Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

²the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Be good enough to listen to our plea, and pray to the LORD your God for us — for all this remnant. For there are only a few of us left out of many, as your eyes can see.

³Let the LORD your God show us where we should go and what we should do.”

⁴The prophet Jeremiah said to them, “Very well: I am going to pray to the LORD your God as you request, and whatever the LORD answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵They in their turn said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to everything that the LORD your God sends us through you.

⁶Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”

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

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

⁹and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before him:

¹⁰If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I am sorry for the disaster that I have brought upon you.

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of him, says the LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand.

¹²I will grant you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and restore you to your native soil.

¹³But if you continue to say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ thus disobeying the voice of the LORD your God

¹⁴and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to enter Egypt and go to settle there,

¹⁶then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt; and the famine that you dread shall follow close after you into Egypt; and there you shall die.

¹⁷All the people who have determined to go to Egypt to settle there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.

¹⁸“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an object of execration and horror, of cursing and ridicule. You shall see this place no more.

¹⁹The LORD has said to you, O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt. Be well aware that I have warned you today

²⁰that you have made a fatal mistake. For you yourselves sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us and we will do it.’

²¹So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything that he sent me to tell you.

²²Be well aware, then, that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and settle.”

¹When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these words of the LORD their God, with which the LORD their God had sent him to them,

²Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to settle there’;

³but Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans, in order that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.”

⁴So Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the LORD, to stay in the land of Judah.

⁵But Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to settle in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven —

⁶the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan; also the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah.

⁷And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they arrived at Tahpanhes.

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

⁹Take some large stones in your hands, and bury them in the clay pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. Let the Judeans see you do it,

¹⁰and say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to send and take my servant King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he will set his throne above these stones that I have buried, and he will spread his royal canopy over them.

¹¹He shall come and ravage the land of Egypt, giving those who are destined for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are destined for captivity, to captivity, and those who are destined for the sword, to the sword.

¹²He shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them and carry them away captive; and he shall pick clean the land of Egypt, as a shepherd picks his cloak clean of vermin; and he shall depart from there safely.

¹³He shall break the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans living in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros,

²Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Look at them; today they are a desolation, without an inhabitant in them,

³because of the wickedness that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they had not known, neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors.

⁴Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, “I beg you not to do this abominable thing that I hate!”

⁵But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their wickedness and make no offerings to other gods.

⁶So my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they became a waste and a desolation, as they still are today.

⁷And now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves, to cut off man and woman, child and infant, from the midst of Judah, leaving yourselves without a remnant?

⁸Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to settle? Will you be cut off and become an object of cursing and ridicule among all the nations of the earth?

⁹Have you forgotten the crimes of your ancestors, of the kings of Judah, of their wives, your own crimes and those of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰They have shown no contrition or fear to this day, nor have they walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your ancestors.

¹¹Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am determined to bring disaster on you, to bring all Judah to an end.

¹²I will take the remnant of Judah who are determined to come to the land of Egypt to settle, and they shall perish, everyone; in the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall perish; from the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine; and they shall become an object of execration and horror, of cursing and ridicule.

¹³I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence,

¹⁴so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to settle in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah. Although they long to go back to live there, they shall not go back, except some fugitives.

¹⁵Then all the men who were aware that their wives had been making offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah:

¹⁶“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you.

¹⁷Instead, we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. We used to have plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no misfortune.

¹⁸But from the time we stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have perished by the sword and by famine.”

¹⁹And the women said, “Indeed we will go on making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her; do you think that we made cakes for her, marked with her image, and poured out libations to her without our husbands’ being involved?”

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the people who were giving him this answer:

²¹“As for the offerings that you made in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them? Did it not come into his mind?

²²The LORD could no longer bear the sight of your evil doings, the abominations that you committed; therefore your land became a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is to this day.

²³It is because you burned offerings, and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his decrees, that this disaster has befallen you, as is still evident today.”

²⁴Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans who are in the land of Egypt,

²⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have accomplished in deeds what you declared in words, saying, ‘We are determined to perform the vows that we have made, to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her.’ By all means, keep your vows and make your libations!

²⁶Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans who live in the land of Egypt: Lo, I swear by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no longer be pronounced on the lips of any of the people of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the Lord GOD lives.’

²⁷I am going to watch over them for harm and not for good; all the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall perish by the sword and by famine, until not one is left.

