September 3
Jeremiah 51:25 — 52:34
 

25 “Here I am against you, O ruinous mountain,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “you ruiner of the whole earth; and I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you away from the crags and make you a burnt-out mountain.”
      26 “And people will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for foundations, because desolate wastes to time indefinite are what you will become,” is the utterance of Jehovah.

27 “Lift up a signal in the land, O men. Blow a horn among the nations. Sanctify against her the nations. Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Commission against her a recruiting officer. Make the horses come up like bristly locusts. 28 Sanctify against her the nations, the kings of Media, its governors and all its deputy rulers and all the land of each one’s dominion. 29 And let the earth rock and be in severe pain, for against Babylon the thoughts of Jehovah have risen up to make the land of Babylon an object of astonishment, without an inhabitant.

30 “The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight. They have kept sitting in the strong places. Their mightiness has run dry. They have become women. Her residences have been set on fire. Her bars have been broken.
      31 “One runner runs to meet another runner, and one reporter to meet another reporter, to report to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured at every end, 32 and that the fords themselves have been seized, and the papyrus boats they have burned with fire, and the men of war themselves have become disturbed.”

33 For this is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, has said: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. It is the time to tread her down solid. Yet a little while and the time of the harvest must come for her.”
      34 “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has eaten me up; he has thrown me into confusion. He has set me as an empty vessel. He has swallowed me down like a big snake; he has filled his abdomen with my pleasant things. He has rinsed me away. 35 ‘The violence done to me and [to] my organism be upon Babylon!’ the inhabitress of Zion will say. ‘And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!’ Jerusalem will say.”

36 Therefore this is what Jehovah has said: “Here I am conducting your legal case, and I shall certainly execute vengeance for you. And I will dry up her sea, and I will make her wells dry. 37 And Babylon must become piles of stones, the lair of jackals, an object of astonishment and something to whistle at, without an inhabitant. 38 All together they will roar just like maned young lions. They will certainly growl like the whelps of lions.”

39 “When they are heated I shall set their banquets and I will make them drunk, in order that they may exult; and they must sleep an indefinitely lasting sleep, from which they will not wake up,” is the utterance of Jehovah. 40 “I shall bring them down like male sheep to the slaughtering, like rams along with the he-goats.”

41 “O how Sheshach has been captured, and how the Praise of the whole earth gets to be seized! How Babylon has become a mere object of astonishment among the nations! 42 The sea has come up even over Babylon. By the multitude of its waves she has been covered. 43 Her cities have become an object of astonishment, a waterless land and a desert plain. As a land, in them no man will dwell, and through them no son of mankind will pass. 44 And I will turn my attention upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth what he has swallowed. And to him nations will stream no more. Also, the wall itself of Babylon must fall.

45 “Get out of the midst of her, O my people, and provide each one his soul with escape from the burning anger of Jehovah. 46 Or otherwise YOUR heart will be timid, and YOU will become afraid because of the report that is to be heard in the land. And in one year the report will actually come, and after it in another year there will be the report and violence in the earth and ruler against ruler. 47 Therefore, look! there are days coming, and I will turn my attention upon the graven images of Babylon; and all her own land will become ashamed, and all her own slain ones will fall in the midst of her.

48 “And over Babylon the heavens and the earth and all that is in them will certainly cry out joyfully, for out of the north there will come to her the despoilers,” is the utterance of Jehovah. 49 “Not only was Babylon the cause for the slain ones of Israel to fall but also at Babylon the slain ones of all the earth have fallen.
      50 “YOU escapees from the sword, keep going. Do not stand still. From far away remember Jehovah, and may Jerusalem herself come up into YOUR heart.”
      51 “We have been put to shame, for we have heard reproach. Humiliation has covered our faces, for strangers have come against the holy places of the house of Jehovah.”
      52 “Therefore, look! there are days coming,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I will turn my attention upon her graven images, and throughout all her land the pierced one will groan.”
      53 “Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens and even if she should make the height of her strength unapproachable, from me the despoilers will come to her,” is the utterance of Jehovah.

54 “Listen! There is an outcry from Babylon, and a great crash from the land of the Chaldeans, 55 for Jehovah is despoiling Babylon, and he will certainly destroy out of her the great voice, and their waves will actually be boisterous like many waters. The noise of their voice will certainly be given out. 56 For there must come upon her, upon Babylon, the despoiler, and her mighty men will certainly be captured. Their bows must be shattered, for Jehovah is a God of recompenses. Without fail he will repay. 57 And I will make her princes and her wise ones, her governors and her deputy rulers and her mighty men drunk, and they must sleep an indefinitely lasting sleep, from which they will not wake up,” is the utterance of the King, whose name is Jehovah of armies.

