21
and with thee I will break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee I will break in pieces the chariots and their riders;
22
with thee also I will break in pieces men and women; and with thee I will break in pieces old and young; and with thee I will break in pieces young men and virgins;
23
I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee I will break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee I will break in pieces dukes and princes.
24
And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, said the LORD.
25
Behold, I
am against thee, O destroying mountain, said the LORD, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee and roll thee down from the rocks and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26
And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, said the LORD.
27
Set ye up a banner in the land, blow the shofar among the Gentiles, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause
the horses to come up as raised up locusts.
28
Prepare the nations against her: the kings of Media, the captains thereof, and all the princes thereof, and all the land of their dominion.
29
And the land shall tremble and sorrow for every thought of the LORD is confirmed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight; they have remained in
their holds; their might has failed; they became as women: the
enemies have burned her dwellingplaces; they have broken her bars.
31
One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken in all places,
32
And the fords were taken, and they have burned the reeds with fire, and the men of war were astounded.
33
For thus hath the LORD of the hosts, the God of Israel said: The daughter of Babylon
is like a threshingfloor;
it is now time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon; he has filled his belly with my delicates; he has cast me out.
35
The violence against me and my flesh
be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36
Therefore thus hath the LORD said: Behold, I judge thy cause and shall take thy vengeance; and I will dry up her sea and make her flowing
waters dry.
37
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
38
They shall roar together like lions; they shall roar as lions’ whelps.
39
In their heat I will place their feasts
before them, and I will make them drunken that they may rejoice and sleep an eternal sleep and not wake, said the LORD.
40
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41
How is Sheshach a prey! and how is she who was the praise of the whole earth taken! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the Gentiles!
42
The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43
Her cities were devastated, the land dry and desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither shall
any son of man pass thereby.
44
And I will visit Bel himself in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the Gentiles shall not flow together any more unto him; and the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45
Come out of the midst of her, my people, and save each one his life from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46
And lest your heart faint, and ye fear because of the news that shall be heard in the land; in one year shall the news come, and after that in the
next year
shall come the rumour, and
then shall come the violence in the land, and the ruler over him who rules.
47
Therefore, behold, the days come that I will visit the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be ashamed, and all her dead shall fall in the midst of her.
48
Then the heavens and the earth and all that
is therein shall sing praises over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her from the north, said the LORD.
49
As Babylon
has caused the dead of Israel to fall, so because of Babylon
the dead of all the earth fell.
50
Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, do not tarry: remember the LORD for many days, and remember Jerusalem.
51
We are ashamed, because we have heard the reproach; confusion has covered our faces; for strangers are come against the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.