²⁸And those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who have come to the land of Egypt to settle, shall know whose words will stand, mine or theirs!

²⁹This shall be the sign to you, says the LORD, that I am going to punish you in this place, in order that you may know that my words against you will surely be carried out:

³⁰Thus says the LORD, I am going to give Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies, those who seek his life, just as I gave King Zedekiah of Judah into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.”

¹The word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:

²Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch:

³You said, “Woe is me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.”

⁴Thus you shall say to him, “Thus says the LORD: I am going to break down what I have built, and pluck up what I have planted — that is, the whole land.

⁵And you, do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for I am going to bring disaster upon all flesh, says the LORD; but I will give you your life as a prize of war in every place to which you may go.”

¹The word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the nations.

²Concerning Egypt, about the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:

³Prepare buckler and shield, and advance for battle!

⁴Harness the horses; mount the steeds! Take your stations with your helmets, whet your lances, put on your coats of mail!

⁵Why do I see them terrified? They have fallen back; their warriors are beaten down, and have fled in haste. They do not look back — terror is all around! — says the LORD.

⁶The swift cannot flee away, nor can the warrior escape; in the north by the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. It said, Let me rise, let me cover the earth, let me destroy cities and their inhabitants.

⁹Advance, O horses, and dash madly, O chariots! Let the warriors go forth: Ethiopia and Put who carry the shield, the Ludim, who draw the bow.

¹⁰That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of retribution, to gain vindication from his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated, and drink its fill of their blood. For the Lord GOD of hosts holds a sacrifice in the land of the north by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter Egypt! In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for warrior has stumbled against warrior; both have fallen together.

¹³The word that the LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt:

¹⁴Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes; Say, “Take your stations and be ready, for the sword shall devour those around you.”

¹⁵Why has Apis fled? Why did your bull not stand? — because the LORD thrust him down.

¹⁶Your multitude stumbled and fell, and one said to another, “Come, let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, because of the destroying sword.”

¹⁷Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name “Braggart who missed his chance.”

¹⁸As I live, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, one is coming like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Pack your bags for exile, sheltered daughter Egypt! For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant.

²⁰A beautiful heifer is Egypt — a gadfly from the north lights upon her.

²¹Even her mercenaries in her midst are like fatted calves; they too have turned and fled together, they did not stand; for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.

²²She makes a sound like a snake gliding away; for her enemies march in force, and come against her with axes, like those who fell trees.

²³They shall cut down her forest, — says the LORD, though it is impenetrable, because they are more numerous than locusts; they are without number.

²⁴Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be handed over to a people from the north.

²⁵The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, said: See, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

²⁶I will hand them over to those who seek their life, to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the LORD.

²⁷But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, and do not be dismayed, O Israel; for I am going to save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and no one shall make him afraid.

²⁸As for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, — says the LORD, for I am with you. I will make an end of all the nations among which I have banished you, but I will not make an end of you! I will chastise you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

¹The word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:

²Thus says the LORD: See, waters are rising out of the north and shall become an overflowing torrent; they shall overflow the land and all that fills it, the city and those who live in it. People shall cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.

³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at the clatter of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels, parents do not turn back for children, so feeble are their hands,

⁴because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains. For the LORD is destroying the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is silenced. O remnant of their power! How long will you gash yourselves?

⁶Ah, sword of the LORD! How long until you are quiet? Put yourself into your scabbard, rest and be still!

⁷How can it be quiet, when the LORD has given it an order? Against Ashkelon and against the seashore — there he has appointed it.

¹Concerning Moab. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Alas for Nebo, it is laid waste! Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken; the fortress is put to shame and broken down;

²the renown of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they planned evil against her: “Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!” You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue you.

³Hark! a cry from Horonaim, “Desolation and great destruction!”

⁴“Moab is destroyed!” her little ones cry out.

⁵For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping bitterly; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distressing cry of anguish.

⁶Flee! Save yourselves! Be like a wild ass in the desert!

⁷Surely, because you trusted in your strongholds and your treasures, you also shall be taken; Chemosh shall go out into exile, with his priests and his attendants.

⁸The destroyer shall come upon every town, and no town shall escape; the valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.

⁹Set aside salt for Moab, for she will surely fall; her towns shall become a desolation, with no inhabitant in them.

¹⁰Accursed is the one who is slack in doing the work of the LORD; and accursed is the one who keeps back the sword from bloodshed.

¹¹Moab has been at ease from his youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile; therefore his flavor has remained and his aroma is unspoiled.

