“Come out of Babylon, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the LORD’s great anger.
Don’t lose courage;
rumors will spread through the land, but don’t be afraid.
One rumor comes this year, and another comes the next year.
There will be rumors of terrible fighting in the country,
of rulers fighting against rulers.
The time will surely come
when I will punish the idols of Babylon,
and the whole land will be disgraced.
There will be many dead people lying all around.
Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy about Babylon.
They will shout because the army comes from the north
to destroy Babylon,” says the LORD.
“Babylon must fall, because she killed people from Israel.
She killed people from everywhere on earth.
You who have escaped being killed with swords,
leave Babylon! Don’t wait!
Remember the LORD in the faraway land
and think about Jerusalem.”
“We people of Judah are disgraced,
because we have been insulted.
We have been shamed,
because strangers have gone into
the holy places of the LORD’s Temple!”
So the LORD says, “The time is coming soon
when I will punish the idols of Babylon.
Wounded people will cry with pain
all over that land.
Even if Babylon grows until she touches the sky,
and even if she makes her highest cities strong,
I will send people to destroy her,” says the LORD.
“Sounds of people crying are heard in Babylon.
Sounds of people destroying things
are heard in the land of the Babylonians.
The LORD is destroying Babylon
and making the loud sounds of the city become silent.
Enemies come roaring in like ocean waves.
The roar of their voices is heard all around.
The army has come to destroy Babylon.
Her soldiers have been captured,
and their bows are broken,
because the LORD is a God who punishes people for the evil they do.
He gives them the full punishment they deserve.
I will make Babylon’s rulers and wise men drunk,
and her governors, officers, and soldiers, too.
Then they will sleep forever and never wake up,” says the King,
whose name is the LORD All-Powerful.
This is what the LORD All-Powerful says:
“Babylon’s thick wall will be completely pulled down
and her high gates burned.
The people will work hard, but it won’t help;
their work will only become fuel for the flames!”
This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the officer Seraiah son of Neriah, who was the son of Mahseiah. Seraiah went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year Zedekiah was king of Judah. His duty was to arrange the king’s food and housing on the trip. Jeremiah had written on a scroll all the terrible things that would happen to Babylon, all these words about Babylon. Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, be sure to read this message so all the people can hear you. Then say, ‘LORD, you have said that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals will live in it. It will be an empty ruin forever.’ After you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates River. Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and will not rise again because of the terrible things I will make happen here. Her people will fall.’ ”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
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