land of the Babylonians.^(KK)
²⁶Come against her from afar.^(KL)
    Break open her granaries;
    pile her up like heaps of grain.^(KM)
Completely destroy^(KN) her
    and leave her no remnant.
²⁷Kill all her young bulls;^(KO)
    let them go down to the slaughter!^(KP)
Woe to them! For their day^(KQ) has come,
    the time^(KR) for them to be punished.
²⁸Listen to the fugitives^(KS) and refugees from Babylon
    declaring in Zion^(KT)
how the Lord our God has taken vengeance,^(KU)
    vengeance for his temple.^(KV)

²⁹“Summon archers against Babylon,
    all those who draw the bow.^(KW)
Encamp all around her;
    let no one escape.^(KX)
Repay^(KY) her for her deeds;^(KZ)
    do to her as she has done.
For she has defied^(LA) the Lord,
    the Holy One^(LB) of Israel.
³⁰Therefore, her young men^(LC) will fall in the streets;
    all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,”
declares the Lord.
³¹“See, I am against^(LD) you, you arrogant one,”
    declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
“for your day^(LE) has come,
    the time for you to be punished.
³²The arrogant^(LF) one will stumble and fall^(LG)
    and no one will help her up;^(LH)
I will kindle a fire^(LI) in her towns
    that will consume all who are around her.”

³³This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“The people of Israel are oppressed,^(LJ)
    and the people of Judah as well.
All their captors hold them fast,
    refusing to let them go.^(LK)
³⁴Yet their Redeemer^(LL) is strong;
    the Lord Almighty^(LM) is his name.
He will vigorously defend their cause^(LN)
    so that he may bring rest^(LO) to their land,
    but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵“A sword^(LP) against the Babylonians!”^(LQ)
    declares the Lord—
“against those who live in Babylon
    and against her officials and wise^(LR) men!
³⁶A sword against her false prophets!
    They will become fools.
A sword against her warriors!^(LS)
    They will be filled with terror.^(LT)
³⁷A sword against her horses and chariots^(LU)
    and all the foreigners in her ranks!
    They will become weaklings.^(LV)
A sword against her treasures!^(LW)
    They will be plundered.
³⁸A drought on^[t] her waters!^(LX)
    They will dry^(LY) up.
For it is a land of idols,^(LZ)
    idols that will go mad with terror.

³⁹“So desert creatures^(MA) and hyenas will live there,
    and there the owl will dwell.
It will never again be inhabited
    or lived in from generation to generation.^(MB)
⁴⁰As I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah^(MC)
    along with their neighboring towns,”
declares the Lord,
“so no one will live there;
    no people will dwell in it.^(MD)

⁴¹“Look! An army is coming from the north;^(ME)
    a great nation and many kings
    are being stirred^(MF) up from the ends of the earth.^(MG)
⁴²They are armed with bows^(MH) and spears;
    they are cruel^(MI) and without mercy.^(MJ)
They sound like the roaring sea^(MK)
    as they ride on their horses;
they come like men in battle formation
    to attack you, Daughter Babylon.^(ML)
⁴³The king of Babylon has heard reports about them,
    and his hands hang limp.^(MM)
Anguish has gripped him,
    pain like that of a woman in labor.^(MN)
⁴⁴Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets^(MO)
    to a rich pastureland,
I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant.
    Who is the chosen^(MP) one I will appoint for this?
Who is like me and who can challenge me?^(MQ)
    And what shepherd can stand against me?”

⁴⁵Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned against Babylon,
    what he has purposed^(MR) against the land of the Babylonians:^(MS)
The young of the flock will be dragged away;
    their pasture will be appalled at their fate.
⁴⁶At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will tremble;^(MT)
    its cry^(MU) will resound among the nations.

51 This is what the Lord says:

“See, I will stir^(MV) up the spirit of a destroyer
    against Babylon^(MW) and the people of Leb Kamai.^[u]
²I will send foreigners^(MX) to Babylon
    to winnow^(MY) her and to devastate her land;
they will oppose her on every side
    in the day^(MZ) of her disaster.
³Let not the archer string his bow,^(NA)
    nor let him put on his armor.^(NB)
Do not spare her young men;
    completely destroy^[v] her army.
⁴They will fall^(NC) down slain in Babylon,^[w]
    fatally wounded in her streets.^(ND)
⁵For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken^(NE)
    by their God, the Lord Almighty,
though their land^[x] is full of guilt^(NF)
    before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶“Flee^(NG) from Babylon!
    Run for your lives!
    Do not be destroyed because of her sins.^(NH)
It is time^(NI) for the Lord’s vengeance;^(NJ)
    he will repay^(NK) her what she deserves.
⁷Babylon was a gold cup^(NL) in the Lord’s hand;
    she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
    therefore they have now gone mad.
⁸Babylon will suddenly fall^(NM) and be broken.
    Wail over her!
Get balm^(NN) for her pain;
    perhaps she can be healed.

⁹“‘We would have healed Babylon,
    but she cannot be healed;
let us leave^(NO) her and each go to our own land,
    for her judgment^(NP) reaches to the skies,
    it rises as high as the heavens.’

¹⁰“‘The Lord has vindicated^(NQ) us;
come, let us tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has done.’^(NR)

¹¹“Sharpen the arrows,^(NS)
    take up the shields!^(NT)
The Lord has stirred up the kings^(NU) of the Medes,^(NV)
    because his purpose^(NW) is to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will take vengeance,^(NX)
    vengeance for his temple.^(NY)
¹²Lift up a banner^(NZ) against the walls of Babylon!
    Reinforce the guard,
station the watchmen,^(OA)
    prepare an ambush!^(OB)
The Lord will carry out his purpose,^(OC)
    his decree against the people of Babylon.
¹³You who live by many waters^(OD)
    and are rich in treasures,^(OE)
your end has come,
    the time for you to be destroyed.^(OF)
¹⁴The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself:^(OG)
    I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts,^(OH)
    and they will shout^(OI) in triumph over you.

