1 This is what the Lord says:
2 I will send people to winnow Babylon,
3 Have the archers bend their bows.
4 Babylon’s soldiers will fall down badly wounded in their streets.
5 Israel and Judah haven’t been abandoned by their God, the Lord of Armies, although their land is guilty of abandoning the Holy One of Israel.
6 Run away from Babylon!
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand.
8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be shattered.
9 We wanted to heal Babylon, but it couldn’t be healed.
10 The Lord has brought about our victory.
11 Sharpen the arrows; fill the quivers.
12 Raise your battle flag in front of the walls of Babylon.
13 Babylon, you live beside many rivers and are rich with treasures,
14 The Lord of Armies has taken an oath on himself:
15 The Lord made the earth by his power.
16 When he thunders, the water in the sky roars.
17 Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
18 They can’t breathe.
19 Jacob’s God isn’t like them.
20 “You are my war club and my weapon for battle.
21 I will use you to crush horses and their riders.
22 I will use you to crush men and women.
23 I will use you to crush shepherds and their flocks.
24 “In your presence I will pay back Babylon
25 “I am against you, Babylon, you destructive mountain.
26 People won’t find any stones in you to use as a cornerstone.
27 Raise your battle flag throughout the world.
28 Prepare nations to attack Babylon.
29 The earth trembles and writhes in pain.
30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting.
31 Runners run to meet runners.
32 The river crossings have been taken.
33 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
34 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured us.
35 The people who live in Zion say,
36 This is what the Lord says:
37 Babylon will become piles of rubble.
38 Its people are like roaring lions and growling lion cubs.
39 When they are excited,
40 I will take them to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats.
41 “Sheshach has been captured.
42 What a horrifying sight Babylon will be to the nations!
43 Its cities will be ruined.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon.
45 “Leave it, my people!
46 Don’t lose courage or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land.
47 That is why the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s idols.
48 Then heaven and earth and everything in them will rejoice over Babylon,
49 Because the people of Babylon have killed many Israelites
50 You people who escaped from the sword, leave!
51 We have been put to shame, and we have been disgraced.
52 “That is why the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
53 The people of Babylon might go up to heaven.
54 Cries of agony are heard from Babylon.
55 The Lord will destroy Babylon.
56 A destroyer will attack Babylon,
57 I will make their officials and wise men drunk,
58 This is what the Lord of Armies says:
59 This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Seraiah, son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s rule. (Seraiah was the quartermaster.)
60 Jeremiah wrote on a scroll all the disasters that would happen to Babylon. He wrote all these things that have been written about Babylon.
61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all this.
62 Then say, ‘Lord, you have threatened to destroy this place so that no person or animal will live here, and it will become a permanent ruin.’
63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.
64 Say, ‘Babylon will sink like this scroll. It will never rise again because of the disasters that I will bring on it.’ ”