¹²Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the LORD, when I shall send to him decanters to decant him, and empty his vessels, and break his jars in pieces.

¹³Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

¹⁴How can you say, “We are heroes and mighty warriors”?

¹⁵The destroyer of Moab and his towns has come up, and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

¹⁶The calamity of Moab is near at hand and his doom approaches swiftly.

¹⁷Mourn over him, all you his neighbors, and all who know his name; say, “How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff!”

¹⁸Come down from glory, and sit on the parched ground, enthroned daughter Dibon! For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you; he has destroyed your strongholds.

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch, you inhabitant of Aroer! Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping; say, “What has happened?”

²⁰Moab is put to shame, for it is broken down; wail and cry! Tell it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.

²¹Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath,

²²and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,

²³and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,

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

²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the LORD.

²⁶Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the LORD; let Moab wallow in his vomit; he too shall become a laughingstock.

²⁷Israel was a laughingstock for you, though he was not caught among thieves; but whenever you spoke of him you shook your head!

²⁸Leave the towns, and live on the rock, O inhabitants of Moab! Be like the dove that nests on the sides of the mouth of a gorge.

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab — he is very proud — of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.

³⁰I myself know his insolence, says the LORD; his boasts are false, his deeds are false.

³¹Therefore I wail for Moab; I cry out for all Moab; for the people of Kir-heres I mourn.

³²More than for Jazer I weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your branches crossed over the sea, reached as far as Jazer; upon your summer fruits and your vintage the destroyer has fallen.

³³Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab; I have stopped the wine from the wine presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; the shouting is not the shout of joy.

³⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim have become desolate.

³⁵And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the LORD, those who offer sacrifice at a high place and make offerings to their gods.

³⁶Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the people of Kir-heres; for the riches they gained have perished.

³⁷For every head is shaved and every beard cut off; on all the hands there are gashes, and on the loins sackcloth.

³⁸On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation; for I have broken Moab like a vessel that no one wants, says the LORD.

³⁹How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all his neighbors.

⁴⁰For thus says the LORD: Look, he shall swoop down like an eagle, and spread his wings against Moab;

⁴¹the towns shall be taken and the strongholds seized. The hearts of the warriors of Moab, on that day, shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.

⁴²Moab shall be destroyed as a people, because he magnified himself against the LORD.

⁴³Terror, pit, and trap are before you, O inhabitants of Moab! — says the LORD.

⁴⁴Everyone who flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and everyone who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the trap. For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, — says the LORD.

⁴⁵In the shadow of Heshbon fugitives stop exhausted; for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the house of Sihon; it has destroyed the forehead of Moab, the scalp of the people of tumult.

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

⁴⁷Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, says the LORD. Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

¹Concerning the Ammonites. Thus says the LORD: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad, and his people settled in its towns?

²Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sound the battle alarm against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound, and its villages shall be burned with fire; then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the LORD.

³Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth, lament, and slash yourselves with whips! For Milcom shall go into exile, with his priests and his attendants.

⁴Why do you boast in your strength? Your strength is ebbing, O faithless daughter. You trusted in your treasures, saying, “Who will attack me?”

⁵I am going to bring terror upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all your neighbors, and you will be scattered, each headlong, with no one to gather the fugitives.

⁶But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, says the LORD.

⁷Concerning Edom. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished?

⁸Flee, turn back, get down low, inhabitants of Dedan! For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time when I punish him.

⁹If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? If thieves came by night, even they would pillage only what they wanted.

¹⁰But as for me, I have stripped Esau bare, I have uncovered his hiding places, and he is not able to conceal himself. His offspring are destroyed, his kinsfolk and his neighbors; and he is no more.

¹¹Leave your orphans, I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in me.

¹²For thus says the LORD: If those who do not deserve to drink the cup still have to drink it, shall you be the one to go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you must drink it.

¹³For by myself I have sworn, says the LORD, that Bozrah shall become an object of horror and ridicule, a waste, and an object of cursing; and all her towns shall be perpetual wastes.

¹⁴I have heard tidings from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: “Gather yourselves together and come against her, and rise up for battle!”

¹⁵For I will make you least among the nations, despised by humankind.

¹⁶The terror you inspire and the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill. Although you make your nest as high as the eagle’s, from there I will bring you down, — says the LORD.

¹⁷Edom shall become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.

¹⁸As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors were overthrown, says the LORD, no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in it.

