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Revelation 18:6
Do to her as she has done to others. Double her penalty for all her evil deeds. She brewed a cup of terror for others, so brew twice as much for her.
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Isaiah 13:1-22
Isaiah son of Amoz received this message concerning the destruction of Babylon:“ Raise a signal flag on a bare hilltop. Call up an army against Babylon. Wave your hand to encourage them as they march into the palaces of the high and mighty.I, the Lord, have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted.”Hear the noise on the mountains! Listen, as the vast armies march! It is the noise and shouting of many nations. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has called this army together.They come from distant countries, from beyond the farthest horizons. They are the Lord’s weapons to carry out his anger. With them he will destroy the whole land.Scream in terror, for the day of the Lord has arrived— the time for the Almighty to destroy.Every arm is paralyzed with fear. Every heart melts,and people are terrified. Pangs of anguish grip them, like those of a woman in labor. They look helplessly at one another, their faces aflame with fear.For see, the day of the Lord is coming— the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger. The land will be made desolate, and all the sinners destroyed with it.The heavens will be black above them; the stars will give no light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will provide no light.“ I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty.I will make people scarcer than gold— more rare than the fine gold of Ophir.For I will shake the heavens. The earth will move from its place when the Lord of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath in the day of his fierce anger.”Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd. They will try to find their own people and flee to their own land.Anyone who is captured will be cut down— run through with a sword.Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped.“ Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon. They cannot be tempted by silver or bribed with gold.The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for children.”Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean pride, will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.Babylon will never be inhabited again. It will remain empty for generation after generation. Nomads will refuse to camp there, and shepherds will not bed down their sheep.Desert animals will move into the ruined city, and the houses will be haunted by howling creatures. Owls will live among the ruins, and wild goats will go there to dance.Hyenas will howl in its fortresses, and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces. Babylon’s days are numbered; its time of destruction will soon arrive.
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Revelation 14:8-11
Then another angel followed him through the sky, shouting,“ Babylon is fallen— that great city is fallen— because she made all the nations of the world drink the wine of her passionate immorality.”Then a third angel followed them, shouting,“ Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the handmust drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb.The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”
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Jeremiah 25:12-14
“ Then, after the seventy years of captivity are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his people for their sins,” says the Lord.“ I will make the country of the Babylonians a wasteland forever.I will bring upon them all the terrors I have promised in this book— all the penalties announced by Jeremiah against the nations.Many nations and great kings will enslave the Babylonians, just as they enslaved my people. I will punish them in proportion to the suffering they cause my people.”
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Isaiah 14:4-24
you will taunt the king of Babylon. You will say,“ The mighty man has been destroyed. Yes, your insolence is ended.For the Lord has crushed your wicked power and broken your evil rule.You struck the people with endless blows of rage and held the nations in your angry grip with unrelenting tyranny.But finally the earth is at rest and quiet. Now it can sing again!Even the trees of the forest— the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon— sing out this joyous song:‘ Since you have been cut down, no one will come now to cut us down!’“ In the place of the dead there is excitement over your arrival. The spirits of world leaders and mighty kings long dead stand up to see you.With one voice they all cry out,‘ Now you are as weak as we are!Your might and power were buried with you. The sound of the harp in your palace has ceased. Now maggots are your sheet, and worms your blanket.’“ How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.For you said to yourself,‘ I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.Everyone there will stare at you and ask,‘ Can this be the one who shook the earth and made the kingdoms of the world tremble?Is this the one who destroyed the world and made it into a wasteland? Is this the king who demolished the world’s greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?’“ The kings of the nations lie in stately glory, each in his own tomb,but you will be thrown out of your grave like a worthless branch. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will be dumped into a mass grave with those killed in battle. You will descend to the pit.You will not be given a proper burial, for you have destroyed your nation and slaughtered your people. The descendants of such an evil person will never again receive honor.Kill this man’s children! Let them die because of their father’s sins! They must not rise and conquer the earth, filling the world with their cities.”This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:“ I, myself, have risen against Babylon! I will destroy its children and its children’s children,” says the Lord.“ I will make Babylon a desolate place of owls, filled with swamps and marshes. I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath:“ It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided.
