Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Then all the commanders of the armies, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

²the prophet Jeremiah and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on our behalf, on behalf of this entire remnant (for few of us remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes),

³that the LORD your God may tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.”

⁴So the prophet Jeremiah said to them, “I have heard. I will now pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and I will tell you every word that the LORD answers you; I won’t withhold a word from you.”

⁵And they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t act according to every word the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

⁶Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the LORD our God to whom we are sending you so that it may go well with us. We will certainly obey the LORD our God!”

⁷At the end of ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah,

⁸and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.

⁹He said to them, “This is what the LORD says, the God of Israel to whom you sent me to bring your petition before him:

¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will rebuild and not demolish you, and I will plant and not uproot you, because I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought on you.

¹¹Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon whom you now fear; don’t be afraid of him’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘because I am with you to save you and rescue you from him.

¹²I will grant you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and allow you to return to your own soil.’

¹³“But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ in order to disobey the LORD your God,

¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, instead we’ll go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for food, and we’ll live there,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are firmly resolved to go to Egypt and stay there for a while,

¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels there to Egypt, and you will die there.

¹⁷All who resolve to go to Egypt to stay there for a while will die by the sword, famine, and plague. They will have no survivor or fugitive from the disaster I will bring on them.’

¹⁸“For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and fury were poured out on Jerusalem’s residents, so will my fury pour out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

¹⁹The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: ‘Don’t go to Egypt.’ Know for certain that I have warned you today!

²⁰You have gone astray at the cost of your lives because you are the ones who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us, and we’ll act accordingly.’

²¹For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God in everything he has sent me to tell you.

²²Now therefore, know for certain that by the sword, famine, and plague you will die in the place where you desired to go to stay for a while.”

¹When Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God — all these words the LORD their God had sent him to give them —

²then Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the other arrogant men responded to Jeremiah, “You are speaking a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to stay there for a while!’

³Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans to put us to death or to deport us to Babylon!”

⁴So Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies, and all the people failed to obey the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah.

⁵Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies led away the whole remnant of Judah, those who had returned to stay in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been banished.

⁶They led away the men, women, children, king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan. They also led the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah away.

⁷They went to the land of Egypt because they did not obey the LORD. They went as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes:

⁹“Pick up some large stones and set them in the mortar of the brick pavement that is at the opening of Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes. Do this in the sight of the Judean men

¹⁰and tell them, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will place his throne on these stones that I have embedded, and he will pitch his pavilion over them.

¹¹He will come and strike down the land of Egypt  — those destined for death, to death; those destined for captivity, to captivity; and those destined for the sword, to the sword.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the temples of Egypt’s gods, and he will burn them and take them captive. He will clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks lice off his clothes, and he will leave there unscathed.

¹³He will smash the sacred pillars of the sun temple in the land of Egypt and burn the temples of the Egyptian gods.’”

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt — at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in the land of Pathros:

²“This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster I brought against Jerusalem and all Judah’s cities. Look, they are a ruin today without an inhabitant in them

³because of the evil they committed to anger me, by going and burning incense to serve other gods that they, you, and your fathers did not know.

⁴So I sent you all my servants the prophets time and time again, saying, ‘Don’t commit this detestable action that I hate.’

⁵But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their evil or stop burning incense to other gods.

⁶So my fierce wrath poured out and burned in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets so that they became the desolate ruin they are today.

⁷“So now, this is what the LORD, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such terrible harm to yourselves? You are cutting off man and woman, infant and nursing baby from Judah, leaving yourselves without a remnant.

⁸You are angering me by the work of your hands. You are burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to stay for a while. As a result, you will be cut off and become an example for cursing and insult among all the nations of earth.

⁹Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, the evils of Judah’s kings, the evils of their wives, your own evils, and the evils of your wives that were committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰They have not become humble to this day, and they have not feared or followed my instruction or my statutes that I set before you and your ancestors.

