41
How Sheshach has been captured,
the praise of the whole earth seized.
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!
42
The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered with its turbulent waves.
43
Her cities have become a desolation,
a dry and arid land,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being passes through.
44
I will punish Bel in Babylon.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon's wall will fall.
45
Come out from among her, My people!
Save your lives, each of you,
from the
Lord
's burning anger.
46
May you not become cowardly and fearful
when the report is proclaimed in the land,
for the report will come one year,
and then another the next year.
There will be violence in the land
with ruler against ruler.
47
Therefore, look, the days are coming
when I will punish Babylon's carved images.
Her entire land will suffer shame,
and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
48
Heaven and earth and everything in them
will shout for joy over Babylon
because the destroyers from the north
will come against her.
This is the
Lord
's declaration.
49
Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of all the earth fell
because of Babylon.
50
You who have escaped the sword,
go and do not stand still!
Remember the
Lord
from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51
We are ashamed
because we have heard insults.
Humiliation covers our faces
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the
Lord
's temple.
52
Therefore, look, the days are coming —
this is the
Lord
's declaration —
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
53
Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from Me.
This is the
Lord
's declaration.
54
The sound of a cry from Babylon!
The sound of great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans!
55
For the
Lord
is going to devastate Babylon;
He will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like abundant waters;
the tumult of their voice resounds,
56
for a destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors will be captured,
their bows shattered,
for the
Lord
is a God of retribution;
He will certainly repay.
57
I will make her princes and sages drunk,
along with her governors, officials, and warriors.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the King's declaration;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
58
This is what Yahweh of Hosts says:
Babylon's thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates consumed by fire.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;
the nations will exhaust themselves only to feed the fire.
59
This is what Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign.
60
Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.
61
Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.
62
You must say, ‘
Lord
, You have threatened to cut off this place so that no one will live in it — man or beast. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.'
63
When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.
64
Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.' ”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
Jeremiah
The Fall of Jerusalem
52
Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
2
Zedekiah did what was evil in the
Lord
's sight just as Jehoiakim had done.
3
Because of the
Lord
's anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He finally banished them from His presence. Nevertheless, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4
In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall all around it.
5
The city was under siege until King Zedekiah's eleventh year.
6
By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food.
7
Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the
•Arabah
.
8
The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah's entire army was scattered from him.
9
The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.
10
At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes and also slaughtered the Judean commanders.
11
Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.
12
On the tenth day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.
13
He burned the
Lord
's temple, the king's palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the nobles.
14
The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
15
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.
16
But some of the poorest people of the land Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left to be vinedressers and farmers.
17
Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the
Lord
's temple and the water carts and the bronze reservoir that were in the
Lord
's temple, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.
18
They took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.
19
The commander of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and
•drink
offering bowls — whatever was gold or silver.
20
As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the
Lord
's temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.
21
One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow — four fingers thick —
22
and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze latticework and pomegranates, stood 7
1
/
2
feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.
23
Each capital had 96 pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the latticework numbered 100.
24
The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.
25
From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and 60 men from the common people who were found within the city.
26
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27
The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.
28
These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;
29
in his eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;
30
in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported 745 Jews. All together 4,600 people were deported.
Jehoiachin Pardoned
31
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah's King Jehoiachin, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.
32
He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
33
So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.
34
As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.
Lamentations
Lamentations
Lament over Jerusalem
Alef
1
How she sits alone,
the city once crowded with people!
She who was great among the nations
has become like a widow.
The princess among the provinces
has been put to forced labor.
Bet
2
She weeps aloud during the night,
with tears on her cheeks.
There is no one to offer her comfort,
not one from all her lovers.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
Gimel
3
Judah has gone into exile
following affliction and harsh slavery;
she lives among the nations
but finds no place to rest.
All her pursuers have overtaken her
in narrow places.
Dalet
4
The roads to
•Zion
mourn,
for no one comes to the appointed festivals.
All her gates are deserted;
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she herself is bitter.
He
5
Her adversaries have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease,
for the
Lord
has made her suffer
because of her many transgressions.
Her children have gone away
as captives before the adversary.
Vav
6
All her splendor has vanished
from Daughter Zion.
Her leaders are like stags
that find no pasture;
they walk away exhausted
before the hunter.
Zayin
7
During the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious belongings
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into the adversary's hand,
she had no one to help.
The adversaries looked at her,
laughing over her downfall.
Khet
8
Jerusalem has sinned grievously;
therefore, she has become an object of scorn.
All who honored her now despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness.
She herself groans and turns away.