Beginning
51 Thus saith Hashem: Hineni, I will stir up against Bavel, and against them that dwell in Lev Kamai [i.e., Babylon] a ruach mashchit (spirit of destruction);
2 And will send unto Bavel winnowers, that shall blow her chaff away, and shall empty her land; for in the Yom Ra’ah (Day of Disaster) they shall be against her on every side.
3 Against her let the archer bend his keshet, and against her let him rise up in his armor; and spare ye not her bochurim; destroy ye utterly all her army.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the Eretz Kasdim, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Yisroel hath not been forsaken nor Yehudah by Elohav, by Hashem Tzva’os; though their land be filled with asham (guilt) against Kadosh Yisroel.
6 Flee out of the midst of Bavel, and deliver every ish his nefesh; be not slain because of her avon; for this is the time of Hashem’s vengeance; He will render unto her a full recompence.
7 Bavel hath been a Kos Zahav in the yad Hashem, that made kol ha’aretz drunken; the Goyim drank of her yayin; therefore the Goyim go mad.
8 Bavel is suddenly fallen and broken; wail for her; take balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Bavel, but she cannot be healed; forsake her, and let us go every ish into his own country; for her mishpat reacheth unto Shomayim, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 Hashem hath brought forth tzidkoteinu (our righteousness, vindication); come, and let us declare in Tziyon the ma’aseh Hashem Eloheinu.
11 Sharpen the khitzim (arrows); take up the shields; Hashem hath stirred up the ruach of the melachim of the Medes: for His mezimah (plan) is against Bavel, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of Hashem, the vengeance for His Heikhal.
12 Lift up the nes (banner) upon the chomat Bavel, reinforce the mishmeret (guard), station the shomrim (watchmen), prepare the ambushes; for Hashem hath both devised and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Bavel.
13 O thou that dwellest upon mayim rabbim, abundant in otzarot, thine end is come, and the cubit of thy being cut off.
14 Hashem Tzva’os hath sworn by His Nefesh, saying, Surely I will fill thee with adam, as with locusts; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
15 He hath made Eretz by His ko’ach, He hath established the tevel by His chochmah, and hath stretched out Shomayim by His tevunah.
16 When He thundereth His voice, there is a tumult of mayim in Shomayim; and He bringeth up clouds from the ends of ha’aretz; He maketh lightnings with matar, and bringeth forth the ru’ach out of his otzarot.
17 Kol adam is dull-hearted and without da’as; every goldsmith is shamed by the pesel; for his nesekh (molten image) is sheker, and there is no ruach in them.
18 They are hevel (futile, vain), the work of delusion; in the time of their pekudah they shall perish.
19 The Chelek Ya’akov (Portion of Jacob) is not like them; for the Yotzer (Maker) of all things is He; and Yisroel is the Shevet of His nachalah: Hashem Tzva’os Shmo.
20 Thou art my battle ax and klei milchamah (weapons of war); for with thee will I break in pieces the Goyim, and with thee will I destroy mamlechot (kingdoms);
21 And with thee will I break in pieces the sus and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the merkavah and his rider;
22 With thee also will I break in pieces ish and isha; and with thee will I break in pieces zaken and na’ar; and with thee will I break in pieces the bochur and the betulah;
23 I will also break in pieces with thee the ro’eh and his eder; and with thee will I break in pieces the ikkar (farmer) and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces pachot (rulers) and seganim (officials).
24 And I will render unto Bavel and to all the inhabitants of Kasdim all their ra’ah that they have done in Tziyon in your sight, saith Hashem.
25 Hineni, I am against thee, O Har HaMashchit (Destroying Mountain), saith Hashem, which destroyest kol ha’aretz; and I will stretch out Mine Yad upon thee, and roll thee down from the cliffs, and will make thee a har serefah (burned out mountain).
26 And they shall not take of thee an even (stone) for a pinnah (cornerstone), nor an even (stone) for mosadot (foundations); but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith Hashem.
27 Lift ye up a nes (banner) in ha’aretz, blow the shofar among the Goyim, prepare the Goyim against her, call together against her the mamlechot of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkhenaz; appoint a commander against her; cause the sus to come up like the swarming locusts.
28 Prepare against her the Goyim with the melachim (kings) of the Medes, the pachot (rulers) thereof, and all the seganim (officials) thereof, and all the countries ruled thereof.
29 And ha’aretz shall shake and tremble; for every purpose of Hashem shall be performed against Bavel, to make eretz Bavel a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The Gibborim of Bavel have ceased to fight, they have remained in their metzadot (strongholds); their gevurah (might) hath failed; they became as nashim; they have burned her mishkenot (dwelling places); her bars are broken.
