The Lord will destroy Babylon
1The Lord says:
‘I will send a wind to blow
against Babylon and against
the people of the land of Babylon.
The wind will destroy everything.
2I will send enemies that will take away
the people of Babylon
like the wind blows away chaff.
The enemies will take everything in the land,
and the land will be empty, because
they will come from all sides
on the day when the war starts.
3Don't let the archers of Babylon
shoot their arrows and put on their armour.
The enemies must not feel sorry
for the young men of Babylon.
They must kill all the soldiers.
4They must kill a lot of people
in the land of Babylon,
and the dead people must lie in the streets.
5Because Israel and Judah
are not like widows,
who don't have anyone to protect them.
Israel and Judah do have a God.
He is the Lord who rules over all.
The people of the land of Babylon
have done a lot of bad things,
but the holy God of Israel
is with the people of Israel and Judah.
6You must run away out of Babylon,
and everyone must save his own life.
Don't stay there when the Lord
punishes them for their sins,
because the time has come for the Lord
to punish them for what they did.
7Babylon was a golden cup
in the hand of the Lord
and the wine in the cup
made all the people on earth drunk.
The people drank the wine
and they became mad.
8And then suddenly Babylon
fell to the ground and broke into pieces.
You must cry for the people of the city,
and you must bring balm for their pain.
Maybe they will heal.
9They said: “We have given
medicine to the people of Babylon,
but they have not healed.”
You must come out of the city,
and everyone must go to his own land,
because God is going to judge Babylon.
The punishment of Babylon is very big.
It is as high as heaven,
and it is higher than the clouds.
10The Lord has saved us.
We must go and tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has done.
11You must sharpen your arrows
and take enough arrows with you.
The Lord has woken up the kings of Media
and He has called them because they
will come and destroy Babylon.
The Lord wants to punish
the people of Babylon
because they have destroyed his temple.
12You must put up a flag
at the wall of Babylon,
and you must tell the guards
to stand around the city.
You must tell soldiers to hide around the city,
because the Lord has decided
and He will do what He said
to the people of Babylon.
13People of Babylon,
you have lived near a lot of water
and you were rich,
but your end has come.
Your enemies will destroy you.’
14The Lord who rules over all has decided, and He is the Witness Himself. He says:
‘I will send a lot of soldiers to you,
as many as a swarm of locusts.
They will shout and defeat you.’
A song to praise the Lord
15The Lord made the earth.
He did it with his strength and his wisdom.
16When He speaks,
the water in the sky starts to roar.
He brings the clouds from far away
over the earth.
He makes the lightning strike
and the winds blow.
17But people who make images
and serve_idols are foolish,
and they know nothing.
Those images can not do anything for them.
They are false gods with no life in them.
18They are like wind that disappears,
and people laugh at them.
When God punishes them, they are destroyed.
19The God_of_Jacob is not like images
because He made everything.
The Israelites are his own people.
His name is the Lord who rules over all.
20The Lord says: ‘Babylon,
you were my hammer, my weapon,
and I have used you to go to war_against people.
I have broken nations with you
and I have destroyed lands.
21I have killed horses with you,
and the soldiers who were on the horses.
I have broken war-chariots with you,
and the soldiers on the chariots.
22I have broken down
men and women with you,
and also old people and children,
young men and young women.
23I have broken shepherds
and their sheep with you,
and also farmers and their oxen.
I have broken governors
and rulers with you.
24But I will punish you, Babylon
and all the Babylonian people in the land
because of all the bad things
that you have done,
and that people have seen you do, in Zion.’
This is what the Lord says.
The end is near for Babylon
25The Lord also says:
‘Babylon, you are like a mountain
that destroys the earth,
but I am against you.
I will put my hand out against you
and I will push you
so that you will fall off the rocks.
I will make you like a mountain
that has burnt down.
26People will not find any stones
on you to build another wall.
There will never be people
living in you again.’
This is what the Lord says.
27‘You must put up a flag over the world,
and you must blow the trumpet
for the nations to come.
Go and tell the other nations to prepare
to go to war_against Babylon.
Go and call the people of the lands of
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Choose an officer to make plans for the war.
Go and get a lot of horses,
as many as a swarm of locusts.
28Tell these people to prepare
to go to war_against Babylon:
the kings of the Medes, the governors,
all the rulers and all the people
in the lands where they rule.
29The land of Babylon trembles and has pain,
because everything will happen now
that God has decided.
He has decided that Babylon
will become an empty place,
a place where no people live.
30The strong soldiers of Babylon
have stopped fighting.
They have stayed behind the walls,
and they have become weak like women.
The enemies have burnt down
the houses in the city
and they have broken the gates.
31There are a lot of messengers.
They all bring news to the king
that the enemies have defeated the city
and they have taken the city completely.