¹⁹Like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly chase Edom away from it; and I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who can summon me? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?

²⁰Therefore hear the plan that the LORD has made against Edom and the purposes that he has formed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away; surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate.

²¹At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; the sound of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea.

²²Look, he shall mount up and swoop down like an eagle, and spread his wings against Bozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom in that day shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.

²³Concerning Damascus. Hamath and Arpad are confounded, for they have heard bad news; they melt in fear, they are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet.

²⁴Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee, and panic seized her; anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in labor.

²⁵How the famous city is forsaken, the joyful town!

²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day, — says the LORD of hosts.

²⁷And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.

²⁸Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon defeated. Thus says the LORD: Rise up, advance against Kedar! Destroy the people of the east!

²⁹Take their tents and their flocks, their curtains and all their goods; carry off their camels for yourselves, and a cry shall go up: “Terror is all around!”

³⁰Flee, wander far away, hide in deep places, O inhabitants of Hazor! — says the LORD. For King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you.

³¹Rise up, advance against a nation at ease, that lives secure, — says the LORD, that has no gates or bars, that lives alone.

³²Their camels shall become booty, their herds of cattle a spoil. I will scatter to every wind those who have shaven temples, and I will bring calamity against them from every side, — says the LORD.

³³Hazor shall become a lair of jackals, an everlasting waste; no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in it.

³⁴The word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah.

³⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am going to break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might;

³⁶and I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven; and I will scatter them to all these winds, and there shall be no nation to which the exiles from Elam shall not come.

³⁷I will terrify Elam before their enemies, and before those who seek their life; I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, says the LORD. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them;

³⁸and I will set my throne in Elam, and destroy their king and officials, says the LORD.

³⁹But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, says the LORD.

¹The word that the LORD spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the prophet Jeremiah:

²Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, do not conceal it, say: Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.

³For out of the north a nation has come up against her; it shall make her land a desolation, and no one shall live in it; both human beings and animals shall flee away.

⁴In those days and in that time, says the LORD, the people of Israel shall come, they and the people of Judah together; they shall come weeping as they seek the LORD their God.

⁵They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, and they shall come and join themselves to the LORD by an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

⁶My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains; from mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their fold.

⁷All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, “We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the LORD, the true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their ancestors.”

⁸Flee from Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be like male goats leading the flock.

⁹For I am going to stir up and bring against Babylon a company of great nations from the land of the north; and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like the arrows of a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.

¹⁰Chaldea shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be sated, says the LORD.

¹¹Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my heritage, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and neigh like stallions,

¹²your mother shall be utterly shamed, and she who bore you shall be disgraced. Lo, she shall be the last of the nations, a wilderness, dry land, and a desert.

¹³Because of the wrath of the LORD she shall not be inhabited, but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss because of all her wounds.

¹⁴Take up your positions around Babylon, all you that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵Raise a shout against her from all sides, “She has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen, her walls are thrown down.” For this is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance on her, do to her as she has done.

¹⁶Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the wielder of the sickle in time of harvest; because of the destroying sword all of them shall return to their own people, and all of them shall flee to their own land.

¹⁷Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured it, and now at the end King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has gnawed its bones.

¹⁸Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead its hunger shall be satisfied.

²⁰In those days and at that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found; for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared.

²¹Go up to the land of Merathaim; go up against her, and attack the inhabitants of Pekod and utterly destroy the last of them, — says the LORD; do all that I have commanded you.

²²The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction!

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

²⁴You set a snare for yourself and you were caught, O Babylon, but you did not know it; you were discovered and seized, because you challenged the LORD.

²⁵The LORD has opened his armory, and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Lord GOD of hosts has a task to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from every quarter; open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly; let nothing be left of her.

²⁷Kill all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter. Alas for them, their day has come, the time of their punishment!

²⁸Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon are coming to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his temple.

²⁹Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her — for she has arrogantly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the LORD.

³¹I am against you, O arrogant one, says the Lord GOD of hosts; for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

³²The arrogant one shall stumble and fall, with no one to raise him up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour everything around him.

³³Thus says the LORD of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and so too are the people of Judah; all their captors have held them fast and refuse to let them go.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵A sword against the Chaldeans, says the LORD, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her sages!

³⁶A sword against the diviners, so that they may become fools! A sword against her warriors, so that they may be destroyed!

