Old/New Testament
Judgment against Babylon
51 This is what the Lord says:
“Look, I’m going to stir up a destroying wind
against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.[a]
2 I’ll send foreigners to Babylon,
and they’ll winnow her,
and devastate[b] her land.
They’ll come against her from every side
on the day of her[c] disaster.
3 Don’t let the archer[d] bend the bow;
don’t let him rise up in his armor.
Don’t spare her young men.
Completely destroy her entire army.
4 The slain will fall in the land of Chaldea,
pierced through in her streets.
5 Indeed, Israel and Judah haven’t been
abandoned[e] by their[f] God,
by the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
although their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.”
6 Flee from Babylon,[g]
and each of you, escape with your life!
Don’t be destroyed[h] because of her guilt,
for it’s time for the Lord’s vengeance.
He is paying back what is due to her.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine,
therefore the nations have gone mad.
8 Suddenly, Babylon fell down and was shattered.
Wail for her!
Bring balm for her wound,
perhaps she will be healed.
9 We tried to heal Babylon,
but she wouldn’t be healed.
Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country.
For her judgment has reached to the heavens,
and is lifted up to the sky.
10 The Lord will vindicate us.
Come! Let us declare the work of the Lord our God in Zion.
11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit
of the kings of the Medes—
he has decided to destroy Babylon.
Indeed, it’s the Lord’s vengeance,
vengeance for his Temple.
12 Lift up the battle standard[i] against Babylon’s walls.
Strengthen the guard;
post watchmen.[j]
Set men in position for an ambush.
For the Lord will both plan and carry out what he has
declared against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 You who live beside many waters,
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
your life thread is cut.[k]
14 The Lord of the Heavenly Armies
has sworn by himself:
“I’ll surely fill you with soldiers[l] like a swarm of locusts,
and they’ll sing songs of victory over you.”
Praise to the God of Jacob
15 He made the earth by his power.
He established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding he spread out the heavens.
16 When his voice sounds, there is thunder from
the waters of heaven,
and he makes clouds rise up
from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings wind out of his storehouses.
17 Everyone is stupid[m] and without knowledge.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his own idols,
for his images are false,[n]
and there is no life in them.
18 They’re worthless, a work of mockery,
and when the time of punishment comes,[o]
they’ll perish.
19 The Portion of Jacob[p] is not like these.
He made everything,
including the tribe of his inheritance.
The Lord of the Heavenly Armies is his name.
The Lord’s Instrument of Judgment
20 “You are my war-club and
weapons of war.
I’ll smash nations with you
and destroy kingdoms with you.
21 I’ll smash the horse and its rider with you.
I’ll smash the chariot and its rider with you.
22 I’ll smash man and woman with you.
I’ll smash old man and young boy with you.
I’ll smash young man and young woman[q] with you.
23 I’ll smash the shepherd and his flock with you.
I’ll smash the farmer and his team of oxen with you.
I’ll smash governors and officials with you.
24 “Before your eyes I’ll repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they did in Zion,” declares the Lord.
25 “Look, I’m against you, destroying mountain,
who destroys the whole earth,”
declares the Lord.
“I’ll stretch out my hand against you
and roll you down from the crags.
And I’ll make you a burned-out mountain.
26 They won’t get a cornerstone
or a foundation stone from you,
because you will be a wasteland forever,”
declares the Lord.
27 Lift up a battle standard in the land.
Blow a trumpet among the nations.
Consecrate the nations against her.
Summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni,
and Ashkenaz against her.
Appoint a commander against her,
bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28 Consecrate the nations against her,
the kings of the Medes, their governors, their prefects,
and every land under their domination.
29 The land quakes and writhes
because the Lord’s purposes
against Babylon stand firm,
to make the land of Babylon a waste without inhabitants.
30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting.
They stay in their strongholds;
their strength is dried up;
they have become like women.
Her buildings are set on fire;
the bars of her gates are broken.
31 One runner runs to meet another runner,[r]
and one messenger to meet another messenger,[s]
to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been seized
from one end to the other.[t]
32 The fords have been captured,
and the marshes burned with fire.
