1Thus says YHWH: Behold, I am stirring up against Babylon, and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai, a destroying spirit (ruach).
2And I will send to Babylon strangers, and they shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land; for they shall be against her all around in the day of trouble.
3Let the archer bend his bow against her, and let him array himself in his coat of mail; do not spare her young men, devote all her host to destruction.
4And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the pierced-through in her streets.
5For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by YHWH of hosts (tzevaot); though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let each man (ish) save his soul (nephesh); do not be cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of vengeance for YHWH; he is rendering to her a recompense.
7Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of YHWH, making all the earth drunk; the nations drank of her wine, therefore the nations are mad.
8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is broken; wail over her; take balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed.
9We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her, and let us go each man (ish) to his own land; for her judgment (mishpat) has reached to the heavens and is lifted up to the skies.
10YHWH has brought forth our righteous acts; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of YHWH our God.
11Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers; YHWH has stirred up the spirit (ruach) of the kings of the Medes, for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of YHWH, the vengeance of his temple.
12Against the walls of Babylon lift up a banner, strengthen the watch, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for YHWH has both devised and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13O you who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
14YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) has sworn by his own soul (nephesh): Surely I will fill you with men (adam) like the locust, and they shall raise a shout against you.
15He who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens;
16At the sound of his giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, he causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the spirit (ruach) from his treasuries.
17Every man (adam) is stupid, without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by the graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no spirit (ruach) in them.
18They are vanity, a work of mockery; in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19Not like these is the portion of Jacob; for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) is his name.
20You are my war-club, weapons of war; and with you I will shatter nations, and with you I will destroy kingdoms;
21and with you I will shatter the horse and its rider, and with you I will shatter the chariot and its driver;
22and with you I will shatter man (ish) and woman (ishah), and with you I will shatter old man and youth, and with you I will shatter young man and virgin;
23and with you I will shatter shepherd and his flock, and with you I will shatter farmer and his team, and with you I will shatter governors and deputies.
24And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes, declares YHWH.
25Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares YHWH, who destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain.
26And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be an everlasting desolation, declares YHWH.
27Lift up a banner in the land, blow the shofar among the nations; consecrate the nations against her; summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint against her a marshal; bring up horses like the bristling locust.
28Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, her governors and all her deputies, and all the land of his dominion.
29And the earth quakes and writhes, for the purposes of YHWH against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they remain in the strongholds; their might has dried up, they have become women (ishah); her dwelling places (mishkan) are set on fire, her bars are broken.
31Runner runs to meet runner, and messenger to meet messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end;
32and the fords are seized, and the marshes they have burned with fire, and the men (ish) of war are terrified.
33For thus says YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.
34Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has set me down as an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like the great sea-creature (tannin); he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has rinsed me out.
35"The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon," shall the inhabitant of Zion say; "and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," shall Jerusalem say.
36Therefore thus says YHWH: Behold, I will plead your cause and take your vengeance; and I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.
37And Babylon shall become heaps, a den of great sea-creatures (tannin), a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38Together like young lions they roar, they growl like lions' cubs.
39When they are heated, I will set their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may exult and sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake, declares YHWH.
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
41How is Sheshach captured, and the praise of all the earth seized! How has Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
42The sea has come up over Babylon; with the multitude of its waves she is covered.
43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land and a desert, a land in which no man (ish) dwells, nor does a son of man (adam) pass through them.
44And I will visit punishment on Bel in Babylon, and bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; and the nations shall no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45Go out from her midst, my people, and let each man (ish) save his soul (nephesh) from the fierce anger of YHWH.
46And lest your heart faint, and you fear at the report heard in the land, when the report comes in one year, and after it in another year a report, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler,
47therefore behold, days are coming when I will visit punishment on the graven images of Babylon, and all her land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48And the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall sing for joy over Babylon; for out of the north the spoilers shall come against her, declares YHWH.
49As Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall, so for Babylon shall the slain of all the earth fall.
50You who have escaped the sword, go, do not stand still; remember YHWH from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your heart.
51We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the holy places of the house of YHWH.
52Therefore behold, days are coming, declares YHWH, when I will visit punishment on her graven images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, from me spoilers shall come against her, declares YHWH.
54A sound of crying from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55For YHWH is spoiling Babylon, and destroying out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is uttered.
56For a spoiler has come against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are captured, their bows are shattered; for YHWH is a God of recompenses, he will surely repay.
57And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies and her mighty men; and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake, declares the King, YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) is his name.
58Thus says YHWH of hosts (tzevaot): The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly demolished, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for emptiness, and the nations for the fire, and they shall be weary.
59The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded (tzivvah) Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was quartermaster.
60And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,
62and say, 'O YHWH, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that none shall dwell in it, neither man (adam) nor beast, but it shall be an everlasting desolation.'
63And it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,
64and say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink and not rise, because of the evil that I am bringing upon her; and they shall grow weary.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.