¹¹“Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to set my face against you to bring disaster, to cut off all Judah.

¹²And I will take away the remnant of Judah, those who have set their face to go to the land of Egypt to stay there. All of them will meet their end in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword; they will meet their end by famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by the sword and by famine. Then they will become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace.

¹³I will punish those living in the land of Egypt just as I punished Jerusalem by sword, famine, and plague.

¹⁴Then the remnant of Judah — those going to live for a while there in the land of Egypt — will have no fugitive or survivor to return to the land of Judah where they are longing to return to stay, for they will not return except for a few fugitives.”

¹⁵However, all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, all the women standing by — a great assembly — and all the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros answered Jeremiah,

¹⁶“As for the word you spoke to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you!

¹⁷Instead, we will do everything we promised: we will burn incense to the queen of heaven and offer drink offerings to her just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets. Then we had enough food, we were well off, and we saw no disaster,

¹⁸but from the time we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to offer her drink offerings, we have lacked everything, and through sword and famine we have met our end.”

¹⁹And the women said, “When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it apart from our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

²⁰But Jeremiah responded to all the people — the men, women, and all the people who were answering him:

²¹“As for the incense you burned in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets — you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land — did the LORD not remember them? He brought this to mind.

²²The LORD can no longer bear your evil deeds and the detestable acts you have committed, so your land has become a waste, a desolation, and an example for cursing, without inhabitant, as you see today.

²³Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD and didn’t obey the LORD and didn’t follow his instruction, his statutes, and his testimonies, this disaster has come to you, as you see today.”

²⁴Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt.

²⁵This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As for you and your wives, you women have spoken with your mouths, and you men fulfilled it by your deeds, saying, “We will keep our vows that we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings for her.” Go ahead, confirm your vows! Keep your vows!’

²⁶“Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans who live in the land of Egypt: ‘I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name will never again be invoked by anyone of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord GOD lives.”

²⁷I am watching over them for disaster and not for good, and everyone from Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine until they are finished off.

²⁸Those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah only few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah, the ones going to the land of Egypt to stay there for a while, will know whose word stands, mine or theirs!

²⁹This will be a sign to you’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘that I will punish you in this place, so you may know that my words of disaster concerning you will certainly come to pass.

³⁰This is what the LORD says: I am about to hand over Pharaoh Hophra, Egypt’s king, to his enemies, to those who intend to take his life, just as I handed over Judah’s King Zedekiah to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, who was his enemy, the one who intended to take his life.’”

¹This is the word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:

²“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:

³‘You have said, “Woe is me, because the LORD has added misery to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.”’

⁴“This is what you are to say to him: ‘This is what the LORD says: “What I have built I am about to demolish, and what I have planted I am about to uproot  — the whole land!

⁵But as for you, do you pursue great things for yourself? Stop pursuing! For I am about to bring disaster on everyone” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “but I will grant you your life like the spoils of war wherever you go.”’”

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about the nations:

²About Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco, Egypt’s king, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in the fourth year of Judah’s King Jehoiakim son of Josiah:

³Deploy small shields and large; approach for battle!

⁴Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish the lances; put on armor!

⁵Why have I seen this? They are terrified, they are retreating, their warriors are crushed, they flee headlong, they never look back, terror is on every side! This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁶The swift cannot flee, and the warrior cannot escape! In the north by the bank of the Euphrates River, they stumble and fall.

⁷Who is this, rising like the Nile, with waters that churn like rivers?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile, and its waters churn like rivers. He boasts, “I will go up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities with their residents.”

⁹Rise up, you cavalry! Race furiously, you chariots! Let the warriors march out — Cush and Put, who are able to handle shields, and the men of Lud, who are able to handle and string the bow.

¹⁰That day belongs to the Lord, the GOD of Armies, a day of vengeance to avenge himself against his adversaries. The sword will devour and be satisfied; it will drink its fill of their blood, because it will be a sacrifice to the Lord, the GOD of Armies, in the northern land by the Euphrates River.