The soldiers are terrified.
33 For this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
the God of Israel, says:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time when it’s pounded down.[u]
In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come.”
Judah’s Complaint against Babylon
34 “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me
and crushed me.
He set me down
like an empty vessel.
He swallowed me like a monster,
and filled his belly with my delicacies.
Then he washed me away.
35 May the violence done to me
and my flesh be on Babylon,”
says the inhabitant of Zion.
“May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
“Look, I’m going to argue your case
and take vengeance for you.
I’ll dry up her sea
and make her fountain dry.[v]
37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
a refuge for jackals,
a desolate place
and an object of scorn.[w]
38 They’ll roar together like young lions;
they’ll growl like lion cubs.
39 When they’re excited[x] I’ll serve them their banquet,
and make them drunk until they’re merry.
They’ll sleep forever and won’t wake up,”
declares the Lord.
40 “I’ll bring them down like lambs for the slaughter,
like rams with male goats.
41 “How Sheshak[y] will be captured,
and the prince of all the earth seized!
How Babylon will become an object of horror
among the nations!
42 The sea will come up against Babylon,
and she will be covered by wave upon wave.[z]
43 Her cities will become an object of horror,
a dry land and a desert,
a land in which no one lives,
and through which no human being passes.
44 I’ll punish Bel[aa] in Babylon,
and I’ll make what he has swallowed
come out of his mouth.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
Even the wall of Babylon will fall.
45 “Come out of her, my people,
flee for your lives from the Lord’s anger!
46 Do this[ab] now, so your heart does not grow faint,
and so you don’t become frightened
because of the rumors[ac] that are heard in the land—
a rumor comes one year[ad] and then after it
another rumor[ae] comes the next year[af]
about violence in the land
and one ruler against another ruler.[ag]
47 Therefore, look, days are coming
when I’ll punish the idols of Babylon.
Her entire land will be put to shame,
and all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 Then the heavens and the earth
and all that are in them
will shout for joy about Babylon
because the destroyers will come
out of the north against her,”
declares the Lord.
49 “So Babylon will fall
because of the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of all the earth
have fallen because of Babylon.
50 Go, you who escaped the sword!
Don’t stand around!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51 We have been put to shame
because we have heard insults.
Disgrace has covered our faces because foreigners have
come into the Holy Places of the Lord’s house.
52 “Therefore, look, days are coming,”
declares the Lord,
“when I’ll punish her idols,
and throughout her land the wounded will groan.
53 Though Babylon should reach up to the heavens
and fortify her high fortresses,
from me destroyers will come to her,”
declares the Lord.
54 “The sound of a cry is coming from Babylon,
great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans.
55 For the Lord is destroying Babylon,
and he will make the loud sounds from her disappear.[ah]
Their waves will roar like many waters,
the noise of their voices will sound forth.
56 Indeed, the destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors are captured,
and her bows are broken.
For the Lord is a God of recompense,
and he will repay in full.
57 I’ll make their leaders, their wise men,
their governors, their deputies,
and their warriors drunk so that they sleep forever
and don’t wake up,”
declares the King
whose name is the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.
58 This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says:
“The broad wall of Babylon will be completely leveled,
and its high gate set on fire.
and so the peoples toil for nothing,
and the nations weary themselves only for fire.”
Jeremiah’s Symbolic Message against Babylon
59 This is[ai] the message that Jeremiah the prophet delivered[aj] 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[ak] will be exhausted.’”
This concludes the writings of Jeremiah.
The Fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 Zedekiah[al] had done evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, 4 and in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He encamped near it and set up siege works all around it. 5 The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of[am] King Zedekiah. 6 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe that there was no food for the people of the land. 7 The wall of[an] the city was broken through, and all the soldiers fled, leaving the city at night through the gate between the two walls next to the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah.[ao]
8 The Chaldean army went after the king, overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from him. 9 They captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where the king of Babylon[ap] passed judgment on him. 10 The king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also killed all the Judean officials[aq] at Riblah. 11 He blinded Zedekiah and bound him in bronze shackles. Then the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in prison until he died.