31 One runner shall run to meet another, and one maggid (messenger) to meet another maggid, to show Melech Bavel that his city is captured on all sides,
32 And that the ma’abarot (fords, river-crossings) have been seized, and the marshes burned with eish, and the anshei hamilchamah are terrified.
33 For thus saith Hashem Tzva’os Elohei Yisroel: Bat Bavel is like a goren (threshing floor), when it is time to trample her; yet a little while, and the time of her katzir shall come.
34 Nevuchadretzar Melech Bavel hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like Tannin (Monster), he hath filled his belly with delicacies of me, he hath vomited me out.
35 The chamas done to me and to my flesh be upon Bavel, shall the inhabitant of Tziyon say; my dahm upon the inhabitants of Kasdim, shall Yerushalayim say.
36 Therefore thus saith Hashem; Hineni, I will defend thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her yam, and make her makor (spring) dry.
37 And Bavel shall become heaps of ruin, a ma’on for jackals, a horror to behold, astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl as cubs of arayot (lions).
39 In their excitement I will prepare their mishtim (feasts), and I will make them shikkor, that they may rejoice, and sleep shenat olam (a perpetual sleep), and never awake, saith Hashem.
40 I will bring them down like lambs litvo’ach (to the slaughter, see Isaiah 53:7), like rams with male goats.
41 How is Sheshach [Babylon] taken! And how is the tehillat kol ha’aretz seized! How is Bavel become a horror to behold among the Goyim!
42 The yam (sea) will arise over Bavel; she is covered with the tumult of the waves thereof.
43 Her towns are a horror to behold, a dry land, and an aravah, a land wherein no ish dwelleth, neither doth any ben adam pass thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel [Marduk] in Bavel, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath gulped down; and the Goyim shall not stream together any more unto him; indeed, the chomat Bavel shall fall.
45 My people, come ye out of the midst of her, and save ye every ish his nefesh from the charon af Hashem.
46 And lest your lev faint, and ye fear at the rumor that shall be heard in ha’aretz; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, rumors of chamas in ha’aretz, moshel (ruler) against moshel.
47 Therefore, hinei, the days are coming when I will visit [in punishment] the pesalim of Bavel; and her whole land shall be shamed, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the Shomayim and ha’aretz, and all that is therein, shall sing joyously over Bavel; for the plunderers shall come unto her from the tzafon (north), saith Hashem.
49 Bavel must fall because of the slain of Yisroel as the slain of kol ha’aretz have fallen because of Bavel.
50 Ye that have escaped the cherev, leave, stand not still; remember Hashem afar off, and let Yerushalayim come into your heart.
51 We are ashamed, because we have heard cherpah; shame hath covered our faces; for zarim are come into the Mikdeshei Beis Hashem.
52 Wherefore, hinei, the days are coming, saith Hashem, that I will visit [in punishment] her pesalim (graven images); and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Bavel should ascend to Shomayim, and though she should fortify the height of her stronghold, yet from Me shall plunderers come unto her, saith Hashem.
54 A sound of a cry cometh from Bavel, and shever gadol (great destruction) from Eretz Kasdim;
55 Because Hashem hath plundered Bavel, and silenced her kol gadol (great voice); when her waves do roar like mayim rabbim, the sound of her roaring resounds;
56 Because the plunderer is come upon her, even upon Bavel, and her gibborim are taken, every one of their keshatot (bows) is broken; for El Gemulot Hashem (Hashem the G-d of Recompense) shall surely repay.
57 And I will make shikkor (drunk) her sarim, and her chachamim, her pachot (rulers), and her seganim (officials), and her gibborim; and they shall sleep a shenat olam (perpetual sleep), and never awake, saith HaMelech Hashem Tzva’os Shmo.
58 Thus saith Hashem Tzva’os: The thick chomot Bavel shall be utterly broken, and her high she’arim shall be burned with eish; and the people shall labor in vain, and the peoples wear themselves out only for eish.
59 The Davar which Yirmeyah HaNavi commanded Serayah Ben Neriyah Ben Machseiyah, when he went with Tzidkiyah Melech Yehudah into Bavel in the fourth year of his reign. And this Serayah was sar menuchah (quartermaster).
60 So Yirmeyah wrote in a sefer all the ra’ah that should come upon Bavel, even all these devarim that are written against Bavel.
61 And Yirmeyah said to Serayah, When thou comest to Bavel, and shalt see, and shalt read all these Devarim;
62 Then shalt thou say, Hashem, Thou hast spoken against this makom, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither adam nor behemah, but that it shall be desolate forever.