¹¹Go up to Gilead and get balm, Virgin Daughter Egypt! You have multiplied remedies in vain; there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your dishonor, and your cries fill the earth, because warrior stumbles against warrior and together both of them have fallen.

¹³This is the word the LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to defeat the land of Egypt:

¹⁴Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol! Proclaim it in Memphis and in Tahpanhes! Say, “Take positions! Prepare yourself, for the sword devours all around you.”

¹⁵Why have your strong ones been swept away? Each has not stood, for the LORD has thrust him down.

¹⁶He continues to stumble. Indeed, each falls over the other. They say, “Get up! Let’s return to our people and to our native land, away from the oppressor’s sword.”

¹⁷There they will cry out, “Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise; he let the opportune moment pass.”

¹⁸As I live — this is the King’s declaration; the LORD of Armies is his name — the king of Babylon will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Get your bags ready for exile, inhabitant of Daughter Egypt! For Memphis will become a desolation, uninhabited ruins.

²⁰Egypt is a beautiful young cow, but a horsefly from the north is coming against her.

²¹Even her mercenaries among her are like stall-fed calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee; they will not take their stand, for the day of their calamity is coming on them, the time of their punishment.

²²Egypt will hiss like a slithering snake, for the enemy will come with an army; with axes they will come against her like those who cut trees.

²³They will cut down her forest — this is the LORD’s declaration — though it is dense, for they are more numerous than locusts; they cannot be counted.

²⁴Daughter Egypt will be put to shame, handed over to a northern people.

²⁵The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “I am about to punish Amon, god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt, her gods, and her kings — Pharaoh and those trusting in him.

²⁶I will hand them over to those who intend to take their lives  — to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited again as in ancient times.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁷But you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged, Israel, for without fail I will save you from far away, and your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return and have calm and quiet with no one to frighten him.

²⁸And you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid — this is the LORD’s declaration — for I will be with you. I will bring destruction on all the nations where I have banished you, but I will not bring destruction on you. I will discipline you with justice, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh defeated Gaza.

²This is what the LORD says: Look, water is rising from the north and becoming an overflowing wadi. It will overflow the land and everything in it, the cities and their inhabitants. The people will cry out, and every inhabitant of the land will wail.

³At the sound of the stomping hooves of his stallions, the rumbling of his chariots, and the clatter of their wheels, fathers will not turn back for their sons. They will be utterly helpless

⁴on account of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every remaining ally. Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness is coming to Gaza; Ashkelon will become silent. Remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?

⁶Oh, sword of the LORD! How long will you be restless? Go back to your sheath; be still; be silent!

⁷How can it rest when the LORD has given it a command? He has assigned it against Ashkelon and the shore of the sea.

¹About Moab, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Woe to Nebo, because it is about to be destroyed; Kiriathaim will be put to shame; it will be taken captive. The fortress will be put to shame and dismayed!

²There is no longer praise for Moab; they plan harm against her in Heshbon: Come, let’s cut her off from nationhood. Also, Madmen, you will be silenced; the sword will follow you.

³A voice cries out from Horonaim, “devastation and a crushing blow!”

⁴Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out.

⁵For on the Ascent to Luhith they will be weeping continually, and on the descent to Horonaim will be heard cries of distress over the destruction:

⁶Flee! Save your lives! Be like a juniper bush in the wilderness.

⁷Because you trust in your works and treasures, you will be captured also. Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.

⁸The destroyer will move against every town; not one town will escape. The valley will perish, and the plain will be annihilated, as the LORD has said.

⁹Make Moab a salt marsh, for she will run away; her towns will become a desolation, without inhabitant.

¹⁰The one who does the LORD’s business deceitfully is cursed, and the one who withholds his sword from bloodshed is cursed.

¹¹Moab has been left quiet since his youth, settled like wine on its dregs. He hasn’t been poured from one container to another or gone into exile. So his taste has remained the same, and his aroma hasn’t changed.