¹⁵“He made the earth by his power;
    he founded the world by his wisdom^(OJ)
    and stretched^(OK) out the heavens by his understanding.^(OL)
¹⁶When he thunders,^(OM) the waters in the heavens roar;
    he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain^(ON)
    and brings out the wind from his storehouses.^(OO)

¹⁷“Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
    every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud;^(OP)
    they have no breath in them.
¹⁸They are worthless,^(OQ) the objects of mockery;
    when their judgment comes, they will perish.
¹⁹He who is the Portion^(OR) of Jacob is not like these,
    for he is the Maker of all things,
including the people of his inheritance^(OS)—
    the Lord Almighty is his name.

²⁰“You are my war club,^(OT)
    my weapon for battle—
with you I shatter^(OU) nations,^(OV)
    with you I destroy kingdoms,
²¹with you I shatter horse and rider,^(OW)
    with you I shatter chariot^(OX) and driver,
²²with you I shatter man and woman,
    with you I shatter old man and youth,
    with you I shatter young man and young woman,^(OY)
²³with you I shatter shepherd and flock,
    with you I shatter farmer and oxen,
    with you I shatter governors and officials.^(OZ)

²⁴“Before your eyes I will repay^(PA) Babylon^(PB) and all who live in Babylonia^[y] for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the Lord.

²⁵“I am against^(PC) you, you destroying mountain,
    you who destroy the whole earth,”^(PD)
declares the Lord.
“I will stretch out my hand^(PE) against you,
    roll you off the cliffs,
    and make you a burned-out mountain.^(PF)
²⁶No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
    nor any stone for a foundation,
    for you will be desolate^(PG) forever,”
declares the Lord.

²⁷“Lift up a banner^(PH) in the land!
    Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations for battle against her;
    summon against her these kingdoms:^(PI)
    Ararat,^(PJ) Minni and Ashkenaz.^(PK)
Appoint a commander against her;
    send up horses like a swarm of locusts.^(PL)
²⁸Prepare the nations for battle against her—
    the kings of the Medes,^(PM)
their governors and all their officials,
    and all the countries they rule.^(PN)
²⁹The land trembles^(PO) and writhes,
    for the Lord’s purposes^(PP) against Babylon stand—
to lay waste^(PQ) the land of Babylon
    so that no one will live there.^(PR)
³⁰Babylon’s warriors^(PS) have stopped fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength is exhausted;
    they have become weaklings.^(PT)
Her dwellings are set on fire;^(PU)
    the bars^(PV) of her gates are broken.
³¹One courier^(PW) follows another
    and messenger follows messenger
to announce to the king of Babylon
    that his entire city is captured,^(PX)
³²the river crossings seized,
    the marshes set on fire,^(PY)
    and the soldiers terrified.^(PZ)”

³³This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

“Daughter Babylon^(QA) is like a threshing floor^(QB)
at the time it is trampled;
the time to harvest^(QC) her will soon come.^(QD)”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar^(QE) king of Babylon has devoured^(QF) us,^(QG)
    he has thrown us into confusion,
    he has made us an empty jar.
Like a serpent he has swallowed us
    and filled his stomach with our delicacies,
    and then has spewed^(QH) us out.
³⁵May the violence^(QI) done to our flesh^[z] be on Babylon,”
    say the inhabitants of Zion.
“May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,”
    says Jerusalem.^(QJ)

³⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“See, I will defend your cause^(QK)
    and avenge^(QL) you;
I will dry up^(QM) her sea
    and make her springs dry.
³⁷Babylon will be a heap of ruins,
    a haunt^(QN) of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,^(QO)
    a place where no one lives.^(QP)
³⁸Her people all roar like young lions,^(QQ)
    they growl like lion cubs.
³⁹But while they are aroused,
    I will set out a feast for them
    and make them drunk,^(QR)
so that they shout with laughter—
    then sleep forever^(QS) and not awake,”
declares the Lord.^(QT)
⁴⁰“I will bring them down
    like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats.^(QU)

⁴¹“How Sheshak^[aa]^(QV) will be captured,^(QW)
    the boast of the whole earth seized!
How desolate^(QX) Babylon will be
    among the nations!
⁴²The sea will rise over Babylon;
    its roaring waves^(QY) will cover her.
⁴³Her towns will be desolate,
    a dry and desert^(QZ) land,
a land where no one lives,
    through which no one travels.^(RA)
⁴⁴I will punish Bel^(RB) in Babylon
    and make him spew out^(RC) what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
    And the wall^(RD) of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵“Come out^(RE) of her, my people!
    Run^(RF) for your lives!
    Run from the fierce anger^(RG) of the Lord.
⁴⁶Do not lose heart^(RH) or be afraid^(RI)
    when rumors^(RJ) are heard in the land;
one rumor comes this year, another the next,
    rumors of violence in the land
    and of ruler against ruler.
⁴⁷For the time will surely come
    when I will punish the idols^(RK) of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced^(RL)
    and her slain will all lie fallen within her.^(RM)
⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
    will shout^(RN) for joy over Babylon,
for out of the north^(RO)
    destroyers^(RP) will attack her,”
declares the Lord.

⁴⁹“Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
    just as the slain in all the earth
    have fallen because of Babylon.^(RQ)
⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword,
    leave^(RR) and do not linger!
Remember^(RS) the Lord in a distant land,^(RT)
    and call to mind Jerusalem.”

⁵¹“We are disgraced,^(RU)
    for we have been insulted
    and shame covers our faces,
because foreigners have entered
    the holy places of the Lord’s house.”^(RV)

⁵²“But days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will punish her idols,^(RW)
and throughout her land
    the wounded will groan.^(RX)
⁵³Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens^(RY)
    and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
    I will send destroyers^(RZ) against her,”
declares the Lord.

⁵⁴“The sound of a cry^(SA) comes from Babylon,
    the sound of great destruction^(SB)
    from the land of the Babylonians.^[ab]
⁵⁵The Lord will destroy Babylon;
    he will silence^(SC) her noisy din.
Waves^(SD) of enemies will rage like great waters;
    the roar of their voices will resound.
⁵⁶A destroyer^(SE) will come against Babylon;
    her warriors will be captured,
    and their bows will be broken.^(SF)
For the Lord is a God of retribution;
    he will repay^(SG) in full.
⁵⁷I will make her officials^(SH) and wise^(SI) men drunk,^(SJ)
    her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep^(SK) forever and not awake,”
    declares the King,^(SL) whose name is the Lord Almighty.

⁵⁸This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Babylon’s thick wall^(SM) will be leveled
and her high gates^(SN) set on fire;
the peoples^(SO) exhaust^(SP) themselves for nothing,
the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”^(SQ)

⁵⁹This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah,^(SR) the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah^(SS) king of Judah in the fourth^(ST) year of his reign. ⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a scroll^(SU) about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. ⁶¹He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. ⁶²Then say, ‘Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate^(SV) forever.’ ⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.^(SW) ⁶⁴Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more^(SX) because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people^(SY) will fall.’”^(SZ)

The words of Jeremiah end^(TA) here.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(TB)^(TC)^(TD)

52 Zedekiah^(TE) was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.^(TF) ²He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim^(TG) had done. ³It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah,^(TH) and in the end he thrust them from his presence.^(TI)

Now Zedekiah rebelled^(TJ) against the king of Babylon.

⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth^(TK) day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem^(TL) with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works^(TM) all around it.^(TN) ⁵The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.^(TO) ⁷Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled.^(TP) They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[ac] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^[ad] ⁸but the Babylonian^[ae] army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, ⁹and he was captured.^(TQ)

He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah^(TR) in the land of Hamath,^(TS) where he pronounced sentence on him. ¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons^(TT) of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.^(TU)

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth^(TV) month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan^(TW) commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³He set fire^(TX) to the temple^(TY) of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses^(TZ) of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. ¹⁴The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down all the walls^(UA) around Jerusalem. ¹⁵Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile^(UB) some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the rest of the craftsmen^[af] and those who had deserted^(UC) to the king of Babylon. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan left behind^(UD) the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

¹⁷The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars,^(UE) the movable stands^(UF) and the bronze Sea^(UG) that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.^(UH) ¹⁸They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls,^(UI) dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.^(UJ) ¹⁹The commander of the imperial guard took away the basins, censers,^(UK) sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands,^(UL) dishes^(UM) and bowls used for drink offerings^(UN)—all that were made of pure gold or silver.^(UO)

²⁰The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls^(UP) under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed.^(UQ) ²¹Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference^[ag]; each was four fingers thick, and hollow.^(UR) ²²The bronze capital^(US) on top of one pillar was five cubits^[ah] high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates^(UT) of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar. ²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; the total number of pomegranates^(UU) above the surrounding network was a hundred.^(UV)

²⁴The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah^(UW) the chief priest, Zephaniah^(UX) the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers.^(UY) ²⁵Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary^(UZ) who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city. ²⁶Nebuzaradan^(VA) the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷There at Riblah,^(VB) in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed.

So Judah went into captivity, away^(VC) from her land. ²⁸This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile:^(VD)

in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year,

832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰in his twenty-third year,

745 Jews taken into exile^(VE) by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard.

There were 4,600 people in all.^(VF)

Jehoiachin Released^(VG)

³¹In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin^(VH) king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison. ³²He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table.^(VI) ³⁴Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance^(VJ) as long as he lived, till the day of his death.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 47:4 That is, Crete
Jeremiah 48:1 Or captured; / Misgab
Jeremiah 48:2 The Hebrew for Heshbon sounds like the Hebrew for plot.
Jeremiah 48:2 The name of the Moabite town Madmen sounds like the Hebrew for be silenced.
Jeremiah 48:4 Hebrew; Septuagint / proclaim it to Zoar
Jeremiah 48:6 Or like Aroer
Jeremiah 48:9 Or Give wings to Moab, / for she will fly away
Jeremiah 48:25 Horn here symbolizes strength.
Jeremiah 48:32 Probably the Dead Sea
Jeremiah 48:32 Two Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts as far as the Sea of
Jeremiah 48:41 Or The cities
Jeremiah 49:1 Or their king; also in verse 3
Jeremiah 49:13 That is, its name will be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, others will see that it is cursed.
Jeremiah 49:21 Or the Sea of Reeds
Jeremiah 49:23 Hebrew on or by
Jeremiah 49:32 Or who clip the hair by their foreheads
Jeremiah 50:1 Or Chaldeans; also in verses 8, 25, 35 and 45
Jeremiah 50:10 Or Chaldea
Jeremiah 50:21 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them; also in verse 26.
Jeremiah 50:38 Or A sword against
Jeremiah 51:1 Leb Kamai is a cryptogram for Chaldea, that is, Babylonia.
Jeremiah 51:3 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
Jeremiah 51:4 Or Chaldea
Jeremiah 51:5 Or Almighty, / and the land of the Babylonians
Jeremiah 51:24 Or Chaldea; also in verse 35
Jeremiah 51:35 Or done to us and to our children
Jeremiah 51:41 Sheshak is a cryptogram for Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:54 Or Chaldeans
Jeremiah 52:7 Or Chaldeans; also in verse 17
Jeremiah 52:7 Or the Jordan Valley
Jeremiah 52:8 Or Chaldean; also in verse 14
Jeremiah 52:15 Or the populace
Jeremiah 52:21 That is, about 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference or about 8.1 meters high and 5.4 meters in circumference
Jeremiah 52:22 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters

Jeremiah 47-52

King James Version

47 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.

²Thus saith the Lord; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.

³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;

⁴Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the Lord will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?

⁶O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.

⁷How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.

48 Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.

²There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.

³A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.

⁴Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

⁵For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

⁶Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

⁷For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

⁸And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken.

⁹Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.

¹⁰Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

¹¹Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

¹²Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.

¹³And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.

¹⁴How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?

¹⁵Moab is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

¹⁷All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!

