Verse 1
The word that the Lord spake, concerning Babel, and cocerning the land of the Caldeans by the ministerie of Ieremiah the Prophet.
Verse 2
Declare among the nations, and publish it, and set vp a standart, proclaime it and conceale it not: say, Babel is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken downe: her idols are confounded, and their images are burst in pieces.
Verse 3
For out of the North there commeth vp a nation against her, which shall make her lande waste, and none shall dwel therein: they shall flee, and depart, both man and beast.
Verse 4
In those daies, and at that time, sayeth the Lorde, the children of Israel shal come, they, and the children of Iudah together, going, and weeping shal they goe, and seeke the Lord their God.
Verse 5
They shal aske the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let vs cleaue to the Lorde in a perpetuall couenant that shall not be forgotten.
Verse 6
My people hath beene as lost sheepe: their shepheards haue caused them to goe astray, and haue turned them away to the mountaines: they haue gone from mountaine to hil, and forgotten their resting place.
Verse 7
Al that found them, haue deuoured them, & their enemies saide, We offende not, because they haue sinned against the Lord, the habitation of iustice, euen the Lord the hope of their fathers.
Verse 8
Flee from the middes of Babel, and depart out of the lande of the Caldeans, and be ye as the hee goates before the flocke.
Verse 9
For loe, I will raise, and cause to come vp against Babel a multitude of mightie natios from the North countrey, and they shall set themselues in aray against her, whereby shee shall be taken: their arrowes shall be as of a strong man, which is expert, for none shall returne in vaine.
Verse 10
And Caldea shalbe a spoyle: all that spoyle her, shalbe satisfied, sayth the Lord.
Verse 11
Because yee were glad and reioyced in destroying mine heritage, & because ye are growen fatte, as the calues in the grasse, and neied like strong horses,
Verse 12
Therefore your mother shall bee sore confounded, and she that bare you, shall be ashamed: beholde, the vttermost of the nations shalbe a desert, a drie land, and a wildernes.
Verse 13
Because of the wrath of the Lorde it shall not be inhabited, but shal be wholy desolate: euery one that goeth by Babel, shall be astonished, and hisse at all her plagues.
Verse 14
Put your selues in aray against Babel rounde about: all ye that bende the bowe, shoote at her, spare no arrowes: for shee hath sinned against the Lord.
Verse 15
Crie against her round about: she hath giuen her hand: her foundations are fallen, and her walles are destroyed: for it is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance vpon her: as she hath done, doe vnto her.
Verse 16
Destroy the sower from Babel, and him that handleth the sieth in the time of haruest: because of the sworde of the oppressor they shall turne euery one to his people, and they shall flee euery one to his owne land.
Verse 17
Israel is like scattered sheepe: the lions haue dispersed them: first the King of Asshur hath deuoured him, and last this Nebuchad-nezzar King, of Babel hath broken his bones.
Verse 18
Therefore thus saith the Lord of hostes the God of Israel, Behold, I wil visit ye King of Babel, and his land, as I haue visited the King of Asshur.
Verse 19
And I will bring Israel againe to his habitation: hee shall feede on Carmel and Bashan, and his soule shall be satisfied vpon the mount Ephraim and Gilead.
Verse 20
In those daies, and at that time, sayeth the Lorde, the iniquitie of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sinnes of Iudah, and they shall not be founde: for I will be mercifull vnto them, whome I reserue.
Verse 21
Goe vp against the lande of the rebelles, euen against it, and against the inhabitantes of Pekod: destroy, and lay it waste after them, saieth the Lorde, and doe according to all that I haue commaunded thee.
Verse 22
A crie of battell is in the land, and of great destruction.
Verse 23
Howe is the hammer of the whole world destroied, and broken! Howe is Babel become desolate among the nations!
Verse 24
I haue snared thee, and thou art taken, O Babel, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striuen against the Lorde.
Verse 25
The Lord hath opened his treasure, & hath brought foorth the weapons of his wrath: for this is the woorke of the Lorde God of hostes in the lande of the Caldeans.
Verse 26
Come against her from the vtmost border: open her store houses: treade on her as on sheaues, and destroy her vtterly: let nothing of her be left.
Verse 27
Destroy all her bullockes: let them goe downe to the slaughter. Wo vnto them, for their day is come, and the time of their visitation.
Verse 28
The voyce of them that flee, and escape out of the lande of Babel to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lorde our God, and the vengeance of his Temple.
Verse 29
Call vp the archers against Babel: al ye that bend the bow, besiege it rounde about: let none thereof escape: recompence her according to her worke, & according to all that she hath done, doe vnto her: for she hath bene proud against the Lord, euen against the holy one of Israel.
Verse 30
Therefore shall her yong men fall in the streetes, and al her men of warre shalbe destroied in that day, sayeth the Lord.
Verse 31
Beholde, I come vnto thee, O proude man, saith the Lord God of hostes: for thy day is come, euen the time that I will visite thee.
Verse 32
And the proude shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him vp: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, & it shall deuoure all round about him.
Verse 33
Thus saieth the Lord of hosts, The children of Israel, and the children of Iudah were oppressed together: and all that tooke them captiues, held them, and would not let them goe.
Verse 34
But their strong redeemer, whose Name is the Lord of hostes, he shall maintaine their cause, that he may giue rest to the lande, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babel.
Verse 35
A sworde is vpon the Caldeans, sayeth the Lord, and vpon the inhabitants of Babel, and vpon her princes, and vpon her wise men.
Verse 36
A sworde is vpon the soothsaiers, and they shall dote: a sword is vpon her strong men, & they shalbe afraide.
Verse 37
A sworde is vpon their horses & vpon their charets, and vpon all the multitude that are in the middes of her, and they shall be like women: a sworde is vpon her treasures, and they shall be spoyled.
Verse 38
A drought is vpon her waters, and they shall be dried vp: for it is the lande of grauen images, and they dote vpon their idoles.
Verse 39
Therefore the Ziims with the Iims shall dwel there, & the ostriches shal dwel therein: for it shall be no more inhabited, neither shall it be inhabited from generation vnto generation.
Verse 40
As God destroied Sodom and Gomorah with the places thereof neere about, sayeth the Lord: so shal no man dwell theere, neither shal the sonne of man remaine therein.
Verse 41
Beholde, a people shall come from the North, and a great nation, and many Kings shall be raised vp from the coastes of the earth.
Verse 42
They shall holde the bowe and the buckeler: they are cruell and vnmercifull: their voyce shall roare like the sea, and they shall ride vpon horses, and be put in aray like men to the battell against thee, O daughter of Babel.
Verse 43
The King of Babel hath heard the report of them, & his hands waxed feeble: sorow came vpon him, euen sorowe as of a woman in trauaile.
Verse 44
Beholde, hee shall come vp like a lyon from the swelling of Iorden vnto the strong habitation: for I will make Israel to rest, and I will make them to haste away from her: and who is a chosen man that I may appoynt against her? for who is like me, and who will appoynt me the time? and who is the shepheard that will stande before me?
Verse 45
Therefore heare the counsell of the Lorde that hee hath deuised against Babel, and his purpose that hee hath conceiued against the lande of the Caldeans: surely the least of the flocke shall drawe them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.
Verse 46
At the noyse of the winning of Babel the earth is moued, and the crye is heard among the nations.