Jeremiah 51:45-64

Come out from among her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the LORD’s burning anger. May you not become cowardly and fearful when the report is proclaimed in the land, for the report will come one year, and then another the next year. There will be violence in the land with ruler against ruler. Therefore, look, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s carved images. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her. Heaven and earth and everything in them will shout for joy over Babylon because the destroyers from the north will come against her. This is the LORD’s declaration. Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel, even as the slain of the whole earth fell because of Babylon. You who have escaped the sword, go and do not stand still! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind. We are ashamed because we have heard insults. Humiliation covers our faces because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s temple. Therefore, look, the days are coming — this is the LORD’s declaration — when I will punish her carved images, and the wounded will groan throughout her land. Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens and fortify her tall fortresses, destroyers will come against her from me. This is the LORD’s declaration. The sound of a cry from Babylon! The sound of terrible destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! For the LORD is going to devastate Babylon; he will silence her mighty voice. Their waves roar like a huge torrent; the tumult of their voice resounds, for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, their bows shattered, for the LORD is a God of retribution; he will certainly repay. I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the King’s declaration; the LORD of Armies is his name. This is what the LORD of Armies says: Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished, and her high gates set ablaze. The peoples will have labored for nothing; the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire. This is what the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon. Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. Say, ‘LORD, you have threatened to cut off this place so that no one will live in it — people or animals. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’ When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.’” The words of Jeremiah end here.