¹⁸Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

¹⁹O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?

²⁰Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,

²¹And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,

²²And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Bethdiblathaim,

²³And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmeon,

²⁴And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.

²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the Lord.

²⁶Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the Lord: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

²⁷For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.

²⁸O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth.

²⁹We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.

³⁰I know his wrath, saith the Lord; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

³¹Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.

³²O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.

³³And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab, and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.

³⁴From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as an heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.

³⁵Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the Lord, him that offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.

³⁶Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.

³⁷For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.

³⁸There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord.

³⁹They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him.

⁴⁰For thus saith the Lord; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.

⁴¹Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

⁴²And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord.

⁴³Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord.

⁴⁴He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.

⁴⁵They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

⁴⁶Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.

⁴⁷Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

49 Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the Lord; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

²Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, saith the Lord.

³Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.

⁴Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?

⁵Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.

⁶And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the Lord.

⁷Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

⁸Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.

⁹If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.

¹⁰But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

¹¹Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.

¹²For thus saith the Lord; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.

¹³For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.

¹⁴I have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

¹⁵For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men.

¹⁶Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.

¹⁷Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.

¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

¹⁹Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.

²¹The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.

²²Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

²³Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

²⁴Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

²⁵How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord of hosts.

²⁷And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.

²⁸Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the Lord; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east.

²⁹Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.

³⁰Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the Lord; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you.

³¹Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.

³²And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the Lord.

³³And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

³⁴The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

³⁵Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

³⁶And 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.

³⁷For 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:

³⁸And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the Lord.

³⁹But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord.

50 The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

²Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

³For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

⁴In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God.

⁵They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

⁶My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

⁷All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

⁸Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.

⁹For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.

¹⁰And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord.

¹¹Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

¹²Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

¹³Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵Shout 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.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

¹⁷Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

¹⁸Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹And 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.

²⁰In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

²¹Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

²²A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

²³How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

²⁴I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord.

²⁵The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

²⁷Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

²⁸The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple.

²⁹Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord.

³¹Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.

³²And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.

³³Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

³⁶A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.

³⁷A 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.

³⁸A 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.

³⁹Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.

⁴¹Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.

⁴²They 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.

⁴³The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.

⁴⁴Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

⁴⁵Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.

⁴⁶At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

51 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

²And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

³Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.

⁴Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

⁵For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

⁷Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

⁸Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

⁹We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

¹⁰The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

¹¹Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.

¹²Set 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.

¹³O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

¹⁴The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.

¹⁵He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

¹⁶When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

¹⁷Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.

²⁰Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;

²¹And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;

²²With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

²³I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.

²⁴And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.

²⁵Behold, 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.

²⁶And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord.

²⁷Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.

²⁸Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

²⁹And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.

³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.

³¹One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

³²And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

³³For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

³⁴Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

³⁵The 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.

³⁶Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

³⁷And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

³⁸They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps.

³⁹In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.

⁴¹How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

⁴²The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

⁴³Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.

⁴⁴And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.

⁴⁶And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Therefore, 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.

⁴⁸Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the Lord.

⁴⁹As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

⁵⁰Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

⁵¹We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house.

⁵²Wherefore, 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.

⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.

⁵⁴A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

⁵⁵Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:

⁵⁶Because 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.

⁵⁷And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.

⁶⁰So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;

⁶²Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

⁶³And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

⁶⁴And 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.

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

²And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

³For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about.

⁵So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

⁶And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

⁷Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.

⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

⁹Then 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.

¹⁰And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

¹¹Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

¹²Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,

¹³And burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire:

¹⁴And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.

¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.

¹⁷Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.

¹⁸The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.

¹⁹And the basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the captain of the guard away.

²⁰The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

²¹And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.

²²And 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.

²³And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about.

²⁴And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:

²⁵He took also out of the city an eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.

²⁶So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

²⁷And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.

²⁸This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:

²⁹In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons:

³⁰In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.

³¹And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison.

³²And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon,

³³And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life.

³⁴And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Jeremiah 47-52

New King James Version

Judgment on Philistia

47 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet ^(A)against the Philistines, ^(B)before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.

²Thus says the Lord:

“Behold, ^(C)waters rise ^(D)out of the north,
And shall be an overflowing flood;
They shall overflow the land and all that is in it,
The city and those who dwell within;
Then the men shall cry,
And all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
³At the ^(E)noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses,
At the rushing of his chariots,
At the rumbling of his wheels,
The fathers will not look back for their children,
^[a]Lacking courage,
⁴Because of the day that comes to plunder all the ^(F)Philistines,
To cut off from ^(G)Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains;
For the Lord shall plunder the Philistines,
^(H)The remnant of the country of ^(I)Caphtor.^[b]
⁵^(J)Baldness has come upon Gaza,
^(K)Ashkelon is cut off
With the remnant of their valley.
How long will you cut yourself?

⁶“O you ^(L)sword of the Lord,
How long until you are quiet?
Put yourself up into your scabbard,
Rest and be still!
⁷How can ^[c]it be quiet,
Seeing the Lord has ^(M)given it a charge
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore?
There He has ^(N)appointed it.”

Judgment on Moab

48 Against ^(O)Moab.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Woe to ^(P)Nebo!
For it is plundered,
^(Q)Kirjathaim is shamed and taken;
^[d]The high stronghold is shamed and dismayed—
²^(R)No more praise of Moab.
In ^(S)Heshbon they have devised evil against her:
‘Come, and let us cut her off as a nation.’
You also shall be cut down, O ^(T)Madmen!^[e]
The sword shall pursue you;
³A voice of crying shall be from ^(U)Horonaim:
‘Plundering and great destruction!’

⁴“Moab is destroyed;
^[f]Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard;
⁵^(V)For in the Ascent of Luhith they ascend with continual weeping;
For in the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

⁶“Flee, save your lives!
And be like ^[g]the ^(W)juniper in the wilderness.
⁷For because you have trusted in your works and your ^(X)treasures,
You also shall be taken.
And ^(Y)Chemosh shall go forth into captivity,
His ^(Z)priests and his princes together.
⁸And ^(AA)the plunderer shall come against every city;
No one shall escape.
The valley also shall perish,
And the plain shall be destroyed,
As the Lord has spoken.