³⁷A sword against her horses and against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst, so that they may become women! A sword against all her treasures, that they may be plundered!

³⁸A drought against her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they go mad over idols.

³⁹Therefore wild animals shall live with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall inhabit her; she shall never again be peopled, or inhabited for all generations.

⁴⁰As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the LORD, so no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in her.

⁴¹Look, a people is coming from the north; a mighty nation and many kings are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.

⁴²They wield bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy. The sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride upon horses, set in array as a warrior for battle, against you, O daughter Babylon!

⁴³The king of Babylon heard news of them, and his hands fell helpless; anguish seized him, pain like that of a woman in labor.

⁴⁴Like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly chase them away from her; and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who can summon me? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?

⁴⁵Therefore hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the purposes that he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away; surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate.

⁴⁶At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.

¹Thus says the LORD: I am going to stir up a destructive wind against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-qamai;

²and I will send winnowers to Babylon, and they shall winnow her. They shall empty her land when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble.

³Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not array himself in his coat of mail. Do not spare her young men; utterly destroy her entire army.

⁴They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and wounded in her streets.

⁵Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon, save your lives, each of you! Do not perish because of her guilt, for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he is repaying her what is due.

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, and so the nations went mad.

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered; wail for her! Bring balm for her wound; perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Forsake her, and let each of us go to our own country; for her judgment has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies.

¹⁰The LORD has brought forth our vindication; come, let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

¹¹Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for his temple.

¹²Raise a standard against the walls of Babylon; make the watch strong; post sentinels; prepare the ambushes; for the LORD has both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³You who live by mighty waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the thread of your life is cut.

¹⁴The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: Surely I will fill you with troops like a swarm of locusts, and they shall raise a shout of victory over you.

¹⁵It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

¹⁶When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁷Everyone is stupid and without knowledge; goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols; for their images are false, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

¹⁹Not like these is the LORD, the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.

²⁰You are my war club, my weapon of battle: with you I smash nations; with you I destroy kingdoms;

²¹with you I smash the horse and its rider; with you I smash the chariot and the charioteer;

²²with you I smash man and woman; with you I smash the old man and the boy; with you I smash the young man and the girl;

²³with you I smash shepherds and their flocks; with you I smash farmers and their teams; with you I smash governors and deputies.

²⁴I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong that they have done in Zion, says the LORD.

²⁵I am against you, O destroying mountain, — says the LORD, that destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burned-out mountain.

²⁶No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, says the LORD.

²⁷Raise a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her, summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her, bring up horses like bristling locusts.

²⁸Prepare the nations for war against her, the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies, and every land under their dominion.

²⁹The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

³⁰The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting, they remain in their strongholds; their strength has failed, they have become women; her buildings are set on fire, her bars are broken.

³¹One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from end to end:

³²the fords have been seized, the marshes have been burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic.

³³For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come.

³⁴“King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has spewed me out.

³⁵May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,” the inhabitants of Zion shall say. “May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem shall say.

³⁶Therefore thus says the LORD: I am going to defend your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry;

³⁷and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, an object of horror and of hissing, without inhabitant.

³⁸Like lions they shall roar together; they shall growl like lions’ whelps.

³⁹When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink and make them drunk, until they become merry and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the LORD.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.

⁴¹How Sheshach is taken, the pride of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon; she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.

⁴³Her cities have become an object of horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no mortal passes.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him disgorge what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer stream to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen.

⁴⁵Come out of her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the LORD!

⁴⁶Do not be fainthearted or fearful at the rumors heard in the land — one year one rumor comes, the next year another, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Assuredly, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst.

⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north, — says the LORD.

⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁰You survivors of the sword, go, do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and let Jerusalem come into your mind:

⁵¹We are put to shame, for we have heard insults; dishonor has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the LORD’s house.

⁵²Therefore the time is surely coming, says the LORD, when I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, from me destroyers would come upon her, says the LORD.

⁵⁴Listen! — a cry from Babylon! A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For the LORD is laying Babylon waste, and stilling her loud clamor. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the sound of their clamor resounds;

⁵⁶for a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are taken, their bows are broken; for the LORD is a God of recompense, he will repay in full.

⁵⁷I will make her officials and her sages drunk, also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.

⁵⁹The word that the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.

⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote in a scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,

⁶²and say, ‘O LORD, you yourself threatened to destroy this place so that neither human beings nor animals shall live in it, and it shall be desolate forever.’

⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it, and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,

⁶⁴and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disasters that I am bringing on her.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

²He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

³Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the LORD that he expelled them from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and they laid siege to it; they built siegeworks against it all around.

⁵So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

⁷Then a breach was made in the city wall; and all the soldiers fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah.

⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered, deserting him.

⁹Then they captured the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

¹⁰The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also killed all the officers of Judah at Riblah.

¹¹He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

¹²In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.

¹³He burned the house of the LORD, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

¹⁴All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

¹⁵Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans.

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.

¹⁷The pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁸They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the ladles, and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service.

¹⁹The captain of the guard took away the small bowls also, the firepans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the ladles, and the bowls for libation, both those of gold and those of silver.

²⁰As for the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, and the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weighing.

²¹As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, its circumference was twelve cubits; it was hollow and its thickness was four fingers.

²²Upon it was a capital of bronze; the height of the capital was five cubits; latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, encircled the top of the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with pomegranates.

²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates encircling the latticework numbered one hundred.

²⁴The captain of the guard took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the three guardians of the threshold;

²⁵and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the soldiers, and seven men of the king’s council who were found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found inside the city.

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

²⁷And the king of Babylon struck them down, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile out of its land.

²⁸This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Judeans;

²⁹in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he took into exile from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons;

³⁰in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took into exile of the Judeans seven hundred forty-five persons; all the persons were four thousand six hundred.

³¹In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, showed favor to King Jehoiachin of Judah and brought him out of prison;

³²he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

³³So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes, and every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table.

³⁴For his allowance, a regular daily allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, as long as he lived, up to the day of his death.

¹How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.

²She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

³Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

⁴The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.

⁵Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the LORD has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.

⁶From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.

⁷Jerusalem remembers, in the days of her affliction and wandering, all the precious things that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was no one to help her, the foe looked on mocking over her downfall.

⁸Jerusalem sinned grievously, so she has become a mockery; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans, and turns her face away.

⁹Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; her downfall was appalling, with none to comfort her. “O LORD, look at my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”

¹⁰Enemies have stretched out their hands over all her precious things; she has even seen the nations invade her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation.

¹¹All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. Look, O LORD, and see how worthless I have become.

¹²Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

¹³From on high he sent fire; it went deep into my bones; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all day long.

¹⁴My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they weigh on my neck, sapping my strength; the Lord handed me over to those whom I cannot withstand.

¹⁵The LORD has rejected all my warriors in the midst of me; he proclaimed a time against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a wine press the virgin daughter Judah.

¹⁶For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁷Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her; the LORD has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should become his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

¹⁸The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and behold my suffering; my young women and young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called to my lovers but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city while seeking food to revive their strength.

²⁰See, O LORD, how distressed I am; my stomach churns, my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

²¹They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. Bring on the day you have announced, and let them be as I am.

²²Let all their evil doing come before you; and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many and my heart is faint.

¹How the Lord in his anger has humiliated daughter Zion! He has thrown down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

²The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of daughter Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers.

³He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn his right hand from them in the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.

⁴He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; he has killed all in whom we took pride in the tent of daughter Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵The Lord has become like an enemy; he has destroyed Israel. He has destroyed all its palaces, laid in ruins its strongholds, and multiplied in daughter Judah mourning and lamentation.

⁶He has broken down his booth like a garden, he has destroyed his tabernacle; the LORD has abolished in Zion festival and sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

⁷The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; a clamor was raised in the house of the LORD as on a day of festival.

⁸The LORD determined to lay in ruins the wall of daughter Zion; he stretched the line; he did not withhold his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; guidance is no more, and her prophets obtain 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 girls of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.

¹²They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter Zion? For vast as the sea is your ruin; who can heal you?

¹⁴Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen oracles for you that are false and misleading.

¹⁵All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at daughter Jerusalem; “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We have devoured her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; at last we have seen it!”

¹⁷The LORD has done what he purposed, he has carried out his threat; as he ordained long ago, he has demolished without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you, and exalted the might of your foes.

¹⁸Cry aloud to the Lord! O wall of daughter Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!

¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

²⁰Look, O LORD, and consider! To whom have you done this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have borne? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹The young and the old are lying on the ground in the streets; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; in the day of your anger you have killed them, slaughtering without mercy.

²²You invited my enemies from all around as if for a day of festival; and on the day of the anger of the LORD no one escaped or survived; those whom I bore and reared my enemy has destroyed.