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Jeremiah 50:1-51:64
The Lord gave Jeremiah the prophet this message concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians.This is what the Lord says:“ Tell the whole world, and keep nothing back. Raise a signal flag to tell everyone that Babylon will fall! Her images and idols will be shattered. Her gods Bel and Marduk will be utterly disgraced.For a nation will attack her from the north and bring such destruction that no one will live there again. Everything will be gone; both people and animals will flee.“ In those coming days,” says the Lord,“ the people of Israel will return home together with the people of Judah. They will come weeping and seeking the Lord their God.They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.“ My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray and turned them loose in the mountains. They have lost their way and can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.All who found them devoured them. Their enemies said,‘ We did nothing wrong in attacking them, for they sinned against the Lord, their true place of rest, and the hope of their ancestors.’“ But now, flee from Babylon! Leave the land of the Babylonians. Like male goats at the head of the flock, lead my people home again.For I am raising up an army of great nations from the north. They will join forces to attack Babylon, and she will be captured. The enemies’ arrows will go straight to the mark; they will not miss!Babylonia will be looted until the attackers are glutted with loot. I, the Lord, have spoken!“ You rejoice and are glad, you who plundered my chosen people. You frisk about like a calf in a meadow and neigh like a stallion.But your homeland will be overwhelmed with shame and disgrace. You will become the least of nations— a wilderness, a dry and desolate land.Because of the Lord’s anger, Babylon will become a deserted wasteland. All who pass by will be horrified and will gasp at the destruction they see there.“ Yes, prepare to attack Babylon, all you surrounding nations. Let your archers shoot at her; spare no arrows. For she has sinned against the Lord.Shout war cries against her from every side. Look! She surrenders! Her walls have fallen. It is the Lord’s vengeance, so take vengeance on her. Do to her as she has done to others!Take from Babylon all those who plant crops; send all the harvesters away. Because of the sword of the enemy, everyone will run away and rush back to their own lands.“ The Israelites are like sheep that have been scattered by lions. First the king of Assyria ate them up. Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cracked their bones.”Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:“ Now I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria.And I will bring Israel home again to its own land, to feed in the fields of Carmel and Bashan, and to be satisfied once more in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.In those days,” says the Lord,“ no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.“ Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you,” says the Lord.“ Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction.Babylon, the mightiest hammer in all the earth, lies broken and shattered. Babylon is desolate among the nations!Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you. You are caught, for you have fought against the Lord.The Lord has opened his armory and brought out weapons to vent his fury. The terror that falls upon the Babylonians will be the work of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.Yes, come against her from distant lands. Break open her granaries. Crush her walls and houses into heaps of rubble. Destroy her completely, and leave nothing!Destroy even her young bulls— it will be terrible for them, too! Slaughter them all! For Babylon’s day of reckoning has come.Listen to the people who have escaped from Babylon, as they tell in Jerusalem how the Lord our God has taken vengeance against those who destroyed his Temple.“ Send out a call for archers to come to Babylon. Surround the city so none can escape. Do to her as she has done to others, for she has defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.Her young men will fall in the streets and die. Her soldiers will all be killed,” says the Lord.“ See, I am your enemy, you arrogant people,” says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.“ Your day of reckoning has arrived— the day when I will punish you.O land of arrogance, you will stumble and fall, and no one will raise you up. For I will light a fire in the cities of Babylon that will burn up everything around them.”This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:“ The people of Israel and Judah have been wronged. Their captors hold them and refuse to let them go.But the one who redeems them is strong. His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He will defend them and give them rest again in Israel. But for the people of Babylon there will be no rest!“ The sword of destruction will strike the Babylonians,” says the Lord.“ It will strike the people of Babylon— her officials and wise men, too.The sword will strike her wise counselors, and they will become fools. The sword will strike her mightiest warriors, and panic will seize them.The sword will strike her horses and chariots and her allies from other lands, and they will all become like women. The sword will strike her treasures, and they all will be plundered.A drought will strike her water supply, causing it to dry up. And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them.“ Soon Babylon will be inhabited by desert animals and hyenas. It will be a home for owls. Never again will people live there; it will lie desolate forever.I will destroy it as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns,” says the Lord.“ No one will live there; no one will inhabit it.“ Look! A great army is coming from the north. A great nation and many kings are rising against you from far off lands.They are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. As they ride forward on horses, they sound like a roaring sea. They are coming in battle formation, planning to destroy you, Babylon.The king of Babylon has heard reports about the enemy, and he is weak with fright. Pangs of anguish have gripped him, like those of a woman in labor.