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¹ THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE AGAINST BABYLON. ² Proclaim ye among the Gentiles, and cause the tidings to be heard, and suppress them not: say ye, Babylon is taken, Belus is confounded; the fearless, the luxurious Maerodach is delivered up. ³ For a nation has come up against her from the north, he shall utterly ravage her land, and there shall be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast. ⁴ In those days, and at that time, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together; they shall proceed, weeping as they go, seeking the Lord their God. ⁵ They shall ask the way till they come to Sion, for that way shall they set their face; and they shall come and flee for refuge to the Lord their God; for the everlasting covenant shall not be forgotten. ⁶ My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds thrust them out, they caused them to wander on the mountains: they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting-place. ⁷ All that found them consumed them: their enemies said, Let us not leave them alone, because they have sinned against the Lord: he that gathered their fathers had a pasture of righteousness. ⁸ Flee ye out of the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go forth, and be as serpents before sleep. ⁹ For, behold, I stir up against Babylon the gatherings of nations out of the land of the north; and they shall set themselves in array against her: thence shall she be taken, as the dart of an expert warrior shall not return empty. ¹⁰ And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied. ¹¹ Because ye rejoiced, and boasted, while plundering mine heritage; because ye exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls.

¹² Your mother is greatly ashamed; your mother that bore you for prosperity is confounded: she is the last of the nations, desolate, ¹³ by reason of the Lord’s anger: it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be all a desolation; and every one that passes through Babylon shall scowl, and they shall hiss at all her plague. ¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows, ¹⁵ and prevail against her: her hands are weakened, her bulwarks are fallen, and her wall is broken down: for it is vengeance from God: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her. ¹⁶ Utterly destroy seed out of Babylon, and him that holds a sickle in time of harvest: for fear of the Grecian sword, they shall return every one to his people, and every one shall flee to his own land. ¹⁷ Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have driven him out: the king of Assyria firsts devoured him, and afterward this king of Babylon has gnawed his bones. ¹⁸ Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will take vengeance on the king of Babylon, and upon his land, as I took vengeance on the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and on mount Ephraim and in Galaad, and his soul shall be satisfied. ²⁰ In those days, and at that time, they shall seek for the iniquity of Israel, and there shall be none; and for the sins of Juda, and they shall not be found: for I will be merciful to them that are left ²¹ on the land, saith the Lord. ²² A sound of war, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans!