Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.

1. The burden of the wilderness of the sea.As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

2. A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media's sighing.

3. Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see.

4. My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

5. They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!

6. For the Lord said to me, "Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

7. When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness."

8. He cried like a lion: "Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

9. Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs." He answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

10. You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!" That which I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.

34. The LORD's word that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

35. "The LORD of Armies says:'Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,the chief of their might.

36. I will bring on Elam the four winds from the four quarters of the sky,and will scatter them toward all those winds.There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam will not come.

37. I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies,and before those who seek their life.I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger,' says The LORD;'and I will send the sword after them,until I have consumed them.

38. I will set my throne in Elam,and will destroy from there king and princes,' says The LORD.

39. 'But it will happen in the latter daysthat I will reverse the captivity of Elam,' says The LORD."

11. "Make the arrows sharp!Hold the shields firmly!The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it;for it is the vengeance of The LORD,the vengeance of his temple.

12. Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon!Make the watch strong!Set the watchmen,and prepare the ambushes;for the LORD has both purposed and donethat which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13. You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures,your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.

14. The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself, saying,'Surely I will fill you with men,as with the canker worm;and they will lift up a shout against you.'

15. "He has made the earth by his power.He has established the world by his wisdom.By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens.

16. When he utters his voice,there is a roar of waters in the heavens,and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rain,and brings the wind out of his treasuries.

17. "Every man has become brutish without knowledge.Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image;for his molten image is falsehood,and there is no breath in them.

18. They are vanity,a work of delusion.In the time of their visitation, they will perish.

19. The portion of Jacob is not like these,for he is the former of all things;including the tribe of his inheritance:The LORD of Armies is his name.

20. "You are my battle ax and weapons of war.With you I will break the nations into pieces.With you I will destroy kingdoms.

21. With you I will break in piecesthe horse and his rider.

22. With you I will break in piecesthe chariot and him who rides therein.With you I will break in piecesman and woman.With you I will break in piecesthe old man and the youth.With you I will break in piecesthe young man and the virgin.

23. With you I will break in piecesthe shepherd and his flock.With you I will break in piecesthe farmer and his yoke.With you will I break in piecesgovernors and deputies.

24. "I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight," says The LORD.

25. "Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain," says The LORD,"which destroys all the earth.I will stretch out my hand on you,roll you down from the rocks,and will make you a burned mountain.

26. They won't take a cornerstone from you,nor a stone for foundations;but you will be desolate for ever," says The LORD.

27. "Set up a 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 canker worm!

28. Prepare against her the nations,the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion!

29. The land trembles and is in pain;for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand,to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

30. The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting,they remain in their strongholds.Their might has failed.They have become as women.Her dwelling places are set on fire.Her bars are broken.

31. One runner will run to meet another,and one messenger to meet another,to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.

32. So the passages are seized.They have burned the reeds with fire.The men of war are frightened."

33. For the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says:"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 comes for her."

34. "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me.He has crushed me.He has made me an empty vessel.He has, like a monster, swallowed me up.He has filled his mouth with my delicacies.He has cast me out.

35. May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!"the inhabitant of Zion will say; and,"May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!"will Jerusalem say.

36. Therefore the LORD says:"Behold, I will plead your cause,and take vengeance for you.I will dry up her sea,and make her fountain dry.

37. Babylon will become heaps,a dwelling place for jackals,an astonishment, and a hissing,without inhabitant.

38. They will roar together like young lions.They will growl as lions' cubs.

39. When they are heated, I will make their feast,and I will make them drunk,that they may rejoice,and sleep a perpetual sleep,and not wake up," says The LORD.

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

41. "How Sheshach is taken!How the praise of the whole earth seized!How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

42. The sea has come up on Babylon.She is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43. Her cities have become a desolation,a dry land, and a desert,a land in which no man dwells.No son of man passes by it.

44. I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon,and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up.The nations will not flow any more to him.Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.

45. "My people, go away from the middle of her,and each of you save yourselves from The LORD's fierce anger.

46. Don't let your heart faint.Don't fear for the news that will be heard in the land.For news will come one year,and after that in another year news will come,and violence in the land,ruler against ruler.

47. Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon;and her whole land will be confounded.All her slain will fall in the middle of her.

48. Then the heavens and the earth,and all that is therein,will sing for joy over Babylon;for the destroyers will come to her from the north," says The LORD.

49. "As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon.

50. You who have escaped the sword, go!Don't stand still!Remember the LORD from afar,and let Jerusalem come into your mind."

51. "We are confounded,because we have heard reproach.Confusion has covered our faces,for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of The LORD's house."

52. "Therefore behold, the days come," says The LORD,"that I will execute judgment on her engraved images;and through all her land the wounded will groan.

53. Though Babylon should mount up to the sky,and though she should fortify the height of her strength,yet destroyers will come to her from me," says The LORD.

54. "The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55. For the LORD lays Babylon waste,and destroys out of her the great voice!Their waves roar like many waters.The noise of their voice is uttered.

56. For the destroyer has come on her,even on Babylon.Her mighty men are taken.Their bows are broken in pieces,for the LORD is a God of retribution.He will surely repay.

57. I will make her princes, her wise men,her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk.They will sleep a perpetual sleep,and not wake up,"says the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

58. The LORD of Armies says:"The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown.Her high gates will be burned with fire.The peoples will labor for vanity,and the nations for the fire;and they will be weary."

59. 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 quartermaster.

60. Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61. Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,

62. and say, 'The LORD, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.'

63. It will be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates.

64. Then you shall say, 'Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.'"Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

24. "There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.

25. They have set her a bed among the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is put among those who are slain.