Chronological
51 ¶ Thus hath the LORD said; Behold, I raise up against Babylon and against her inhabitants that rise up against me from the heart, a destroying wind.
2 And I 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.
3 I shall say to the archer that bends his bow and unto him that lifts himself up in his brigandine, Spare ye not her young men; utterly destroy all her host.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans and those that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been made widows of their God, of the LORD of the hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver each one his soul that ye not perish because of her iniquity, for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand that made all the earth drunken: the Gentiles have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9 We applied the medicine to Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go each one into his own land; for her judgment is come unto heaven and is lifted up even to the clouds.
10 The LORD has brought our righteousness to light; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields; the LORD has awakened the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for his thought is against Babylon to destroy her; for it is vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Set up the banner upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for the LORD has deliberated and shall put into effect that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest among many waters, rich in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy covetousness.
14 The LORD of the hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men as with locusts; and they shall sing the song of the winepress against thee.
15 He is the one who makes the earth by his power; he upholds the world by his wisdom and extends the heavens by his intelligence;
16 he who gives with his voice a multitude of waters from heaven, then he causes the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings with the rain and brings forth the wind out of his treasures.
17 Every man has become carnal and is without knowledge; let every founder be ashamed of the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19 The 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 the hosts is his name.
20 Thou art my hammer, O weapons of war: for with thee I will break in pieces the Gentiles, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms;
21 and with thee I will break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee I will break in pieces the chariots and their riders;
22 with thee also I will break in pieces men and women; and with thee I will break in pieces old and young; and with thee I will break in pieces young men and virgins;
23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee I will break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee I will break in pieces dukes and princes.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, said the LORD.
25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, said the LORD, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee and roll thee down from the rocks and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, said the LORD.
27 Set ye up a banner in the land, blow the shofar among the Gentiles, 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 raised up locusts.
28 Prepare the nations against her: the kings of Media, the captains thereof, and all the princes thereof, and all the land of their dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow for every thought of the LORD is confirmed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight; they have remained in their holds; their might has failed; they became as women: the enemies have burned her dwelling places; they have broken her bars.
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken in all places,
32 And the fords were taken, and they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war were astounded.
33 For thus hath the LORD of the hosts, the God of Israel said: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor; it is now time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon; he has filled his belly with my delicates; he has cast me out.
35 The violence against me and my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus hath the LORD said: Behold, I judge thy cause and shall take thy vengeance; and I will dry up her sea and make her flowing waters dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions; they shall roar as lions’ whelps.
39 In their heat I will place their feasts before them, and I will make them drunken that they may rejoice and sleep an eternal sleep and not wake, said the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41 How is Sheshach a prey! and how is she who was the praise of the whole earth taken! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the Gentiles!
42 The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities were devastated, the land dry and desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither shall any son of man pass thereby.
44 And I will visit Bel himself in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the Gentiles shall not flow together any more unto him; and the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 Come out of the midst of her, my people, and save each one his life from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear because of the news that shall be heard in the land; in one year shall the news come, and after that in the next year shall come the rumour, and then shall come the violence in the land, and the ruler over him who rules.
47 Therefore, behold, the days come that I will visit the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be ashamed, and all her dead shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is therein shall sing praises over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her from the north, said the LORD.
49 As Babylon has caused the dead of Israel to fall, so because of Babylon the dead of all the earth fell.
50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, do not tarry: remember the LORD for many days, and remember Jerusalem.
51 We are ashamed, because we have heard the reproach; confusion has covered our faces; for strangers are come against the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.
52 Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will visit her graven images; and through all her land the wounded unto death shall groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strength upon high, yet from me shall destroyers come unto her, said the LORD.
54 The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 Because the LORD destroys Babylon and takes out of her the many thunders, her waves shall roar; like many waters shall be the sound of their voice:
56 because the destroyer is come against her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bow is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses shall surely requite.
57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep an eternal sleep and shall not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of the hosts.
58 Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly cast down, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and peoples and nations shall labour in vain in the fire to save her, and they shall become weary.
59 ¶ The word which Jeremiah the prophet sent to 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 the chief steward of the bedchambers.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon and shalt see and shalt read all these things;
62 then thou shalt say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that no one shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
63 And 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;
64 and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be overcome. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
52 ¶ Zedekiah was twenty-one 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.
2 And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
3 For because of the anger of the LORD against Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out of his presence, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 Therefore it came to pass after nine years 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 camp against it and built forts against it round about.
5 So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine prevailed in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
7 Then the city was breached, 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, and they went by the way of the desert, even though the Chaldeans were by the city round about.
8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and took Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
9 So they took the king and caused him to come up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath where he pronounced the sentence upon him.
10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
11 But he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains; and the king of Babylon caused him to be taken to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.
12 ¶ And 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, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem
13 and burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burned with fire:
14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, destroyed all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
15 Then 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 the fugitives that had fled to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.
16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.
17 Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
18 The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, they took away.
19 And the basins, and the censers, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the guard took away.
20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made in the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels could not be weighed.
21 And 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.
22 And 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.
23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were one hundred round about.
24 ¶ And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door.
25 He also took out of the city a eunuch, who had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of those that were near the king’s person, who were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land for war; and sixty men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.
26 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.
27 And 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.
28 This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand and twenty-three Jews:
29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons:
30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand six hundred.
31 ¶ And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth 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
32 and spoke kindly unto him and set his seat above the seat of the kings that were with him in Babylon
33 and changed his prison garments: and he continually ate bread before him all the days of his life.
34 And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every thing in its day for all the days of his life, until the day of his death.
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