⁹“Give^(AB) wings to Moab,
That she may flee and get away;
For her cities shall be desolate,
Without any to dwell in them.
¹⁰^(AC)Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully,
And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.

¹¹“Moab has been at ease from ^[h]his youth;
He ^(AD)has settled on his dregs,
And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
Nor has he gone into captivity.
Therefore his taste remained in him,
And his scent has not changed.

¹²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I shall send him ^[i]wine-workers
Who will tip him over
And empty his vessels
And break the bottles.
¹³Moab shall be ashamed of ^(AE)Chemosh,
As the house of Israel ^(AF)was ashamed of ^(AG)Bethel, their confidence.

¹⁴“How can you say, ^(AH)‘We are mighty
And strong men for the war’?
¹⁵Moab is plundered and gone up from her cities;
Her chosen young men have ^(AI)gone down to the slaughter,” says ^(AJ)the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶“The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
And his affliction comes quickly.
¹⁷Bemoan him, all you who are around him;
And all you who know his name,
Say, ^(AK)‘How the strong staff is broken,
The beautiful rod!’

¹⁸“O ^(AL)daughter inhabiting ^(AM)Dibon,
Come down from your glory,
And sit in thirst;
For the plunderer of Moab has come against you,
He has destroyed your strongholds.
¹⁹O inhabitant of ^(AN)Aroer,
^(AO)Stand by the way and watch;
Ask him who flees
And her who escapes;
Say, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰Moab is shamed, for he is broken down.
^(AP)Wail and cry!
Tell it in ^(AQ)Arnon, that Moab is plundered.

²¹“And judgment has come on the plain country:
On Holon and Jahzah and Mephaath,
²²On Dibon and Nebo and Beth Diblathaim,
²³On Kirjathaim and Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,
²⁴On ^(AR)Kerioth and Bozrah,
On all the cities of the land of Moab,
Far or near.
²⁵^(AS)The ^[j]horn of Moab is cut off,
And his ^(AT)arm is broken,” says the Lord.

²⁶“Make^(AU) him drunk,
Because he exalted himself against the Lord.
Moab shall wallow in his vomit,
And he shall also be in derision.
²⁷For ^(AV)was not Israel a derision to you?
^(AW)Was he found among thieves?
For whenever you speak of him,
You shake your head in ^(AX)scorn.
²⁸You who dwell in Moab,
Leave the cities and ^(AY)dwell in the rock,
And be like ^(AZ)the dove which makes her nest
In the sides of the cave’s mouth.

²⁹“We have heard the ^(BA)pride of Moab
(He is exceedingly proud),
Of his loftiness and arrogance and ^(BB)pride,
And of the haughtiness of his heart.”

³⁰“I know his wrath,” says the Lord,
“But it is not right;
^(BC)His ^[k]lies have made nothing right.
³¹Therefore ^(BD)I will wail for Moab,
And I will cry out for all Moab;
^[l]I will mourn for the men of Kir Heres.
³²^(BE)O vine of Sibmah! I will weep for you with the weeping of ^(BF)Jazer.
Your plants have gone over the sea,
They reach to the sea of Jazer.
The plunderer has fallen on your summer fruit and your vintage.
³³^(BG)Joy and gladness are taken
From the plentiful field
And from the land of Moab;
I have caused wine to ^[m]fail from the winepresses;
No one will tread with joyous shouting—
Not joyous shouting!

³⁴“From^(BH) the cry of Heshbon to ^(BI)Elealeh and to Jahaz
They have uttered their voice,
^(BJ)From Zoar to Horonaim,
Like ^[n]a three-year-old heifer;
For the waters of Nimrim also shall be desolate.

³⁵“Moreover,” says the Lord,
“I will cause to cease in Moab
^(BK)The one who offers sacrifices in the ^[o]high places
And burns incense to his gods.
³⁶Therefore ^(BL)My heart shall wail like flutes for Moab,
And like flutes My heart shall wail
For the men of Kir Heres.
Therefore ^(BM)the riches they have acquired have perished.

³⁷“For ^(BN)every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped;
On all the hands shall be cuts, and ^(BO)on the loins sackcloth—
³⁸A general lamentation
On all the ^(BP)housetops of Moab,
And in its streets;
For I have ^(BQ)broken Moab like a vessel in which is no pleasure,” says the Lord.
³⁹“They shall wail:
‘How she is broken down!
How Moab has turned her back with shame!’
So Moab shall be a derision
And a dismay to all those about her.”

⁴⁰For thus says the Lord:

“Behold, ^(BR)one shall fly like an eagle,
And ^(BS)spread his wings over Moab.
⁴¹Kerioth is taken,
And the strongholds are surprised;
^(BT)The mighty men’s hearts in Moab on that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.
⁴²And Moab shall be destroyed ^(BU)as a people,
Because he exalted himself against the Lord.
⁴³^(BV)Fear and the pit and the snare shall be upon you,
O inhabitant of Moab,” says the Lord.
⁴⁴“He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit,
And he who gets out of the pit shall be caught in the ^(BW)snare.
For upon Moab, upon it ^(BX)I will bring
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

⁴⁵“Those who fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon
Because of exhaustion.
But ^(BY)a fire shall come out of Heshbon,
A flame from the midst of ^(BZ)Sihon,
And ^(CA)shall devour the brow of Moab,
The crown of the head of the sons of tumult.
⁴⁶^(CB)Woe to you, O Moab!
The people of Chemosh perish;
For your sons have been taken captive,
And your daughters captive.

⁴⁷“Yet I will bring back the captives of Moab
^(CC)In the latter days,” says the Lord.

Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Judgment on Ammon

49 Against the ^(CD)Ammonites.

Thus says the Lord:

“Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does ^[p]Milcom inherit ^(CE)Gad,
And his people dwell in its cities?
²^(CF)Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will cause to be heard an alarm of war
In ^(CG)Rabbah of the Ammonites;
It shall be a desolate mound,
And her ^[q]villages shall be burned with fire.
Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance,” says the Lord.