“ I will come like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan, leaping on the sheep in the pasture. I will chase Babylon from its land, and I will appoint the leader of my choice. For who is like me, and who can challenge me? What ruler can oppose my will?”Listen to the Lord’s plans against Babylon and the land of the Babylonians. Even the little children will be dragged off like sheep, and their homes will be destroyed.The earth will shake with the shout,“ Babylon has been taken!” and its cry of despair will be heard around the world.This is what the Lord says:“ I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Babylonia.Foreigners will come and winnow her, blowing her away as chaff. They will come from every side to rise against her in her day of trouble.Don’t let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. Don’t spare even her best soldiers! Let her army be completely destroyed.They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians, slashed to death in her streets.For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has not abandoned Israel and Judah. He is still their God, even though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”Flee from Babylon! Save yourselves! Don’t get trapped in her punishment! It is the Lord’s time for vengeance; he will repay her in full.Babylon has been a gold cup in the Lord’s hands, a cup that made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank Babylon’s wine, and it drove them all mad.But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen. Weep for her. Give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed.We would have helped her if we could, but nothing can save her now. Let her go; abandon her. Return now to your own land. For her punishment reaches to the heavens; it is so great it cannot be measured.The Lord has vindicated us. Come, let us announce in Jerusalem everything the Lord our God has done.Sharpen the arrows! Lift up the shields! For the Lord has inspired the kings of the Medes to march against Babylon and destroy her. This is his vengeance against those who desecrated his Temple.Raise the battle flag against Babylon! Reinforce the guard and station the watchmen. Prepare an ambush, for the Lord will fulfill all his plans against Babylon.You are a city by a great river, a great center of commerce, but your end has come. The thread of your life is cut.The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has taken this vow and has sworn to it by his own name:“ Your cities will be filled with enemies, like fields swarming with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”The Lord made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens.When he speaks in the thunder, the heavens roar with rain. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power.Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.But the God of Israel is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including his people, his own special possession. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name!“ You are my battle ax and sword,” says the Lord.“ With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms.With you I will shatter armies— destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer.With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and young women.With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and officers.“ I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.“ Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy,” says the Lord.“ I will raise my fist against you, to knock you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble.You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out,” says the Lord.Raise a signal flag to the nations. Sound the battle cry! Mobilize them all against Babylon. Prepare them to fight against her! Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander, and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!Bring against her the armies of the nations— led by the kings of the Medes and all their captains and officers.The earth trembles and writhes in pain, for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged. Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.Her mightiest warriors no longer fight. They stay in their barracks, their courage gone. They have become like women. The invaders have burned the houses and broken down the city gates.The news is passed from one runner to the next as the messengers hurry to tell the king that his city has been captured.All the escape routes are blocked. The marshes have been set aflame, and the army is in a panic.This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:“ Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor, about to be trampled. In just a little while her harvest will begin.”“ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has eaten and crushed us and drained us of strength. He has swallowed us like a great monster and filled his belly with our riches. He has thrown us out of our own country.Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,” say the people of Zion.“ Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,” says Jerusalem.This is what the Lord says to Jerusalem:“ I will be your lawyer to plead your case, and I will avenge you. I will dry up her river, as well as her springs,and Babylon will become a heap of ruins, haunted by jackals. She will be an object of horror and contempt, a place where no one lives.Her people will roar together like strong lions. They will growl like lion cubs.And while they lie inflamed with all their wine, I will prepare a different kind of feast for them. I will make them drink until they fall asleep, and they will never wake up again,” says the Lord.“ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed.“ How Babylon is fallen— great Babylon, praised throughout the earth! Now she has become an object of horror among the nations.The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its crashing waves.Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wasteland where no one lives or even passes by.And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and make him vomit up all he has eaten. The nations will no longer come and worship him. The wall of Babylon has fallen!“ Come out, my people, flee from Babylon. Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger.But do not panic; don’t be afraid when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces. For rumors will keep coming year by year. Violence will erupt in the land as the leaders fight against each other.For the time is surely coming when I will punish this great city and all her idols. Her whole land will be disgraced, and her dead will lie in the streets.Then the heavens and earth will rejoice, for out of the north will come destroying armies against Babylon,” says the Lord.“ Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel and others throughout the world, so must her people be killed.Get out, all you who have escaped the sword! Do not stand and watch— flee while you can! Remember the Lord, though you are in a far off land, and think about your home in Jerusalem.”“ We are ashamed,” the people say.“ We are insulted and disgraced because the Lord’s Temple has been defiled by foreigners.”“ Yes,” says the Lord,“ but the time is coming when I will destroy Babylon’s idols. The groans of her wounded people will be heard throughout the land.Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens and makes her fortifications incredibly strong, I will still send enemies to plunder her. I, the Lord, have spoken!“ Listen! Hear the cry of Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.