¹²Therefore look, the days are coming  — this is the LORD’s declaration — when I will send pourers to him, who will pour him out. They will empty his containers and smash his jars.

¹³Moab will be put to shame because of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was put to shame because of Bethel that they trusted in.

¹⁴How can you say, “We are warriors — valiant men for battle”?

¹⁵The destroyer of Moab and its towns has come up, and the best of its young men have gone down to slaughter. This is the King’s declaration; the LORD of Armies is his name.

¹⁶Moab’s calamity is near at hand; his disaster is rushing swiftly.

¹⁷Mourn for him, all you surrounding nations, everyone who knows his name. Say, “How the mighty scepter is shattered, the glorious staff!”

¹⁸Come down from glory; sit on parched ground, resident of the daughter of Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come against you; he has destroyed your fortresses.

¹⁹Stand by the highway and watch, resident of Aroer! Ask him who is fleeing or her who is escaping, “What happened?”

²⁰Moab is put to shame, indeed dismayed. Wail and cry out! Declare by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed.

²¹“Judgment has come to the land of the plateau  — to Holon, Jahzah, Mephaath,

²²Dibon, Nebo, Beth-diblathaim,

²³Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, Beth-meon,

²⁴Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, those far and near.

²⁵Moab’s horn is chopped off; his arm is shattered.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁶“Make him drunk, because he has exalted himself against the LORD. Moab will wallow in his own vomit, and he will also become a laughingstock.

²⁷Wasn’t Israel a laughingstock to you? Was he ever found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him you shake your head.”

²⁸Abandon the towns! Live in the cliffs, residents of Moab! Be like a dove that nests inside the mouth of a cave.

²⁹We have heard of Moab’s pride, great pride, indeed — his insolence, arrogance, pride, and haughty heart.

³⁰I know his outburst. This is the LORD’s declaration. It is empty. His boast is empty.

³¹Therefore, I will wail over Moab. I will cry out for Moab, all of it; he will moan for the men of Kir-heres.

³²I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah, with more than the weeping for Jazer. Your tendrils have extended to the sea; they have reached to the sea and to Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruit and grape harvest.

³³Gladness and celebration are taken from the fertile field and from the land of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the winepresses; no one will tread with shouts of joy. The shouting is not a shout of joy.

³⁴“There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh; they make their voices heard as far as Jahaz  — from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah — because even the Waters of Nimrim have become desolate.

³⁵In Moab, I will stop” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the one who offers sacrifices on the high place and burns incense to his gods.

³⁶Therefore, my heart moans like flutes for Moab, and my heart moans like flutes for the people of Kir-heres. And therefore, the wealth he has gained has perished.

³⁷Indeed, every head is bald and every beard is chopped short. On every hand is a gash and sackcloth around the waist.

³⁸On all the rooftops of Moab and in her public squares, everyone is mourning because I have shattered Moab like a jar no one wants.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

³⁹“How broken it is! They wail! How Moab has turned his back! He is ashamed. Moab will become a laughingstock and a shock to all those around him.”

⁴⁰For this is what the LORD says: Look! He will swoop down like an eagle and spread his wings against Moab.

⁴¹The towns have been captured, and the strongholds seized. In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.

⁴²Moab will be destroyed as a people because he has exalted himself against the LORD.

⁴³Panic, pit, and trap await you, resident of Moab. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴⁴He who flees from the panic will fall in the pit, and he who climbs from the pit will be captured in the trap, for I will bring against Moab the year of their punishment. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴⁵Those who flee will stand exhausted in Heshbon’s shadow because fire has come out from Heshbon and a flame from within Sihon. It will devour Moab’s forehead and the skull of the noisemakers.

⁴⁶Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished because your sons have been taken captive and your daughters have gone into captivity.

⁴⁷Yet, I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the last days. This is the LORD’s declaration. The judgment on Moab ends here.