58 This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “The wall of Babylon, although broad, will without fail be demolished; and her gates, although high, will be set aflame with fire. And the peoples will have to toil for simply nothing, and national groups simply for the fire; and they will just tire themselves out.”

59 The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah the son of Mahseiah when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his being king; and Seraiah was the quartermaster. 60 And Jeremiah proceeded to write in one book all the calamity that would come upon Babylon, even all these words written against Babylon. 61 Furthermore, Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “As soon as you come to Babylon and actually see [her], you must also read aloud all these words. 62 And you must say, ‘O Jehovah, you yourself have spoken against this place, in order to cut it off so that there may come to be in it no inhabitant, either man or even domestic animal, but that she may become mere desolate wastes to time indefinite.’ 63 And it must occur that when you will have completed reading this book, you will tie to it a stone, and you must pitch it into the midst of the Euphrates. 64 And you must say, ‘This is how Babylon will sink down and never rise up because of the calamity that I am bringing in upon her; and they will certainly tire themselves out.’”

Down to this point are the words of Jeremiah.

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and for eleven years he reigned in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 And he continued to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For on account of the anger of Jehovah it occurred in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from before his face. And Zedekiah proceeded to rebel against the king of Babylon. 4 Finally it came about in the ninth year of his being king, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came, he and all his military force, against Jerusalem, and they began to camp against her and to build against her a siege wall all around. 5 So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine also got to be severe in the city and there proved to be no bread for the people of the land. 7 Finally the city was broken through; and as regards all the men of war, they began to run away and go forth from the city by night by the way of the gate between the double wall that is by the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were all around against the city; and they kept going by the way of the Arabah. 8 And a military force of the Chaldeans went chasing after the king, and they got to overtake Zedekiah in the desert plains of Jericho; and all his own military force was scattered from his side. 9 Then they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might pronounce upon him judicial decisions. 10 And the king of Babylon proceeded to slaughter the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also all the princes of Judah he slaughtered in Riblah. 11 And the eyes of Zedekiah he blinded, after which the king of Babylon bound him with copper fetters and brought him to Babylon and put him in the house of custody until the day of his death.

12 And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that is, [in] the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard, who was standing before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem. 13 And he proceeded to burn the house of Jehovah and the house of the king and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great house he burned with fire. 14 And all the walls of Jerusalem, round about, all the military forces of the Chaldeans that were with the chief of the bodyguard pulled down.

15 And some of the lowly ones of the people and the rest of the people that were left remaining in the city and the deserters that had fallen away to the king of Babylon and the rest of the master workmen Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard took into exile. 16 And some of the lowly ones of the land Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard let remain as vinedressers and as compulsory laborers.

17 And the copper pillars that belonged to the house of Jehovah and the carriages and the copper sea that was in the house of Jehovah the Chaldeans broke to pieces and went carrying all the copper of them to Babylon. 18 And the cans and the shovels and the extinguishers and the bowls and the cups and all the copper utensils with which they used to minister they took. 19 And the basins and the fire holders and the bowls and the cans and the lampstands and the cups and the bowls that were of genuine gold, and those that were of genuine silver, the chief of the bodyguard took. 20 And the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve copper bulls that were under [the sea], the carriages, that King Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah. There happened to be no weight [taken] of the copper of them—all these articles.

21 And as regards the pillars, eighteen cubits in height was each pillar, and a thread of twelve cubits itself would go around it; and its thickness was four fingerbreadths, it being hollow. 22 And the capital upon it was of copper, and the height of the one capital was five cubits; and as regards the network and the pomegranates upon the capital, all around, the whole was of copper; and the second pillar had just the same as these, also the pomegranates. 23 And the pomegranates came to be ninety-six, on the sides, all the pomegranates being one hundred upon the network round about.

24 Furthermore, the chief of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers, 25 and from the city he took one court official that happened to be commissioner over the men of war, and seven men of those having access to the king, who were found in the city, and the secretary of the chief of the army, the one mustering the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. 26 So these Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard took and conducted them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 And these the king of Babylon proceeded to strike down and to put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah went into exile from off its soil.

28 These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews.
      29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, from Jerusalem there were eight hundred and thirty-two souls.
      30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard took Jews into exile, seven hundred and forty-five souls.
      All the souls were four thousand and six hundred.

31 At length it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in the year of his becoming king, raised up the head of Jehoiachin the king of Judah and proceeded to bring him forth from the prison house. 32 And he began to speak with him good things and to put his throne higher than the thrones of the [other] kings that were with him in Babylon. 33 And he took off his prison garments, and he ate bread before him constantly all the days of his life. 34 And as for his allowance, there was a constant allowance given him from the king of Babylon, daily as due, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.