The Destruction of the Temple
12 In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—it was the nineteenth year of the reign of[ar] King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard who served[as] the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. 13 He burned the Lord’s Temple, the king’s house, and all the houses in Jerusalem. He also burned every public building[at] with fire. 14 All the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.[au]
17 The Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars that were in the Lord’s Temple and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the Lord’s Temple, and they carried all the[av] bronze to Babylon. 18 They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans, and all the bronze utensils that were used in the temple service. 19 The captain of the guard took away the bowls, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the pans, and the bowls for libations, both those made of gold and those made of silver. 20 There was too much bronze to weigh in the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were under the sea,[aw] and the stands which King Solomon had made for the Lord’s Temple. 21 Each of the pillars was twelve cubits[ax] high and its circumference twelve cubits.[ay] It was hollow and about a handbreadth[az] thick. 22 On each pillar[ba] was a capital of bronze, and the height of each capital was five cubits.[bb] Latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar was like this, including the pomegranates. 23 There were 96 pomegranates open to view.[bc] In all, there were 100 pomegranates all around the latticework.
Executions and Deportations to Babylon
24 The captain of the guard arrested Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the next ranking priest,[bd] and the three guards of the gate.[be] 25 From the city he arrested one of the officers who had been in charge of the troops, seven men from the king’s personal advisors who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found inside the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard arrested them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from the land.
28 These are the people Nebuchadnezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; 29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took 745 people from Judah into exile. All the people taken into exile[bf] numbered 4,600.
Jehoiachin Released from Prison
31 In the first year of his reign, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, showed favor to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah. 32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the other[bg] kings who were in Babylon with him. 33 Jehoiachin[bh] changed his prison clothes and regularly dined with the king[bi] as long as he lived. 34 As for his living expenses, a regular allowance was given him daily by the king of Babylon as long as he lived,[bj] until the day of his death.
The Earthly Sanctuary and Its Ritual
9 Now even the first covenant[a] had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tent was set up, and in the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the bread of the Presence.[b] This was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was the part of the tent called the Most Holy Place, 4 which had the gold altar for incense and the Ark of the Covenant completely covered with gold. In it were the gold jar holding the manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the Tablets of the Covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the place of atonement. (We cannot discuss these things in detail now.)
6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests always went into the first part of the tent to perform their duties. 7 But only the high priest went[c] into the second part, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins committed by the people in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit was indicating by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first part of the tent was still standing. 9 This illustration for today indicates that the gifts and sacrifices being offered could not clear the conscience of a worshiper, 10 since they deal only with food, drink, and various washings, which are required for the body until the time when things would be set right.
The Messiah Has Offered a Superior Sacrifice
11 But when the Messiah[d] came as a high priest of the good things that have come,[e] he went[f] through the greater and more perfect tent that was not made by human[g] hands and that is not a part of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he went into the Most Holy Place once for all and secured our eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are unclean purifies them physically, 14 how much more will the blood of the Messiah,[h] who through the eternal Spirit[i] offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our[j] consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God!
The Messiah is the Mediator of a New Covenant
15 This is why the Messiah[k] is the mediator of a new covenant; so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance promised them, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the offenses committed under the first covenant. 16 For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will is in force only when somebody has died, since it never takes effect as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 For after every commandment in the Law had been spoken to all the people by Moses, he took the blood of calves and goats,[l] together with some water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God ordained for you.”[m] 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and everything used in worship. 22 In fact, under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness.
The Messiah’s Perfect Sacrifice
23 Thus it was necessary for these earthly[n] copies of the things in heaven to be cleansed by these sacrifices,[o] but the heavenly things themselves are made clean[p] with better sacrifices than these. 24 For the Messiah[q] did not go into a sanctuary made by human[r] hands that is merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in God’s presence on our behalf. 25 Nor did he go into heaven[s] to sacrifice himself again and again, the way the high priest goes into the Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the creation of the world. But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once for all to remove sin by his sacrifice. 27 Indeed, just as people are destined to die once and after that to be judged,[t] 28 so the Messiah[u] was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And he will appear a second time, not to deal with sin,[v] but to bring salvation to those who eagerly wait for him.
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