1 The word which the LORD spoke about Babylon, about the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of the prophet Jeremiah:
2 "Announce it among the nations and make it heard; raise a banner, make it heard, hide nothing; say, 'Babylon is taken; Bel is shamed; Merodach is shattered; her images are shamed, her idols are shattered.'
3 For a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land a waste, and there will be no one living in it; from man to beast they have fled; they are gone.
4 In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together, walking and weeping as they go, and the LORD their God they will seek.
5 They will ask the way to Zion, their faces toward it: 'Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.'
6 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, turning them loose on the mountains; from mountain to hill they went; they forgot their resting place.
7 All who found them ate them up, and their foes said, 'We are not guilty, because they sinned against the LORD, the pasture of righteousness, the hope of their fathers, the LORD.'
8 Wander out of the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the he-goats in front of the flock.
9 For see, I am rousing and bringing up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north; they will line up against her; from there she will be taken. Their arrows are like those of a skilled warrior who does not come back empty.
10 Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will have their fill, declares the LORD.
11 Though you are glad, though you exult, you who plunder my inheritance, though you frisk like a heifer at the threshing and neigh like stallions,
12 your mother will be deeply shamed; she who bore you will blush. See, the last of the nations: a wilderness, a dry land and a desert!
13 Because of the wrath of the LORD she will not be inhabited but will be entirely a waste; everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and hiss over all her blows.
14 Line up against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, do not spare an arrow, for she has sinned against the LORD.
15 Shout against her all around! She has given her hand; her towers have fallen, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the LORD; take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.
16 Cut off from Babylon the sower and the one who grasps the sickle at harvest time; before the oppressing sword each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.
17 Israel is a scattered sheep, chased by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at the last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has crunched his bones.
18 So thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See, I am punishing the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 I will bring Israel back to his pasture; he will graze on Carmel and in Bashan, and on the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead his soul will be satisfied.
20 In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the iniquity of Israel will be searched for, and there will be none, and the sins of Judah, and they will not be found; for I will pardon those I leave as a remnant.
21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod; put them to the sword and devote them to destruction, declares the LORD; do all that I have commanded you.
22 A sound of war in the land, and a great shattering!
23 How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
24 I laid a trap for you, and you were caught, Babylon, before you knew it; you were found and seized, for you picked a fight with the LORD.
25 The LORD has opened his storehouse and brought out the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord GOD of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the farthest border; open her granaries; heap her up like piles of grain and devote her to destruction; let her have no remnant.
27 Put all her bulls to the sword; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment!
28 Hark! Fugitives and escapees from the land of Babylon, to announce in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his temple.
29 Call together archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow; camp against her all around; let no one escape. Repay her according to her work; just as she has done, do to her; for she has been insolent toward the LORD, toward the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men will fall in her squares, and all her fighting men will be silenced on that day, declares the LORD.
31 I am against you, O insolent one, declares the Lord GOD of hosts; for your day has come, the time when I punish you.
32 The insolent one will stumble and fall, with no one to lift him up; and I will set fire to his towns, and it will consume all around him.
33 Thus says the LORD of hosts: The children of Israel are oppressed, and the children of Judah together; all their captors hold them fast; they refuse to release them.
34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their case, so as to give rest to the earth and unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 A sword on the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, on her officials and on her wise men!
36 A sword on the babblers, and they will act as fools! A sword on her warriors, and they will be shattered!
37 A sword on her horses and on her chariots and on all the mixed multitude in her midst, and they will become women! A sword on her treasures, and they will be plundered!
38 A drought on her waters, and they will dry up! For it is a land of carved images, and they are crazed over their terrors.
39 So wild beasts of the desert will live there with jackals, and ostriches will live in her; she will never again be inhabited, nor dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, declares the LORD, no man will live there, no son of man will sojourn in it.
41 See, a people comes from the north, a great nation, and many kings are roused from the remotest parts of the earth.
42 Bow and javelin they seize; they are ruthless and will show no pity. Their noise thunders like the sea, and they ride upon horses, drawn up like a man for war against you, O daughter of Babylon!
43 The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands hang limp; distress has gripped him, pangs like a woman giving birth.
44 Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against the ever-flowing pasture; for in an instant I will make them run from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like me? Who will summon me? And who is the shepherd who can stand before me?
45 So hear the counsel the LORD has taken against Babylon, and the plans he has planned against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged off; surely their pasture will be appalled over them.
46 At the sound, 'Babylon is taken!' the earth quakes, and a cry is heard among the nations."