Jeremiah 51:26-58

People will not find any rocks in Babylon big enough for cornerstones. People will not take any rocks from Babylon to use for the foundation of a building, because your city will be just a pile of ruins forever,” says the LORD. “Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Get the nations ready for battle against Babylon. Call these kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz to fight against her. Choose a commander to lead the army against Babylon. Send so many horses that they are like a swarm of locusts. Get the nations ready for battle against Babylon— the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officers, and all the countries they rule. The land shakes and moves in pain, because the LORD will do what he has planned to Babylon. He will make Babylon an empty desert, where no one will live. Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting. They stay in their protected cities. Their strength is gone, and they have become like frightened women. Babylon’s houses are burning. The bars of her gates are broken. One messenger follows another; messenger follows messenger. They announce to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured. The river crossings have been captured, and the swamplands are burning. All of Babylon’s soldiers are terribly afraid.” This is what the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “The city of Babylon is like a threshing floor, where people crush the grain at harvest time. The time to harvest Babylon is coming soon.” “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has defeated and destroyed us. In the past he took our people away, and we became like an empty jar. He was like a giant snake that swallowed us. He filled his stomach with our best things. Then he spit us out. Babylon did terrible things to hurt us. Now let those things happen to Babylon,” say the people of Jerusalem. “The people of Babylon killed our people. Now let them be punished for what they did,” says Jerusalem. So this is what the LORD says: “I will soon defend you, Judah, and make sure that Babylon is punished. I will dry up Babylon’s sea and make her springs become dry. Babylon will become a pile of ruins, a home for wild dogs. People will be shocked by what happened there. No one will live there anymore. Babylon’s people roar like young lions; they growl like baby lions. While they are stirred up, I will give a feast for them and make them drunk. They will shout and laugh. And they will sleep forever and never wake up!” says the LORD. “I will take the people of Babylon to be killed. They will be like lambs, like sheep and goats waiting to be killed. “How Babylon has been defeated! The pride of the whole earth has been taken captive. People from other nations are shocked at what happened to Babylon, and the things they see make them afraid. The sea has risen over Babylon; its roaring waves cover her. Babylon’s towns are ruined and empty. It has become a dry, desert land, a land where no one lives. People do not even travel through Babylon. I will punish the god Bel in Babylon. I will make him spit out what he has swallowed. Nations will no longer come to Babylon; even the wall around the city will fall. “Come out of Babylon, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the LORD’s great anger. Don’t lose courage; rumors will spread through the land, but don’t be afraid. One rumor comes this year, and another comes the next year. There will be rumors of terrible fighting in the country, of rulers fighting against rulers. The time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon, and the whole land will be disgraced. There will be many dead people lying all around. Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy about Babylon. They will shout because the army comes from the north to destroy Babylon,” says the LORD. “Babylon must fall, because she killed people from Israel. She killed people from everywhere on earth. You who have escaped being killed with swords, leave Babylon! Don’t wait! Remember the LORD in the faraway land and think about Jerusalem.” “We people of Judah are disgraced, because we have been insulted. We have been shamed, because strangers have gone into the holy places of the LORD’s Temple!” So the LORD says, “The time is coming soon when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Wounded people will cry with pain all over that land. Even if Babylon grows until she touches the sky, and even if she makes her highest cities strong, I will send people to destroy her,” says the LORD. “Sounds of people crying are heard in Babylon. Sounds of people destroying things are heard in the land of the Babylonians. The LORD is destroying Babylon and making the loud sounds of the city become silent. Enemies come roaring in like ocean waves. The roar of their voices is heard all around. The army has come to destroy Babylon. Her soldiers have been captured, and their bows are broken, because the LORD is a God who punishes people for the evil they do. He gives them the full punishment they deserve. I will make Babylon’s rulers and wise men drunk, and her governors, officers, and soldiers, too. Then they will sleep forever and never wake up,” says the King, whose name is the LORD All-Powerful. This is what the LORD All-Powerful says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be completely pulled down and her high gates burned. The people will work hard, but it won’t help; their work will only become fuel for the flames!”