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Zechariah 2:7
Come away, people of Zion, you who are exiled in Babylon!”
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Revelation 18:20
Rejoice over her fate, O heaven and people of God and apostles and prophets! For at last God has judged her for your sakes.
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Psalms 149:6-9
Let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands—to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains,to execute the judgment written against them. This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the Lord!
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Isaiah 21:1
This message came to me concerning Babylon— the desert by the sea: Disaster is roaring down on you from the desert, like a whirlwind sweeping in from the Negev.
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Isaiah 44:28
When I say of Cyrus,‘ He is my shepherd,’ he will certainly do as I say. He will command,‘ Rebuild Jerusalem’; he will say,‘ Restore the Temple.’”
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Isaiah 47:1-15
“ Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust. For your days of sitting on a throne have ended. O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate.Take heavy millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, and strip off your robe. Expose yourself to public view.You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you without pity.”Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, is the Holy One of Israel.“ O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence. Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly.You said,‘ I will reign forever as queen of the world!’ You did not reflect on your actions or think about their consequences.“ Listen to this, you pleasure loving kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure. You say,‘ I am the only one, and there is no other. I will never be a widow or lose my children.’Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment: widowhood and the loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon you, despite all your witchcraft and magic.“ You felt secure in your wickedness.‘ No one sees me,’ you said. But your‘ wisdom’ and‘ knowledge’ have led you astray, and you said,‘ I am the only one, and there is no other.’So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared.“ Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.But they are like straw burning in a fire; they cannot save themselves from the flame. You will get no help from them at all; their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.And all your friends, those with whom you’ve done business since childhood, will go their own ways, turning a deaf ear to your cries.
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Revelation 17:1-18
One of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowls came over and spoke to me.“ Come with me,” he said,“ and I will show you the judgment that is going to come on the great prostitute, who rules over many waters.The kings of the world have committed adultery with her, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.”So the angel took me in the Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it.The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality.A mysterious name was written on her forehead:“ Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.”I could see that she was drunk— drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her in complete amazement.“ Why are you so amazed?” the angel asked.“ I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns on which she sits.The beast you saw was once alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died.“ This calls for a mind with understanding: The seven heads of the beast represent the seven hills where the woman rules. They also represent seven kings.Five kings have already fallen, the sixth now reigns, and the seventh is yet to come, but his reign will be brief.“ The scarlet beast that was, but is no longer, is the eighth king. He is like the other seven, and he, too, is headed for destruction.The ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not yet risen to power. They will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast.They will all agree to give him their power and authority.Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.”Then the angel said to me,“ The waters where the prostitute is ruling represent masses of people of every nation and language.The scarlet beast and his ten horns all hate the prostitute. They will strip her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her remains with fire.For God has put a plan into their minds, a plan that will carry out his purposes. They will agree to give their authority to the scarlet beast, and so the words of God will be fulfilled.And this woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the world.”
