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for a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon; her warriors are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the LORD is a God of recompense, he will surely requite.
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I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
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"Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nought, and the nations weary themselves only for fire."
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The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Serai'ah the son of Neri'ah, son of Mahsei'ah, when he went with Zedeki'ah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Serai'ah was the quartermaster.
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Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
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And Jeremiah said to Serai'ah: "When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,
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and say, 'O LORD, thou hast said concerning this place that thou wilt cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate for ever.'
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When you finish reading this book, bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphra'tes,
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and say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the evil that I am bringing upon her.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.