Old/New Testament

Babylon Is Destroyed

51 The Lord says, “See, I will raise up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and against the people of Chaldea. ² I will send strangers to destroy Babylon like a wind that blows straw away. For they will be against her on every side and leave her land empty in the day of her trouble. ³ Do not let the bow-man use his bow. Do not let him stand up in his heavy battle-clothes. Do not leave her young men alive, but destroy all of her army. ⁴ They will fall down dead in the land of Babylon and be killed in their streets.”

⁵ For Israel and Judah have not been left alone by their God, the Lord of All, even though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. ⁶ Run away from Babylon! Let every man save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, for it is time for the Lord to punish her. He will make her pay for her sins. ⁷ Babylon has been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand, making all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk her wine, and so the nations have gone wild. ⁸ All at once Babylon has fallen and been broken. Cry over her with a loud voice. Bring healing oil for her pain. It may be that she will be healed. ⁹ We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Leave her alone, and let each of us go to his own country. For she is being judged from as far as heaven and lifted even to the skies. ¹⁰ The Lord has taken our guilt away. Come and let us make the work of the Lord our God known in Zion.

¹¹ Make the arrows sharp! Take the body-coverings! The Lord has moved the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because He is planning to destroy Babylon. It is the punishment of the Lord, the punishment for what was done to His house of worship. ¹² Lift up a flag on the walls of Babylon. Have many keep watch. Put the watchmen in their places. And get men ready to fight against her by surprise. For the Lord has both planned and done what He said about the people of Babylon. ¹³ O you who live by many waters and have many riches, your end has come. Your life is being cut off. ¹⁴ The Lord of All has promised by Himself, saying, “For sure I will fill you with men, as with many locusts. And they will call out that they have won the war against you.”

A Song of Praise

¹⁵ He made the earth by His power. He made the world by His wisdom. And by His understanding He spread out the heavens. ¹⁶ When He speaks, there is a storm of waters in the heavens. He makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind from His store-houses. ¹⁷ No man thinks well, and he is without learning. Every man who works with gold is put to shame by his false gods. For the objects of worship that he makes are false, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁸ They are of no worth, a false show. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed. ¹⁹ He Who is the Share of Jacob is not like these. For He is the Maker of All. And Israel is the family who receives His gifts. The Lord of All is His name.

²⁰ He says, “You are My battle-ax which I use in war. With you I destroy countries. With you I destroy nations. ²¹ With you I break in pieces the horse and its rider. ²² With you I destroy the war-wagon and its driver. With you I destroy man and woman. With you I destroy old man and boy. With you I destroy young man and young woman. ²³ With you I destroy the shepherd and his flock. With you I destroy the farmer and his oxen. And with you I destroy rulers and captains.

Babylon Is Punished

²⁴ “I will punish Babylon and all the people of Chaldea for all their sins that they have done in Zion in front of your eyes,” says the Lord. ²⁵ “See, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth,” says the Lord. “I will put out My hand against you and roll you down from the high rocks. I will make you a burned-out mountain. ²⁶ Not even a stone will be taken from you for a corner stone, or a stone to be used to build upon. But you will be a waste forever,” says the Lord.

²⁷ Lift up a flag in the land! Sound the horn among the nations! Make the nations ready to fight against Babylon. Call against her the nations of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Choose a captain to go against her. Bring up the horses like many locusts. ²⁸ Make the nations ready to fight against her. Make ready the kings of the Medes, their rulers and captains, and every land under their rule. ²⁹ The land shakes and moves in its pain. For the Lord’s plans against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a waste land without people. ³⁰ The powerful soldiers of Babylon have stopped fighting. They stay in their strong-places. Their strength is gone. They have become like women. Their houses are set on fire, and the iron parts of her gates are broken. ³¹ One man with news runs to meet another, and he runs to meet another. They run to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been taken from end to end. ³² The ways to cross the river have been stopped. The water grass has been burned with fire. And the soldiers are filled with fear.

³³ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “The daughter of Babylon is like the grain floor when it is being stepped on and made hard. In a little while her gathering time will come.”

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has destroyed me, and has crushed me. He has made me like an empty pot. He has eaten me up like a large, angry animal. He has filled his stomach with my good food, and he has washed me away. ³⁵ May the hurt done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” the person living in Zion will say. “May my blood be upon the people of Babylon,” Jerusalem will say.

³⁶ So the Lord says, “See, I will help you in your cause and punish Babylon for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her well dry. ³⁷ Babylon will become a waste place, a place where wild dogs live. She will be an object of trouble and hate, where no people live. ³⁸ Together the people of Babylon make noise like young lions. They sound like a lion’s young ones. ³⁹ But when they are hot, I will give them a special supper and make them drunk. Then they will be happy and fall asleep, and will never wake up,” says the Lord. ⁴⁰ “I will bring them down like lambs to be killed, like rams and male goats.

