\q all of his officials and all the lands under his rule.
\s5
\q
\v 29 For the land will shake and be in anguish, since Yahweh's plans continue against Babylon,
\q to make the land of Babylon a wasteland where there is no inhabitant.
\s5
\q
\v 30 The soldiers in Babylon have stopped fighting; they stay in their strongholds.
\q Their strength has failed; they have become women—her homes are on fire, the bars of her gates are broken.
\q
\v 31 A messenger runs to proclaim to another messenger, and a runner tells another runner
\q to report to the king of Babylon that his city has been taken from end to end.
\q
\v 32 So the fords over the river are seized; the enemy is burning the reed marshes,
\q and Babylon's fighting men are confused."
\s5
\p
\q
\v 33 "For Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, says this: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor.
\q It is time to trample her down. In a little while the time of harvest will come to her.
\s5
\q
\v 34 Jerusalem says, 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me. He has drained me dry
\q and has made me into an empty pot. He has swallowed me like a dragon.
\q He filled his stomach with my good food. He has rinsed me out.'
\q
\v 35 The inhabitants of Zion will say, 'May the violence done to me and my family turn against Babylon.'
\q Jerusalem will say, 'May the guilt for my blood being shed turn against the inhabitants of Chaldea.'”
\s5
\q
\v 36 "Therefore Yahweh says this: See, I am about to plead your case and bring about vengeance for you.
\q For I will dry up Babylon's waters and make her springs run dry.
\q
\v 37 Babylon will become heaps of rubble, a den of jackals, a horror,
\q an object of hissing, where there are no inhabitants.
\s5
\q
\v 38 The Babylonians will roar together like young lions. They will growl like lion cubs.
\q
\v 39 When they become hot with greed, I will make a feast for them; I will make them drunk so they become happy,
\q and then sleep an unending sleep and not wake up—this is Yahweh’s declaration—
\q
\v 40 I will send them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats."
\s5
\q
\v 41 "How Babylon has been captured! So the praise of all the earth is seized.
\q How Babylon has become a ruined place among the nations.
\q
\v 42 The sea has come up over Babylon! She is covered with its roaring waves.
\s5
\q
\v 43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness,
\q a land that no one inhabits, and no human being passes through.
\q
\v 44 So I will punish Bel in Babylon; I will bring out from his mouth what he swallowed,
\q and the nations will no longer flow to him with their offerings. The walls of Babylon will fall."
\s5
\q
\v 45 "Go out from her midst, my people. Let each of you save his own life from the fury of my wrath.
\q
\v 46 Do not let your hearts be timid or fear the news that is heard in the land,
\q for the news will come one year. After it in the next year there will be news,
\q and violence will be in the land. Ruler will be against ruler.
\s5
\q
\v 47 Therefore, see, days are coming when I will punish the carved idols of Babylon.
\q All of her land will be ashamed, and all of her slaughtered ones will fall in her midst.
\q
\v 48 Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them will rejoice over Babylon.
\q For destroyers will come for her from the north—this is Yahweh’s declaration.
\q
\v 49 "As Babylon has made the killed of Israel fall,
\q so the killed of all her land will fall in Babylon."
\s5
\q
\v 50 "Survivors of the sword, go away! Do not stay still.
\q Call Yahweh to mind from far away; let Jerusalem come to mind.
\q
\v 51 We are ashamed, for we have heard insults; reproach has covered our faces,
\q for foreigners have entered the holy places of Yahweh's house."
\s5
\q
\v 52 "Therefore, see, days are coming—this is Yahweh’s declaration—when I will punish her carved idols,
\q and the wounded people will groan in all of her land.
\q
\v 53 For even if Babylon went up to the heavens or fortified her highest fortresses,
\q destroyers would come from me to her—this is Yahweh’s declaration."
\s5
\p
\q
\v 54 A shout of distress came from Babylon, a great collapse from the land of the Chaldeans.
\q
\v 55 For Yahweh is destroying Babylon. He is causing her loud voice to perish.
\q Their enemies roar like the waves of many waters; their noise becomes very strong.
\q
\v 56 For the destroyers have come against her—against Babylon!—and her warriors have been captured.
\q Their bows are broken, for Yahweh is the God of vengeance; he will surely carry out this repayment.
\s5
\q
\v 57 "For I will make her princes, her sages, her officials, and her soldiers drunk,
\q and they will sleep in an unending sleep and never wake up
\q —this is the King’s declaration: Yahweh of hosts is his name."
\q
\v 58 "Yahweh of hosts says this: The thick walls of Babylon will be completely demolished,
\q and her high gates will be burned.
\q Then the peoples coming to her aid will labor uselessly; everything that the nations try to do for her will be burned up."
\s5
\p
\q
\v 59 This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah
\q son of Machseiah when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon
\q in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was a chief officer.
\v 60 For Jeremiah had written in a scroll about all the disaster that was going to come on Babylon—all these words that were written about Babylon.
\s5
\v 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you go to Babylon, then make sure you read all these words.
\v 62 And you will say, ‘Yahweh, you!—you yourself have declared that you would destroy this place. It will have no inhabitant, either of people or animals. It will be a permanent wasteland.'
\s5
\v 63 Then when you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.y
\v 64 Say, ‘Babylon will sink like this. It will not arise because of the disaster that I am sending against it, and they will fall.’" Jeremiah's words end here.
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