¹About the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: Does Israel have no sons? Is he without an heir? Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad and his people settled in their cities?

²Therefore look, the days are coming  — this is the LORD’s declaration — when I will make the shout of battle heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a desolate mound, and its surrounding villages will be set on fire. Israel will dispossess their dispossessors, says the LORD.

³Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated; cry out, daughters of Rabbah! Clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and lament; run back and forth within your walls, because Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials.

⁴Why do you boast about your valleys, your flowing valley, you faithless daughter — you who trust in your treasures and say, “Who can attack me?”

⁵Look, I am about to bring terror on you  — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Armies — from all those around you. You will be banished, each person headlong, with no one to gather up the fugitives.

⁶But after that, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁷About Edom, this is what the LORD of Armies says: Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom rotted away?

⁸Run! Turn back! Lie low, residents of Dedan, for I will bring Esau’s calamity on him at the time I punish him.

⁹If grape harvesters came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, they would destroy only what they wanted.

¹⁰But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his secret places. He will try to hide, but he will be unable. His descendants will be destroyed along with his relatives and neighbors. He will exist no longer.

¹¹Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them; let your widows trust in me.

¹²For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, for you must drink it too.

¹³For by myself I have sworn”  — this is the LORD’s declaration — “Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and an example for cursing, and all its surrounding cities will become ruins forever.”

¹⁴I have heard an envoy from the LORD; a messenger has been sent among the nations: Assemble yourselves to come against her. Rise up for war!

¹⁵I will certainly make you insignificant among the nations, despised among humanity.

¹⁶As to the terror you cause, your arrogant heart has deceived you. You who live in the clefts of the rock, you who occupy the mountain summit, though you elevate your nest like the eagles, even from there I will bring you down. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁷“Edom will become a desolation. Everyone who passes by her will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds.

¹⁸As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.

¹⁹“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”

²⁰Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Edom and the strategies he has devised against the people of Teman: The flock’s little lambs will certainly be dragged away, and their grazing land will be made desolate because of them.

²¹At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; the sound of her cry will be heard at the Red Sea.

²²Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.

²³About Damascus: Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, for they have heard a bad report and are agitated, like the anxious sea that cannot be calmed.

²⁴Damascus has become weak; she has turned to run; panic has gripped her. Distress and labor pains have seized her like a woman in labor.

²⁵How can the city of praise not be abandoned, the town that brings me joy?

²⁶Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares; all the warriors will perish in that day. This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.

²⁷I will set fire to the wall of Damascus; it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.

²⁸About Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated, this is what the LORD says: Rise up, attack Kedar, and destroy the people of the east!

²⁹They will take their tents and their flocks along with their tent curtains and all their equipment. They will take their camels for themselves. They will call out to them, “Terror is on every side!”

³⁰Run! Escape quickly! Lie low, residents of Hazor — this is the LORD’s declaration — for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has drawn up a plan against you; he has devised a strategy against you.

³¹Rise up, attack a nation at ease, one living in security. This is the LORD’s declaration. They have no doors, not even a gate bar; they live alone.

³²Their camels will become plunder, and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil. I will scatter them to the wind in every direction, those who clip the hair on their temples; I will bring calamity on them across all their borders. This is the LORD’s declaration.

³³Hazor will become a jackals’ den, a desolation forever. No one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.

³⁴This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah.

³⁵This is what the LORD of Armies says: I am about to shatter Elam’s bow, the source of their might.

³⁶I will bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I will scatter them to all these winds. There will not be a nation to which Elam’s banished ones will not go.

³⁷I will devastate Elam before their enemies, before those who intend to take their lives. I will bring disaster on them, my burning anger. This is the LORD’s declaration. I will send the sword after them until I finish them off.

³⁸I will set my throne in Elam, and I will destroy the king and officials from there. This is the LORD’s declaration.

³⁹Yet, in the last days, I will restore the fortunes of Elam. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹This is the word the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

²Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing. Say, “Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is terrified.” Her idols are put to shame; her false gods, devastated.

