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¹⁵ It is he who made the earth by his power,
   who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
¹⁶ When 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.
¹⁷ Everyone 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.
¹⁸ They are worthless, a work of delusion;
   at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁹ Not 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.

Israel the Creator’s Instrument

²⁰ You are my war-club, my weapon of battle:
with you I smash nations;
   with you I destroy kingdoms;
²¹ with you I smash the horse and its rider;
   with you I smash the chariot and the charioteer;
²² with 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;
²³   with you I smash shepherds and their flocks;
with you I smash farmers and their teams;
   with you I smash governors and deputies.

The Doom of Babylon

24 I 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.

²⁵ I 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.
²⁶ No 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.

²⁷ Raise 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.
²⁸ Prepare the nations for war against her,
   the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
   and every land under their dominion.
²⁹ The land trembles and writhes,
   for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
   without inhabitant.
³⁰ The 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.
³¹ One 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:
³² the fords have been seized,
   the marshes have been burned with fire,
   and the soldiers are in panic.
³³ For 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.
³⁵ May 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.
³⁶ Therefore 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;
³⁷ and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
   a den of jackals,
an object of horror and of hissing,
   without inhabitant.

³⁸ Like lions they shall roar together;
   they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹ When 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.
⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
   like rams and goats.

⁴¹ How Sheshach^* is taken,
   the pride of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
   an object of horror among the nations!
⁴² The sea has risen over Babylon;
   she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.
⁴³ Her 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.
⁴⁴ I 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.

⁴⁵ Come out of her, my people!
   Save your lives, each of you,
   from the fierce anger of the Lord!
⁴⁶ Do not be faint-hearted or fearful
   at the rumours heard in the land—
one year one rumour comes,
   the next year another,
rumours of violence in the land
   and of ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷ Assuredly, 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.
⁴⁸ Then 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.
⁴⁹ Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
   as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁰ You survivors of the sword,
   go, do not linger!
Remember the Lord in a distant land,
   and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
⁵¹ We are put to shame, for we have heard insults;
   dishonour has covered our face,
for aliens have come
   into the holy places of the Lord’s house.

⁵² Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord,
   when I will punish her idols,
and through all her land
   the wounded shall groan.
⁵³ Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
   and though she should fortify her strong height,
from me destroyers would come upon her,
   says the Lord.

⁵⁴ Listen!—a cry from Babylon!
   A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵ For the Lord is laying Babylon waste,
   and stilling her loud clamour.
Their waves roar like mighty waters,
   the sound of their clamour resounds;
⁵⁶ for 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.
⁵⁷ I 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.

⁵⁸ Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The broad wall of Babylon
   shall be levelled 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.^*

¹⁰In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, along with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

10 At that time the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. ¹¹King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it; ¹²King Jehoiachin of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself, his mother, his servants, his officers, and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign.

Capture of Jerusalem

13 He carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which King Solomon of Israel had made, all this as the Lord had foretold. ¹⁴He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the elite of the land, he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶The king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valour, seven thousand, the artisans and the smiths, one thousand, all of them strong and fit for war. ¹⁷The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

10 The descendants of Solomon: Rehoboam, Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, ¹¹Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, ¹²Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, ¹³Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, ¹⁴Amon his son, Josiah his son. ¹⁵The sons of Josiah: Johanan the firstborn, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. ¹⁶The descendants of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son;

Reign of Zedekiah

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹²He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. ¹³He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Destruction of Jerusalem Recalled

52Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned for 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.

Zedekiah Reigns over Judah

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ¹⁹He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the Lord that he expelled them from his presence.

The Fall and Captivity of Judah

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Zedekiah’s Vain Hope

37Zedekiah son of Josiah, whom King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, succeeded Coniah son of Jehoiakim. ²But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.

3 King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah saying, ‘Please pray for us to the Lord our God.’ ⁴Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. ⁵Meanwhile, the army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

6 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah: ⁷Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: This is what the two of you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: Pharaoh’s army, which set out to help you, is going to return to its own land, to Egypt. ⁸And the Chaldeans shall return and fight against this city; they shall take it and burn it with fire. ⁹Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely go away from us’, for they will not go away. ¹⁰Even if you defeated the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men in their tents, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.