63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this sefer, that thou shalt bind an even (stone) to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates;
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Bavel sink, and shall rise no more because of the ra’ah that I will bring upon her. Thus far are the Devarim of Yirmeyah.
52 Tzidkiyah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven shanah in Yerushalayim. And shem immo was Chamutal bat Yirmeyah of Livnah.
2 And he did that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem, according to all that Y’hoyakim had done.
3 For because of the anger of Hashem it came to pass in Yerushalayim and Yehudah, that he finally cast them out from his presence. Tzidkiyah rebelled against HaMelech Bavel.
4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nevuchadretzar Melech Bavel came, he and all his army, against Yerushalayim, and encamped against it, and built siege-works against it round about.
5 So HaIr went under siege unto the eleventh year of Melech Tzidkiyah.
6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the ra’av (famine) was severe in the Ir, so that there was no lechem for the Am HaAretz.
7 Then the Ir was broken through, and all the anshei hamilchamah fled, and went forth out of the Ir by lailah by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was near the Gan HaMelech; (now the Kasdim [Chaldeans] were surrounding the Ir); and they fled by the derech HaAravah.
8 But the army of the Kasdim (Chaldeans) pursued after HaMelech, and overtook Tzidkiyah in the plains of Yericho; and all his army was separated from him and scattered.
9 Then they captured HaMelech, and carried him up unto Melech Bavel to Rivlah in Eretz Chamat; where he pronounced mishpatim upon him.
10 And Melech Bavel slaughtered the Bnei Tzidkiyah before his eyes; he slaughtered also all the sarim (princes) of Yehudah in Rivlah.
11 Then he put out the eyes of Tzidkiyah; and Melech Bavel bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in the bais hapekudot (prison house) till the yom moto (day of his death).
12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month
13 And set fire to the Beis Hashem, and the Bais HaMelech (the palace); and all the batim (houses) of Yerushalayim, and all the bais hagadol, he burned with eish:
14 And all the army of the Kasdim (Chaldeans), that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the chomot (walls) around Yerushalayim.
15 Then Nevuzaradan the captain of the guard sent into the Golus certain of the poor of the people, and the remaining of the people that were left in the Ir, and the defectors to Melech Bavel, and the rest of the multitude.
16 But Nevuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for koremim and for farmers.
17 Also the Ammudei HaNechoshet that were in the Beis Hashem, and the moveable Stands, and the Yam Hanechoshet that was in the Beis Hashem, the Kasdim (Chaldeans) broke, and carried all the bronze of them to Babylon.
18 The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the pans, and all the klei hanechoshet wherewith they ministered, they took away.
19 And the cups, and the firepans [for incense], and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the menorahs, and the pans, and the bowls; that which were made of zahav, and that which made of kesef, the captain of the guard carried away.
20 The two Ammudim, one Yam, and twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which HaMelech Sh’lomo had made in the Beis Hashem: the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.
21 And concerning the Ammudim, the height of one ammud was eighteen cubits; and twelve cubits in circumference; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.
22 And a capital of nechoshet was upon it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capitals round about, all of nechoshet. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were similar unto these.
23 And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the surrounding network were a me’ah (hundred).
24 And the captain of the guard took Serayah the Kohen HaRosh, and Tzephanyah the second kohen, and the three keepers of the door:
25 He took also out of the Ir the officer, which had the charge of the anshei hamilchamah; and seven men of them that were royal advisers which were found in the Ir; and the Sofer who was the chief officer in charge of conscripting the Am HaAretz; and threescore men of the Am HaAretz, that were found in the midst of the Ir.
26 So Nevuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to Melech Bavel to Rivlah.
27 And Melech Bavel struck them, and put them to death in Rivlah in Eretz Chamat. Thus Yehudah was carried away captive out of his own land.
28 This is the people whom Nevuchadretzar carried away captive: in the seventh year 3,023 Yehudim:
29 In the eighteenth year of Nevuchadretzar he carried away captive from Yerushalayim 832 nefesh:
30 In the three and twentieth year of Nevuchadretzar Nevuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Yehudim 745 nefesh: the nefesh were 4,600 in all.
31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the Golus of Y’hoyakhin Melech Yehudah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Eveel-Merodach Melech Bavel in the first year of his reign [562 B.C.E.] lifted up the head of Y’hoyakhin Melech Yehudah, and brought him forth out of prison [561 B.C.E.].
32 And spoke kindly unto him, and set his throne above the kisse of the melachim that were with him in Babylon,
33 And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat lechem before him all the days of his life.
34 And for his allowance, there was a regular allowance given him of the Melech Bavel, every day a portion until the yom moto (day of his death) all the days of his life.
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