³For a nation from the north will attack her; it will make her land desolate. No one will be living in it — both people and animals will escape.

⁴In those days and at that time — this is the LORD’s declaration — the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God.

⁵They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.

⁶My people were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.

⁷Whoever found them devoured them. Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty; instead, they have sinned against the LORD, their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the LORD.”

⁸Escape from Babylon; depart from the Chaldeans’ land. Be like the rams that lead the flock.

⁹For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.

¹⁰The Chaldeans will become plunder; all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹¹Because you rejoice, because you celebrate — you who plundered my inheritance — because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,

¹²your mother will be utterly humiliated; she who bore you will be put to shame. Look! She will lag behind all the nations — an arid wilderness, a desert.

¹³Because of the LORD’s wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds.

¹⁴Line up in battle formation around Babylon, all you archers! Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow, for she has sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished. Since this is the LORD’s vengeance, take your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.

¹⁷Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last who crushed his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

¹⁸Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan; he will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.

²⁰In those days and at that time — this is the LORD’s declaration — one will search for Israel’s iniquity, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim, and those living in Pekod. Put them to the sword; completely destroy them — this is the LORD’s declaration — do everything I have commanded you.

²²The sound of war is in the land  — a crushing blow!

²³How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

²⁴Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught, but you did not even know it. You were found and captured because you pitted yourself against the LORD.

²⁵The LORD opened his armory and brought out his weapons of wrath, because it is a task of the Lord GOD of Armies in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from the most distant places. Open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain and completely destroy her. Leave her no survivors.

²⁷Put all her young bulls to the sword; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them because their day has come, the time of their punishment.

²⁸There is a voice of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon. The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for his temple.

²⁹Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow; camp all around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares; all the warriors will perish in that day. This is the LORD’s declaration.

³¹Look, I am against you, you arrogant one — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Armies — for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

³²The arrogant will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him.

³³This is what the LORD of Armies says: Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed. All their captors hold them fast; they refuse to release them.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Armies is his name. He will fervently champion their cause so that he might bring rest to the earth but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵A sword is over the Chaldeans — this is the LORD’s declaration — against those who live in Babylon, against her officials, and against her sages.

³⁶A sword is against the diviners, and they will act foolishly. A sword is against her heroic warriors, and they will be terrified.

³⁷A sword is against his horses and chariots and against all the foreigners among them, and they will be like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.

³⁸A drought will come on her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of carved images, and they go mad because of terrifying things.

³⁹Therefore, desert creatures will live with hyenas, and ostriches will also live in her. It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.

⁴⁰Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns  — this is the LORD’s declaration — so no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily as a temporary resident.

⁴¹Look! A people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the remote regions of the earth.

⁴²They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard about them; his hands have become weak. Distress has seized him — pain, like a woman in labor.

⁴⁴“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Babylon away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”

⁴⁵Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them.

⁴⁶At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.

¹This is what the LORD says: I am about to rouse the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and against the population of Leb-qamai.

²I will send strangers to Babylon who will scatter her and strip her land bare, for they will come against her from every side in the day of disaster.

³Don’t let the archer string his bow; don’t let him put on his armor. Don’t spare her young men; completely destroy her entire army!

⁴Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, those who were pierced through, in her streets.

⁵For Israel and Judah are not left widowed by their God, the LORD of Armies, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Leave Babylon; save your lives, each of you! Don’t perish because of her guilt. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance — he will pay her what she deserves.

⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore, the nations go mad.

⁸Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered. Wail for her; get balm for her wound — perhaps she can be healed.

⁹We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches as far as the clouds.

¹⁰The LORD has brought about our vindication; come, let’s tell in Zion what the LORD our God has accomplished.

¹¹Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the LORD’s vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

¹²Raise up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon; fortify the watch post; set the watchmen in place; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both planned and accomplished what he has threatened against those who live in Babylon.

