Jeremiah 51:20-46
“ You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin.With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.“ 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 Yahweh.“ Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh,“ 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.They won’t take a cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate forever,” says Yahweh.“ 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!Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion!The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.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.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.So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.”For Yahweh of Armies, 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.”“ 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.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.Therefore Yahweh says:“ Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.They will roar together like young lions. They will growl as lions’ cubs.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 Yahweh.“ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.“ How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves.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.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.“ My people, go away from the middle of her, and each of you save yourselves from Yahweh’s fierce anger.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.