32The enemies have defeated
the places at the rivers
where the water is not deep
and they have burnt down the reeds.
The soldiers of Babylon
were too afraid to do anything.’
33The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says:
‘Babylon is like a threshing-floor,
and the people are ready to trample the wheat.
Very soon the enemies
will trample them like that.’
34‘King Nebuchadnezzar was like a monster.
He swallowed us and destroyed us,
and there was nothing left over.
He swallowed us, and he ate till his stomach was full.
He drank us and made us like an empty jar.’
35The people of Zion say:
‘We want the Lord to punish the people of Babylon
for the things that they did to hurt us
and for all our people that they have killed.’
The Lord will help the Israelites
36That is why the Lord says to the people of Judah:
‘I will punish those people
who have made you suffer
and whom you complain about.
I will make the rivers, channels
and fountains of Babylon dry.
37Babylon will become a heap of stones,
a place where foxes will live.
People will be shocked.
They will whistle when they see Babylon,
and no one will live there.
38The people of Babylon will roar like lions,
39and when they are hungry,
I will let them eat and drink.
I will make them drunk
so that they become happy,
and they will fall asleep
and never wake up again.’
This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah. 40The Lord also says:
‘I will lead the people of Babylon away to die,
like people take away lambs,
sheep and goat-rams to kill them.
41Everyone on earth has talked about Babylon
but enemies will defeat the city.
All the nations will be shocked
when they see what has happened to Babylon.
42The water will flow over Babylon,
and the waves will roar and flow over the city.
43The enemies will destroy the cities of the land
and it will become a dry desert.
No one will live there,
and no one will walk past the land.
44I will punish the god Bel in Babylon.
I will take everything
that he has swallowed, out of his mouth.
Nations will not go to Babylon anymore,
and the walls of Babylon will fall over.
45My people, you must get out of that city.
Everyone must save his own life,
because the Lord is angry,
and He wants to punish the people of Babylon.
46He will do it because
He wants you not to be afraid
when they tell you about kings
going to war_against other kings.
47You must know that the time will come
when I will punish the gods of Babylon.
Everyone in the land will realise
that those gods are useless
when the bodies of dead people
lie all over the land.
48Everyone in heaven and on earth
will sing when Babylon falls,
because the people who will destroy the city
will come from the north.
49The enemies will destroy Babylon,
because Babylon has killed
a lot of Israelites,
and also other people all over the world.
50You who have escaped
and were not killed, you have to go now.
Don't wait. You are far from Jerusalem
in another land, but you must always
think about the Lord and
you must remember Jerusalem.
51Our enemies have humiliated us.
They laughed at us and we are ashamed
because strangers came
into the holy places of the temple.’
52The Lord says: ‘You must know
that the time will come
when I will punish the gods of Babylon.
All over the land people
who have been wounded in war
will cry with pain.
53Even if Babylon could become
as high as the heaven,
or if they could make
the walls of their cities very strong,
I would bring people to destroy the city.’
This is what the Lord said.
54‘The people of Babylon
are shouting_loudly.
They ask anyone to help them
because the land of Babylon is destroyed.
55The Lord is destroying Babylon,
and the people are making a loud_noise
but He tells them to keep quiet.
The enemies are coming
like waves against the city,
waves that roar loudly.
56Yes, enemies are coming
to destroy everything in Babylon.
They will catch the soldiers of Babylon
and break their bows_and_arrows,
because the Lord is a God
who punishes people for
the bad things that they have done.’
57The King speaks.
His name is the Lord who rules over all.
He says: ‘I will make the people
of Babylon become drunk,
their officials, their wise men,
their governors, their rulers
and their soldiers. They will
fall asleep forever and never wake up.’
58The Lord who rules over all says:
‘The enemies will break down
the strong walls of Babylon completely
and they will burn its gates.
A lot of people
worked very hard to build it,
but it did not help.
Everything they have built
will burn down.’
Seraiah must throw the book in the Euphrates River
59Seraiah, son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, went with Zedekiah, king_of_Judah, to Babylon. It was in the 4th year after Zedekiah had become king. Seraiah had to see that there was food and a place for the king to sleep along the way. The prophet Jeremiah told Seraiah what to do when he came to Babylon. 60Jeremiah wrote all the bad things that would happen to Babylon in a book.
61Jeremiah told Seraiah: ‘When you come to Babylon, you must look at the city and read all these words, 62and then you must say: “Lord, You have said that You will destroy this city so that no one will live here, no people or animals. You have also said that this city will always be empty.” 63And when you have finished reading this book, you must tie a stone to the book and throw it in the Euphrates River. 64Then you must say: “That is how Babylon will go down, and it will never rise again, because of all the bad things that the Lord will make happen here. People worked very hard to build this city, but it did not help.” ’
These are the last words that Jeremiah said.