¹³You who reside by abundant water, rich in treasures, your end has come, your life thread is cut.

¹⁴The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself: I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will sing the victory song over you.

¹⁵He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and spread out the heavens by his understanding.

¹⁶When he thunders, the waters in the heavens are tumultuous, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁷Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.

¹⁹Jacob’s Portion is not like these because he is the one who formed all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of Armies is his name.

²⁰You are my war club, my weapons of war. With you I will smash nations; with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.

²¹With you I will smash the horse and its rider; with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.

²²With you I will smash man and woman; with you I will smash the old man and the youth; with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.

²³With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock; with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team. With you I will smash governors and officials.

²⁴“Before your very eyes, I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁵Look, I am against you, devastating mountain. This is the LORD’s declaration. You devastate the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and turn you into a charred mountain.

²⁶No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will become desolate forever. This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁷Raise a signal flag in the land; blow a ram’s horn among the nations; set apart the nations against her. Summon kingdoms against her — Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.

²⁸Set apart the nations for battle against her — the kings of Media, her governors and all her officials, and all the lands they rule.

²⁹The earth quakes and trembles because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

³⁰Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their might is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, her gate bars are shattered.

³¹Messenger races to meet messenger, and herald to meet herald, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.

³²The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the fighting men are terrified.

³³For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.

³⁴“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty dish; he has swallowed me like a sea monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out.

³⁵Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon,” says the inhabitant of Zion. “Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

³⁶Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to champion your cause and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her fountain run dry.

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den, a desolation and an object of scorn, without inhabitant.

³⁸They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.

³⁹While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they celebrate. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with male goats.

⁴¹How Sheshach has been captured, the praise of the whole earth seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

⁴³Her cities have become a desolation, an arid desert, a land where no one lives, where no human being even passes through.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him vomit what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even Babylon’s wall will fall.

⁴⁵Come out from among her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the LORD’s burning anger.

⁴⁶May 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.

⁴⁷Therefore, 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.

⁴⁸Heaven 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.

⁴⁹Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel, even as the slain of the whole earth fell because of Babylon.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, go and do not stand still! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard insults. Humiliation covers our faces because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s temple.

⁵²Therefore, 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.

⁵³Even 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.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry from Babylon! The sound of terrible destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For 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,

⁵⁶for 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.

⁵⁷I 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.

⁵⁸This 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.

⁵⁹This 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.

⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.

⁶¹Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.

⁶²Say, ‘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.’

⁶³When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.

⁶⁴Then 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.

¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

²Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.

³Because of the LORD’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.

⁵The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.

⁷Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.

⁸The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.

⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

¹⁰At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders.

¹¹Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.

¹³He burned the LORD’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.

¹⁴The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

¹⁵Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

¹⁷Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the LORD’s temple and the water carts and the bronze basin that were in the LORD’s temple, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁸They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.

¹⁹The captain of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls  — whatever was gold or silver.

²⁰As for the two pillars, the one basin, with the twelve bronze oxen under it, and the water carts that King Solomon had made for the LORD’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.

²¹One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow — four fingers thick —

²²and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze grating and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.

²³Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the grating numbered one hundred.

²⁴The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

²⁵From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people who were found within the city.

²⁶Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²⁷The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.

²⁸These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹in his eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported 745 Jews. Altogether, 4,600 people were deported.

³¹On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

³²He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

³³So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.

³⁴As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.

¹How she sits alone, the city once crowded with people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor.

²She weeps bitterly during the night, with tears on her cheeks. There is no one to offer her comfort, not one from all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile following affliction and harsh slavery; she lives among the nations but finds no place to rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in narrow places.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the appointed festivals. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she herself is bitter.

⁵Her adversaries have become her masters; her enemies are at ease, for the LORD has made her suffer because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the adversary.

⁶All the splendor has vanished from Daughter Zion. Her leaders are like stags that find no pasture; they stumble away exhausted before the hunter.

