The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

"Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; proclaim, and do not conceal it--Say, 'Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces.'

For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein. They shall move, they shall depart, both man and beast.

"In those days and in that time," says the LORD, "The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; with continual weeping they shall come, and seek the LORD their God.

They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, 'come and let us join ourselves to the LORD In a perpetual covenant That will not be forgotten.'

"My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, 'We have not offended, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'

"Move from the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be like the rams before the flocks.

For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon An assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; none shall return in vain.

And Chaldea shall become plunder; all who plunder her shall be satisfied," says the LORD.

"Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, you destroyers of My heritage, because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, and you bellow like bulls,

your mother shall be deeply ashamed; she who bore you shall be ashamed. Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert.

Because of the wrath of the LORD she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified and hiss at all her plagues.

"Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.

Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle at harvest time. For fear of the oppressing sword everyone shall turn to his own people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.

"Israel is like scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him; now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones."

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

But I will bring back Israel to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan; his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.

In those days and in that time," says the LORD, "The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve.

"Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and utterly destroy them," says the LORD, "And do according to all that I have commanded you.

A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! I have laid a snare for you;

You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon, and you were not aware; you have been found and also caught, because you have contended against the LORD.