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"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when
1I will execute judgment upon her images,
2and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
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Though Babylon should
3mount up to heaven, and though she should
4fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the LORD.
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5"A voice! A cry from Babylon! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
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For the LORD is laying Babylon waste and stilling her mighty voice.
6Their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is raised,
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for a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon; her warriors are taken; their bows are broken in pieces,
7for the LORD is a God of recompense; he will surely repay.
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8I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
9her governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares
10the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
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"Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad
11wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground,
12and her high gates shall be burned with fire.
13The peoples labor for nothing, and
14the nations weary themselves only for fire."
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The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah
15the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon,
16in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.
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17Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon,
18all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
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And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: "When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,
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and say, 'O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so
19that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be
20desolate forever.'