Jeremiah 51:1-2, 6, 8, 11, 13-14, 27-28, 33, 36-37, 41-43, 45-46, 54-57

Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon And against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai The spirit of a destroyer. I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her And may devastate her land; For on every side they will be opposed to her In the day of her calamity.

Flee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, For this is the LORD’S time of vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her.

Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.

Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused 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, vengeance for His temple.

O you who dwell by many waters, Abundant in treasures, Your end has come, The measure of your end. The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you with a population like locusts, And they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.”

Lift up a signal in the land, Blow a trumpet among the nations! Consecrate the nations against her, Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz; Appoint a marshal against her, Bring up the horses like bristly locusts. Consecrate the nations against her, The kings of the Medes, Their governors and all their prefects, And every land of their dominion.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor At the time it is stamped firm; Yet in a little while the time of harvest will come for her.”

Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am going to plead your case And exact full vengeance for you; And I will dry up her sea And make her fountain dry. Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

“How Sheshak has been captured, And the praise of the whole earth been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations! The sea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves. Her cities have become an object of horror, A parched land and a desert, A land in which no man lives And through which no son of man passes.

“Come forth from her midst, My people, And each of you save yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD. Now so that your heart does not grow faint, And you are not afraid at the report that will be heard in the land— For the report will come one year, And after that another report in another year, And violence will be in the land With ruler against ruler

The sound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon, And He will make her loud noise vanish from her. And their waves will roar like many waters; The tumult of their voices sounds forth. For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men will be captured, Their bows are shattered; For the LORD is a God of recompense, He will fully repay. “I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men, That they may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,” Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.