1 Or, maul

2 Or, lieutenants

3 Heb. sanctify.

tion they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is 19 not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.

Thou art my 'battle axe and weapons of war: 20 and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; and with 21 thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the 22 chariot and him that rideth therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; and with thee 23 will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces 'governors and deputies. And I will render unto Babylon and to 24 all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.

Behold, I am against thee, O destroying 25 mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And 26 they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD. Set ye up a 27 standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough cankerworm. Prepare against her the 28 nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the

3

29

land of his dominion. And the land trembleth and is in pain for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon do stand, to make the land of 30 Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. The

mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strong holds; their might hath failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are 31 broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every 32 quarter: and the 'passages are surprised, and the 'reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

33

For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall 34 come for her. Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured 'me, he hath crushed Another 'me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he reading is, us. hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his maw with my delicates; he hath cast

flesh.

inhabitress.

35 me out. The violence done to me and to Heb. My my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the 'inhabit- wrong and my ant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the Heb. inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. 36 Therefore thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make 37 her fountain dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and an hissing, without inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like young lions; 39 they shall growl as lions' whelps. When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the

26.

2 Or, an astonishment

3 Or, tumult

LORD.

I will bring them down like lambs 40 to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

1 See ch. xxv. How is 'Sheshach taken! and the praise of 41 the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! The 42 sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. Her 43 cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. And I 4+ will 'do judgement upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall,

4 Heb. visit upon.

My people, go ye out of the midst of her, 45 and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the LORD. And let not your heart 46 faint, neither fear ye for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; for a rumour shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. Therefore, behold, the days 47 come, that I will do judgement upon the graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be ashamed; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Then the heaven and the earth, and 48 all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD. As Babylon hath 49 caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land. Ye that 50 have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. We are ashamed, be- 51 cause we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house. Where- 52

fore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgement upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded 53 shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall 54 Spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD. The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! 55 for the LORD spoileth Babylon, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voice 56 is uttered: for the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces: for the LORD is a God of recompences, he shall surely 57 requite. And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. 58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts: 'The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly 'overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labour for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be

59

weary.

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was 'chief chamber- Or, quarter60 lain. And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the master evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Baby61 lon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou 62 read all these words, and say, O LORD, thou

5 Or, one book

Or, and shalt see, and read thou say

...then shalt

hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an 63 end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates and thou shalt say, Thus shall 64 Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because. 1Or, upon her. of the evil that I will bring 'upon her: and they shall be weary.

And they

shall be weary: thus far &c.

2 See 2 Kings xxiv. 18, &c.

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

I

2

'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when 1 52 he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the LORD 3 did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence: and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his 4 reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. So the 5 city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. In the fourth month, in the 6 ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made 7 in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about:) and they went by the way of the Arabah. But the army 8