Jeremiah’s Symbolic Message against Babylon

⁵⁹ This is^[a] the message that Jeremiah the prophet delivered^[b] to Neriah’s son Seraiah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster. ⁶⁰ Jeremiah wrote on a single scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon, all these things that were written about Babylon. ⁶¹ Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words, ⁶² and say, ‘Lord, you have declared about this place that you would destroy it so that there wouldn’t be an inhabitant in it, neither human nor animal, because it will be a wasteland forever.’ ⁶³ When you finish reading this scroll, tie a rock around it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. ⁶⁴ Then say, ‘Babylon will sink like this and won’t rise from the disaster that I’m bringing on her. Her people^[c] will be exhausted.’”