Babylon Is Destroyed

⁴¹ “How Babylon has been taken, the praise of the whole earth taken! How Babylon has become an object of trouble among the nations! ⁴² The sea has come up over Babylon. She has been covered with its many big waves. ⁴³ Her cities have become an object of trouble, a dry land and a desert. It is a land where no man lives, and where no man passes through. ⁴⁴ And I will punish the false god of Bel in Babylon. I will make what he has eaten come out of his mouth. The nations will no longer come to him. The wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵ “Come out of her, My people. Save yourselves from the burning anger of the Lord. ⁴⁶ Do not let your heart become weak. Do not be afraid at the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come this year, and other news will come the next. There will be fighting in the land, with ruler against ruler. ⁴⁷ So the days are coming when I will punish the false gods of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame, and all her dead will fall within her. ⁴⁸ Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will call out for joy over Babylon. For the destroyers will come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

⁴⁹ Babylon must fall because of the dead of Israel, just as the dead of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. ⁵⁰ You who have not been killed by the sword, go! Do not stay! Remember the Lord from far away, and think of Jerusalem. ⁵¹ We are ashamed because much has been said against us. Our faces are covered with shame, for strangers have gone into the holy places of the Lord’s house.

⁵² “But the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish her false gods. And those who are hurt will cry in pain through all her land. ⁵³ Even if Babylon rises to the heavens and makes her high place strong, I will send destroyers against her,” says the Lord.

⁵⁴ The sound of a cry comes from Babylon! A noise comes from the land of the Babylonians because much is being destroyed! ⁵⁵ For the Lord will destroy Babylon. He will quiet her loud voice. Their waves will sound like many waters, and the noise of their voices is loud. ⁵⁶ For the destroyer is coming against Babylon, and her strong men will be taken. Their bows are broken. For the Lord is a God Who makes the sinner pay for his sin, and He will be sure to punish. ⁵⁷ “I will make her leaders and her wise men, her rulers, her captains, and her strong men of war drunk. Then they will fall asleep and never wake up,” says the King, Whose name is the Lord of All. ⁵⁸ The Lord of All says, “The wide wall of Babylon will be broken to the ground. Her high gates will be set on fire. So the people will work hard for nothing, and because of the fire nations become tired.”

Jeremiah’s Word Gets to Babylon

⁵⁹ This is the word which Jeremiah the man of God told Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his rule. Seraiah was the head captain of the house. ⁶⁰ Jeremiah wrote in a book all the trouble that would come upon Babylon. He wrote down all these words which have been written about Babylon. ⁶¹ Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words out loud. ⁶² And say, ‘O Lord, You have said that this place will be destroyed, so that there will be nothing living in it, not man or animal. It is to be a waste place forever.’ ⁶³ When you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates River. ⁶⁴ And say, ‘In this way Babylon will go down and not rise again, because of the trouble I am going to bring upon her. And her people will fall.’” The words of Jeremiah end here.

Jerusalem Destroyed

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² Zedekiah did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord, like all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ The Lord became so angry with Jerusalem and Judah that He had them sent away from Him. And Zedekiah turned against the king of Babylon.

⁴ On the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of his rule, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army to fight against Jerusalem. His soldiers gathered outside the city and built a battle-wall all around it. ⁵ So the city was shut in by the army of the Babylonians until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ On the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger became very bad in the city. There was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war ran away. They left the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, while the Babylonians were all around the city. They went by way of the Arabah. ⁸ But the Babylonian army went after King Zedekiah and came to him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was divided and ran away from him. ⁹ They took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he decided what Zedekiah’s punishment would be. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah in front of his eyes. He killed all the leaders of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, put him in chains of brass, and took him to Babylon. There he was put in prison until the day of his death.

The House of God Destroyed

¹² On the tenth day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan came to Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan was the captain of the prison soldiers and served the king of Babylon. ¹³ And he burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned down every great house. ¹⁴ The whole Babylonian army that was with the captain of the prison soldiers broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the prison soldiers, carried away to Babylon some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had joined the king of Babylon, and the rest of the able workmen. ¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan left some of the poorest people of the land to take care of the vines and fields.

¹⁷ The Babylonians broke in pieces the brass pillars which belonged to the house of the Lord, and the stands and the brass pool which were in the Lord’s house. And they carried all the brass to Babylon. ¹⁸ They also took away the pots, the tools, the objects for putting out the lamps, the washing pots, the dishes for special perfume, and all the brass objects used in the work of the Lord’s house. ¹⁹ The captain of the prison soldiers also took away the deep dishes, the fire holders, the washing pots, the other pots, the lamp-stands, the dishes for special perfume, and the dishes for drink gifts, that were made of fine gold and fine silver. ²⁰ He took the two pillars, the brass pool, the twelve brass bulls that were under the pool, and the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord. The brass of all these objects was too heavy to weigh. ²¹ Each pillar was five times taller than a man, as long around as six long steps, as wide as four fingers, and empty inside. ²² Its top part was brass and as tall as a man can raise his hand, with a network and pomegranates all around the top part, all made of brass. The second pillar with its pomegranates was the same. ²³ There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides. There were one hundred pomegranates on the network all around.