³“Wail, O ^(CH)Heshbon, for Ai is plundered!
Cry, you daughters of Rabbah,
^(CI)Gird yourselves with sackcloth!
Lament and run to and fro by the walls;
For ^[r]Milcom shall go into captivity
With his ^(CJ)priests and his princes together.
⁴Why ^(CK)do you boast in the valleys,
^[s]Your flowing valley, O ^(CL)backsliding daughter?
Who trusted in her ^(CM)treasures, ^(CN)saying,
‘Who will come against me?’
⁵Behold, I will bring fear upon you,”
Says the Lord God of hosts,
“From all those who are around you;
You shall be driven out, everyone headlong,
And no one will gather those who wander off.
⁶But ^(CO)afterward I will bring back
The captives of the people of Ammon,” says the Lord.

Judgment on Edom

⁷^(CP)Against Edom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

^(CQ)“Is wisdom no more in Teman?
^(CR)Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom ^(CS)vanished?
⁸Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of ^(CT)Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
The time that I will punish him.
⁹^(CU)If grape-gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
If thieves by night,
Would they not destroy until they have enough?
¹⁰^(CV)But I have made Esau bare;
I have uncovered his secret places,
And he shall not be able to hide himself.
His descendants are plundered,
His brethren and his neighbors,
And ^(CW)he is no more.
¹¹Leave your fatherless children,
I will preserve them alive;
And let your widows trust in Me.”

¹²For thus says the Lord: “Behold, ^(CX)those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it. ¹³For ^(CY)I have sworn by Myself,” says the Lord, “that ^(CZ)Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a ^[t]waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be perpetual ^[u]wastes.”

¹⁴^(DA)I have heard a message from the Lord,
And an ambassador has been sent to the nations:
“Gather together, come against her,
And rise up to battle!

¹⁵“For indeed, I will make you small among nations,
Despised among men.
¹⁶Your fierceness has deceived you,
The ^(DB)pride of your heart,
O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Who hold the height of the hill!
^(DC)Though you make your ^(DD)nest as high as the eagle,
^(DE)I will bring you down from there,” says the Lord.

¹⁷“Edom also shall be an astonishment;
^(DF)Everyone who goes by it will be astonished
And will hiss at all its plagues.
¹⁸^(DG)As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the Lord,
“No one shall remain there,
Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.

¹⁹“Behold,^(DH) he shall come up like a lion from ^(DI)the ^[v]floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will suddenly make him run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For ^(DJ)who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And ^(DK)who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”

²⁰^(DL)Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Edom,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Surely the least of the flock shall ^[w]draw them out;
Surely He shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.
²¹^(DM)The earth shakes at the noise of their fall;
At the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.
²²Behold, ^(DN)He shall come up and fly like the eagle,
And spread His wings over Bozrah;
The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

Judgment on Damascus

²³^(DO)Against Damascus.

^(DP)“Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
^(DQ)There is ^[x]trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.
²⁴Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
^(DR)Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in ^[y]labor.
²⁵Why is ^(DS)the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
²⁶^(DT)Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord of hosts.
²⁷“I^(DU) will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.”

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

²⁸^(DV)Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike.

Thus says the Lord:

“Arise, go up to Kedar,
And devastate ^(DW)the men of the East!
²⁹Their ^(DX)tents and their flocks they shall take away.
They shall take for themselves their curtains,
All their vessels and their camels;
And they shall cry out to them,
^(DY)‘Fear is on every side!’

³⁰“Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Hazor!” says the Lord.
“For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,
And has conceived a plan against you.

³¹“Arise, go up to ^(DZ)the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the Lord,
“Which has neither gates nor bars,
^(EA)Dwelling alone.
³²Their camels shall be for booty,
And the multitude of their cattle for plunder.
I will ^(EB)scatter to all winds those ^[z]in the farthest corners,
And I will bring their calamity from all its sides,” says the Lord.
³³“Hazor ^(EC)shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;
No one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.”

Judgment on Elam

³⁴The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against ^(ED)Elam, in the ^(EE)beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ³⁵“Thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘Behold, I will break ^(EF)the ^[aa]bow of Elam,
The foremost of their might.
³⁶Against Elam I will bring the four winds
From the four quarters of heaven,
And scatter them toward all those winds;
There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.
³⁷For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies
And before those who seek their life.
^(EG)I will bring disaster upon them,
My fierce anger,’ says the Lord;
‘And I will send the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.
³⁸I will ^(EH)set My throne in Elam,
And will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the Lord.

³⁹‘But it shall come to pass ^(EI)in the latter days:
I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the Lord.”

Judgment on Babylon and Babylonia

50 The word that the Lord spoke ^(EJ)against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

²“Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and ^[ab]set up a standard;
Proclaim—do not conceal it—
Say, ‘Babylon is ^(EK)taken, ^(EL)Bel is shamed.
^[ac]Merodach is broken in pieces;
^(EM)Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.’
³^(EN)For out of the north ^(EO)a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall ^[ad]move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.

⁴“In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“The children of Israel shall come,
^(EP)They and the children of Judah together;
^(EQ)With continual weeping they shall come,
^(ER)And seek the Lord their God.
⁵They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord
In ^(ES)a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.’

⁶“My people have been ^(ET)lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them ^(EU)astray;
They have turned them away on ^(EV)the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
⁷All who found them have ^(EW)devoured them;
And ^(EX)their adversaries said, ^(EY)‘We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the Lord, ^(EZ)the habitation of justice,
The Lord, ^(FA)the hope of their fathers.’

⁸“Move^(FB) from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the ^[ae]rams before the flocks.
⁹^(FC)For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of ^[af]an expert warrior;
^(FD)None shall return in vain.
¹⁰And Chaldea shall become plunder;
^(FE)All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the Lord.