⁷During the days of her affliction and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious belongings that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into the adversary’s hand, she had no one to help. The adversaries looked at her, laughing over her downfall.

⁸Jerusalem has sinned grievously; therefore, she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns away.

⁹Her uncleanness stains her skirts. She never considered her end. Her downfall was astonishing; there was no one to comfort her. LORD, look on my affliction, for the enemy boasts.

¹⁰The adversary has seized all her precious belongings. She has even seen the nations enter her sanctuary — those you had forbidden to enter your assembly.

¹¹All her people groan while they search for bread. They have traded their precious belongings for food in order to stay alive. LORD, look and see how I have become despised.

¹²Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see! Is there any pain like mine, which was dealt out to me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of his burning anger?

¹³He sent fire from on high into my bones; he made it descend. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, sick all day long.

¹⁴My transgressions have been formed into a yoke, fastened together by his hand; they have been placed on my neck, and the Lord has broken my strength. He has handed me over to those I cannot withstand.

¹⁵The Lord has rejected all the mighty men within me. He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. The Lord has trampled Virgin Daughter Judah like grapes in a winepress.

¹⁶I weep because of these things; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to keep me alive. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands; there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has issued a decree against Jacob that his neighbors should be his adversaries. Jerusalem has become something impure among them.

¹⁸The LORD is just, for I have rebelled against his command. Listen, all you people; look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called to my lovers, but they betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while searching for food to keep themselves alive.

²⁰LORD, see how I am in distress. I am churning within; my heart is broken, for I have been very rebellious. Outside, the sword takes the children; inside, there is death.

²¹People have heard me groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my misfortune; they are glad that you have caused it. Bring on the day you have announced, so that they may become like me.

²²Let all their wickedness come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and I am sick at heart.

¹How the Lord has overshadowed Daughter Zion with his anger! He has thrown down Israel’s glory from heaven to earth. He did not acknowledge his footstool in the day of his anger.

²Without compassion the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In his wrath he has demolished the fortified cities of Daughter Judah. He brought them to the ground and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.

³He has cut off every horn of Israel in his burning anger and withdrawn his right hand in the presence of the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything.

⁴He has strung his bow like an enemy; his right hand is positioned like an adversary. He has killed everyone who was the delight to the eye, pouring out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.

⁵The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He swallowed up all its palaces and destroyed its fortified cities. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation within Daughter Judah.

⁶He has wrecked his temple as if it were merely a shack in a field, destroying his place of meeting. The LORD has abolished appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion. He has despised king and priest in his fierce anger.

⁷The Lord has rejected his altar, repudiated his sanctuary; he has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed festival.

⁸The LORD determined to destroy the wall of Daughter Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not restrain himself from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls grieve; together they waste away.

⁹Zion’s gates have fallen to the ground; he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates. Her king and her leaders live among the nations, instruction is no more, and even her prophets receive no vision from the LORD.

¹⁰The elders of Daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes are worn out from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of my dear people, because infants and nursing babies faint in the streets of the city.

¹²They cry out to their mothers, “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life pours out in the arms of their mothers.

¹³What can I say on your behalf? What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem? What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?

¹⁴Your prophets saw visions for you that were empty and deceptive; they did not reveal your iniquity and so restore your fortunes. They saw pronouncements for you that were empty and misleading.

¹⁵All who pass by scornfully clap their hands at you. They hiss and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem: Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day we have waited for! We have lived to see it.”

¹⁷The LORD has done what he planned; he has accomplished his decree, which he ordained in days of old. He has demolished without compassion, letting the enemy gloat over you and exalting the horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. Wall of Daughter Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief and your eyes no rest.

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water before the Lord’s presence. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger at the head of every street.

²⁰LORD, look and consider to whom you have done this. Should women eat their own children, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary?

²¹Both young and old are lying on the ground in the streets. My young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without compassion.

²²You summon those who terrorize me on every side, as if for an appointed festival day; on the day of the LORD’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.