The People Taken to Babylon

²⁴ Then the captain of the prison soldiers took Seraiah, the head religious leader, and Zephaniah, the second religious leader, and the three door keepers of the Lord’s house. ²⁵ He also took from the city one captain who had been over the men of war, and seven of the king’s wise men who were found in the city. He took the writer who worked for the captain of the army, who called together the people of the land. And he took sixty men of the land who were found in the city. ²⁶ Nebuzaradan the captain of the prison soldiers took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ²⁷ and the king of Babylon killed them. He put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led out of its land in chains.

²⁸ These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away to Babylon: In the seventh year he took 3,023 Jews. ²⁹ In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he took 832 people from Jerusalem. ³⁰ In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the prison soldiers took away 745 Jews. There were 4,600 people taken away in all.

³¹ On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month in the thirty-seventh year since King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken away to Babylon, Evilmerodach king of Babylon showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah. It was the first year of his rule, and he brought Jehoiachin out of prison. ³² He spoke to him with kindness, and gave him a seat of honor higher than the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ So Jehoiachin changed from his prison clothes, and ate with the king every day for the rest of his life. ³⁴ And a share of money was given to him by the king of Babylon every day as long as he lived, until the day of his death.

The New Way of Worship Is Better

9 There were special ways of worship and a special holy place made by man for the Old Way of Worship. ² A big tent was built and set up. It was called the holy place. It had a light and a table, and the holy bread was on the table. ³ Behind the second curtain there was another tent. This was called the Holiest Place of All. ⁴ In the inside tent there was an altar where special perfume was burned. There was also a large box made of wood called the box of the Way of Worship. Both of these were covered with gold inside and out. Inside the box was a pot made of gold with the bread from heaven. It also had in it Aaron’s stick that once started to grow. The stones on which the Law of Moses was written were in it. ⁵ Above the box were the cherubim of honor. Their wings were spread up and over and met in the center. On the top of the box and under the shadow of their wings was the mercy-seat. We cannot tell anymore about these things now.

⁶ When everything was finished, the Jewish religious leaders went in and out of the outside tent to do the things which had to be done to worship God. ⁷ Once each year the head religious leader would go into the inside tent alone. He would not go in without blood. He gave this blood to God as a gift in worship for his own sins and for the sins of all the people who sinned without knowing it.

⁸ And so the Holy Spirit is teaching that, with the Old Way of Worship, the people could not go into the Holiest Place of All as long as the outside tent and its Old Way of Worship were being used. ⁹ The outside tent is a picture of that day. With the Old Way of Worship, animals killed and gifts given in worship to God could not take away the guilty feeling of sin. ¹⁰ The Old Way of Worship was made up of Laws about what to eat and drink. These Laws told how to wash and other things to do with the body. These things had to be done until Christ came to bring a better way of worship.

The New Way of Worship Has a Better Gift

¹¹ But Christ came as the Head Religious Leader of the good things God promised. He made the way for man to go to God. He was a greater and more perfect tent. He was not made by human hands and was not a part of this earth. ¹² Christ went into the Holiest Place of All one time for all people. He did not take the blood of goats and young cows to give to God as a gift in worship. He gave His own blood. By doing this, He bought us with His own blood and made us free from sin forever. ¹³ With the Old Way of Worship, the blood and ashes of animals could make men clean after they had sinned. ¹⁴ How much more the blood of Christ will do! He gave Himself as a perfect gift to God through the Spirit that lives forever. Now your heart can be free from the guilty feeling of doing work that is worth nothing. Now you can work for the living God.

¹⁵ Christ is the One Who gave us this New Way of Worship. All those who have been called by God may receive life that lasts forever just as He promised them. Christ bought us with His blood when He died for us. This made us free from our sins which we did under the Old Way of Worship.

¹⁶ When a man wants to give his money to someone after he dies, he writes it all down on paper. But that paper is worth nothing until the man is dead. ¹⁷ That piece of paper means nothing as long as he is alive. It is good only when he dies. ¹⁸ The Old Way of Worship had to have a death to make it good. The blood of an animal was used. ¹⁹ Moses told the people all the things they had to obey in the Law. Then he took the blood of animals together with water and put it on the Book of the Law and on all the people. He used special branches and red wool as he put it on them. ²⁰ Moses said, “This is the blood of the Way of Worship which God said you must obey.” ^{(A) 21} In the same way, Moses put the blood on the tent and on all the things used in worship. ²² The Law says that almost everything is made clean by blood. Sins are not forgiven unless blood is given.

One Perfect Gift

²³ The tent to worship in and the things inside to worship with were like the things in heaven. They were made clean by putting blood on them. But the things in heaven were made clean by a much better gift of worship. ²⁴ For Christ did not go into the Holiest Place of All that was made by men, even if it was like the true one in heaven. He went to heaven itself and He is before God for us. ²⁵ Christ has not given Himself many times, as the head religious leader here on earth went into the Holiest Place of All each year with blood that was not his own. ²⁶ For then Christ would have had to die many times since the world began. But He came once at the end of the Old Way of Worship. He gave Himself once for all time. He gave Himself to destroy sin. ²⁷ It is in the plan that all men die once. After that, they will stand before God and be judged. ²⁸ It is the same with Christ. He gave Himself once to take away the sins of many. When He comes the second time, He will not need to give Himself again for sin. He will save all those who are waiting for Him.