¹¹“Because^(FF) you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat ^(FG)like a heifer threshing grain,
And you ^[ag]bellow like bulls,
¹²Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a ^(FH)wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.
¹³Because of the wrath of the Lord
She shall not be inhabited,
^(FI)But she shall be wholly desolate.
^(FJ)Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴“Put^(FK) yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵Shout against her all around;
She has ^(FL)given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
^(FM)Her walls are thrown down;
For ^(FN)it is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, so do to her.
¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
^(FO)Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷“Israel is like ^(FP)scattered sheep;
^(FQ)The lions have driven him away.
First ^(FR)the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this ^(FS)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

¹⁸Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of ^(FT)Assyria.
¹⁹^(FU)But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
²⁰In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
^(FV)“The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those ^(FW)whom I preserve.

²¹“Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of ^(FX)Pekod.
^[ah]Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord,
“And do ^(FY)according to all that I have commanded you.
²²^(FZ)A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
²³How ^(GA)the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
²⁴I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been ^(GB)trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have ^(GC)contended against the Lord.
²⁵The Lord has opened His armory,
And has brought out ^(GD)the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
²⁷Slay all her ^(GE)bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of ^(GF)their punishment.
²⁸The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
^(GG)Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance of His temple.

²⁹“Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them ^[ai]escape.
^(GH)Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
^(GI)For she has been proud against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
³⁰^(GJ)Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord.
³¹“Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts;
“For your day has come,
^[aj]The time that I will punish you.
³²The most ^(GK)proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
^(GL)I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him.”

³³Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
³⁴^(GM)Their Redeemer is strong;
^(GN)The Lord of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their ^(GO)case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵“A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord,
“Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And ^(GP)against her princes and ^(GQ)her wise men.
³⁶A sword is ^(GR)against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
³⁷A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all ^(GS)the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And ^(GT)they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
³⁸^(GU)A ^[ak]drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.

³⁹“Therefore^(GV) the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
^(GW)It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
⁴⁰^(GX)As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the Lord,
“So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man ^(GY)dwell in it.

⁴¹“Behold,^(GZ) a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
⁴²^(HA)They shall hold the bow and the lance;
^(HB)They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
^(HC)Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³“The king of Babylon has ^(HD)heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in ^(HE)childbirth.

⁴⁴“Behold,^(HF) he shall come up like a lion from the ^[al]floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And ^(HG)who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”

⁴⁵Therefore hear ^(HH)the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon,
And His ^(HI)purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
^(HJ)Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
⁴⁶^(HK)At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.

The Utter Destruction of Babylon

51 Thus says the Lord:

“Behold, I will raise up against ^(HL)Babylon,
Against those who dwell in ^[am]Leb Kamai,
^(HM)A destroying wind.
²And I will send ^(HN)winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
^(HO)For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
³Against her ^(HP)let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
^(HQ)Utterly destroy all her army.
⁴Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
^(HR)And those thrust through in her streets.
⁵For Israel is ^(HS)not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

⁶^(HT)Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For ^(HU)this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
^(HV)He shall recompense her.
⁷^(HW)Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
^(HX)The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations ^(HY)are deranged.
⁸Babylon has suddenly ^(HZ)fallen and been destroyed.
^(IA)Wail for her!
^(IB)Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and ^(IC)let us go everyone to his own country;
^(ID)For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
¹⁰The Lord has ^(IE)revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us ^(IF)declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

¹¹^(IG)Make^[an] the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
^(IH)The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
^(II)For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is ^(IJ)the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
¹²^(IK)Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³^(IL)O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
¹⁴^(IM)The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, ^(IN)as with locusts,
And they shall lift ^(IO)up a shout against you.”

¹⁵^(IP)He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And ^(IQ)stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
¹⁶When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
^(IR)“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

¹⁷^(IS)Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
^(IT)For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
¹⁸They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁹The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.

²⁰“You^(IU) are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
²¹With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
²²With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces ^(IV)old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
²³With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

²⁴“And^(IW) I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord.

²⁵“Behold, I am against you, ^(IX)O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
^(IY)And make you a burnt mountain.
²⁶They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
^(IZ)But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.

²⁷^(JA)Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
^(JB)Prepare the nations against her,
Call ^(JC)the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
²⁸Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
²⁹And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every ^(JD)purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
^(JE)To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
^(JF)They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
^(JG)The bars of her gate are broken.
³¹^(JH)One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
³²^(JI)The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

³³For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is ^(JJ)like a threshing floor
When ^(JK)it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
^(JL)And the time of her harvest will come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has ^(JM)devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an ^(JN)empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
³⁵Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.

³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, ^(JO)I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
^(JP)I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
³⁷^(JQ)Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
^(JR)An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
³⁸They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
^(JS)I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
⁴⁰“I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

⁴¹“Oh, how ^(JT)Sheshach^[ao] is taken!
Oh, how ^(JU)the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
⁴²^(JV)The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
⁴³^(JW)Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where ^(JX)no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴I will punish ^(JY)Bel^[ap] in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, ^(JZ)the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵“My^(KA) people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver ^[aq]himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
⁴⁶And lest your heart faint,
And you fear ^(KB)for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
⁴⁷Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
⁴⁸Then ^(KC)the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
^(KD)For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
⁵⁰^(KE)You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
^(KF)Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹^(KG)We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers ^(KH)have come into the ^[ar]sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.

⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
⁵³^(KI)Though Babylon were to ^[as]mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.

⁵⁴^(KJ)The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
⁵⁵Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
⁵⁶Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
^(KK)For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.

⁵⁷“And I will make drunk
Her princes and ^(KL)wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says ^(KM)the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly ^(KN)broken,^[at]
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
^(KO)The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of ^(KP)Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. ⁶⁰So Jeremiah ^(KQ)wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, ⁶²then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that ^(KR)none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ ⁶³Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, ^(KS)that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed^(KT)

52 Zedekiah was ^(KU)twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of ^(KV)Libnah. ²He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah ^(KW)rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴Now it came to pass in the ^(KX)ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. ⁵So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the ^[au]plain.

⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ⁹^(KY)So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. ¹⁰^(KZ)Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹He also ^(LA)put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in ^[av]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

¹²^(LB)Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (^(LC)which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ^(LD)Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. ¹⁴And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹⁵^(LE)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

¹⁷^(LF)The ^(LG)bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸They also took away ^(LH)the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the ^[aw]bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. ¹⁹The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. ²⁰The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—^(LI)the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ²¹Now concerning the ^(LJ)pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen ^[ax]cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was ^[ay]four fingers; it was hollow. ²²A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. ²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; ^(LK)all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

²⁴^(LL)The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, ^(LM)Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵He also took out of the city an ^[az]officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

²⁸^(LN)These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: ^(LO)in the seventh year, ^(LP)three thousand and twenty-three Jews; ²⁹^(LQ)in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; ³⁰in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison^(LR)

³¹^(LS)Now 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 day of the month, that ^[ba]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, ^(LT)lifted^[bb] up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. ³²And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So ^[bc]Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, ^(LU)and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. ³⁴And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 47:3 Lit. From sinking hands
Jeremiah 47:4 Crete
Jeremiah 47:7 Lit. you
Jeremiah 48:1 Heb. Misgab
Jeremiah 48:2 A city of Moab
Jeremiah 48:4 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX Proclaim it in Zoar
Jeremiah 48:6 Or Aroer, a city of Moab
Jeremiah 48:11 Heb. uses masc. and fem. pronouns interchangeably in this chapter.
Jeremiah 48:12 Lit. tippers of wine bottles
Jeremiah 48:25 Strength
Jeremiah 48:30 idle talk
Jeremiah 48:31 So with DSS, LXX, Vg.; MT He
Jeremiah 48:33 cease
Jeremiah 48:34 Or The Third Eglath, an unknown city, Is. 15:5
Jeremiah 48:35 Places for pagan worship
Jeremiah 49:1 Heb. Malcam, lit. their king; an Ammonite god, 1 Kin. 11:5; Molech, Lev. 18:21
Jeremiah 49:2 Lit. daughters
Jeremiah 49:3 See v. 1
Jeremiah 49:4 Lit. Your valley is flowing
Jeremiah 49:13 ruin
Jeremiah 49:13 ruins
Jeremiah 49:19 Or thicket
Jeremiah 49:20 Or drag them away
Jeremiah 49:23 anxiety
Jeremiah 49:24 childbirth
Jeremiah 49:32 Lit. cut off at the corner, Jer. 9:26; 25:23
Jeremiah 49:35 Power
Jeremiah 50:2 lift
Jeremiah 50:2 Or Marduk; a Babylonian god
Jeremiah 50:3 Or wander
Jeremiah 50:8 male goats
Jeremiah 50:9 So with some Heb. mss., LXX, Syr.; MT, Tg., Vg. a warrior who makes childless
Jeremiah 50:11 Or neigh like steeds
Jeremiah 50:21 Or Attack with the sword
Jeremiah 50:29 Qr., some Heb. mss., LXX, Tg. add to her
Jeremiah 50:31 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. The time of your punishment
Jeremiah 50:38 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; Syr. sword; LXX omits A drought is
Jeremiah 50:44 Or thicket
Jeremiah 51:1 Lit. The Midst of Those Who Rise Up Against Me; a code word for Chaldea, Babylonia
Jeremiah 51:11 Polish the arrows!
Jeremiah 51:41 A code word for Babylon, Jer. 25:26
Jeremiah 51:44 A Babylonian god
Jeremiah 51:45 Lit. his soul
Jeremiah 51:51 holy places
Jeremiah 51:53 ascend
Jeremiah 51:58 Lit. laid utterly bare
Jeremiah 52:7 Or Arabah; the Jordan Valley
Jeremiah 52:11 shackles
Jeremiah 52:18 basins
Jeremiah 52:21 18 inches each
Jeremiah 52:21 3 inches
Jeremiah 52:25 Lit. eunuch
Jeremiah 52:31 Or Awil-Marduk; lit. The Man of Marduk
Jeremiah 52:31 Showed favor to
Jeremiah 52:33 Lit. he

New International Version (NIV)

Jeremiah 47-52

New International Version

A Message About the Philistines

A Message About Moab^(Q)

A Message About Ammon

A Message About Edom^(EK)^(EL)

A Message About Damascus

A Message About Kedar and Hazor

A Message About Elam

A Message About Babylon^(HK)

The Fall of Jerusalem^(TB)^(TC)^(TD)

Jehoiachin Released^(VG)

Footnotes

Cross references

Jeremiah 47-52

King James Version

Jeremiah 47-52

New King James Version

Judgment on Philistia

Judgment on Moab

Judgment on Ammon

Judgment on Edom

Judgment on Damascus

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

Judgment on Elam

Judgment on Babylon and Babylonia

The Utter Destruction of Babylon

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed^(KT)

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

Jehoiachin Released from Prison^(LR)

Footnotes

Cross references

More on the NIV

Jeremiah 47-52 New International Version

A Message About the Philistines

A Message About Moab(Q)

A Message About Ammon

A Message About Edom(EK)(EL)

A Message About Damascus

A Message About Kedar and Hazor

A Message About Elam

A Message About Babylon(HK)

The Fall of Jerusalem(TB)(TC)(TD)

Jehoiachin Released(VG)

Footnotes

Cross references

Jeremiah 47-52 King James Version

Jeremiah 47-52 New King James Version

Judgment on Philistia

Judgment on Moab

Judgment on Ammon

Judgment on Edom

Judgment on Damascus

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

Judgment on Elam

Judgment on Babylon and Babylonia

The Utter Destruction of Babylon

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed(KT)

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

Jehoiachin Released from Prison(LR)

Footnotes

Cross references

More on the NIV

Jeremiah 47-52

New International Version

A Message About Moab^(Q)

A Message About Edom^(EK)^(EL)

A Message About Babylon^(HK)

The Fall of Jerusalem^(TB)^(TC)^(TD)

Jehoiachin Released^(VG)

Jeremiah 47-52

King James Version

Jeremiah 47-52

New King James Version

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed^(KT)

Jehoiachin Released from Prison^(LR)