23 How is the hammer of the whole

earth

Cut asunder and broken!
How is Babylon become

A desolation among the nations!

24I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, And thou wast not aware; Thou art found, and also caught, Because thou hast striven against the LORD.

25The LORD hath opened His armoury, And hath brought forth the weapons of His indignation;

For it is a work that the Lord GOD of hosts

And all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, Saith the LORD.

31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou most arrogant,

Saith the Lord GOD of hosts;
For thy day is come,

The time that I will punish thee. "And the most arrogant shall stumble and fall,

And none shall raise him up;

And I will kindle a fire in his cities, And it shall devour all that are round about him.

deans.

26Come against her from every quar

ter, open her granaries, Cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly;

Let nothing of her be left. 27Slay all her bullocks, let them go down to the slaughter;

Woe unto them! for their day is

come,

The time of their visitation.

28 Hark! they flee and escape out of

the land of Babylon,

To declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, The vengeance of His temple. 29Call together the archers against Babylon,

All them that bend the bow; Encamp against her round about, Let none thereof escape; Recompense her according to her work,

According to all that she hath done, do unto her:

For she hath been arrogant against the LORD,

Against the Holy One of Israel. 30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her broad places,

The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together;

And all that took them captives. hold them fast;

They refuse to let them go. 34Their Redeemer is strong,

The LORD of hosts is His name;
He will thoroughly plead their cause,
That He may give rest to the earth,
And disquiet the inhabitants of
Babylon.

35A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD,

And upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

36A sword is upon the boasters, and they shall become fools;

A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. 37A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots,

And upon all the mingled people

that are in the midst of her, And they shall become as women; A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

38A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up;

"Make bright the arrows, Fill the quivers,

The LORD hath roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes; Because His device is against Babylon, to destroy it;

For it is the vengeance of the LORD, The vengeance of His temple. 12Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon,

Make the watch strong,

Set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes;

For the LORD hath both devised and done

That which He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

130 thou that dwellest upon many waters,

Abundant in treasures,
Thine end is come,

The measure of thy covetousness. 14The LORD of hosts hath sworn by Himself:

Surely I will fill thee with men, as with the canker-worm,

And they shall lift up a shout against thee.

15He that hath made the earth by His power,

That hath established the world by His wisdom,

And hath stretched out the heavens

by His discernment;

16At the sound of His giving a multitude of waters in the heavens, He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings at the time of the rain,

And bringeth forth the wind out of His treasuries;

17Every man is proved to be brutish. for the knowledge

Every goldsmith is put to shame by the graven image

That his molten image is falsehood,

and there is no breath in them. 18They are vanity, a work of delusion;

In the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19The portion of Jacob is not like these;

For He is the former of all things, And [Israel] is the tribe of His inheritance;

The LORD of hosts is His name.

20Thou art My maul and weapons of war,

And with thee will I shatter the nations,

And with thee will I destroy kingdoms:

21 And with thee will I shatter the horse and his rider,

And with thee will I shatter the chariot and him that rideth therein;

And all the land of his dominion, 29And the land quaketh and is in pain;

For the purposes of the LORD are performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. 30The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight,

They remain in their strongholds; Their might hath failed, they are become as women;

Her dwelling-places are set on fire; Her bars are broken.

One post runneth to meet another,

And one messenger to meet another,

To tell the king of Babylon That his city is taken on every quarter;

32 And the fords are seized,

And the castles they have burned with fire,

And the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel:

The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor

At the time when it is trodden; Yet a little while, and the time of harvest

Shall come for her. 34Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, He hath crushed me,

He hath set me down as an empty vessel,

He hath swallowed me up like a dragon,

He hath filled his maw with my delicacies;

He hath washed me clean.

356 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon', Shall the inhabitant of Zion say;

habitants of Chaldea',

Shall Jerusalem say.

36Therefore thus saith the LORD:
Behold, I will plead thy cause,
And take vengeance for thee;
And I will dry up her sea,
And make her fountain dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps,
A dwelling-place for jackals,
An astonishment, and a hissing,
Without inhabitant.

38They shall roar together like young lions;

They shall growl as lions' whelps. 39With their poison I will prepare their feast,

And I will make them drunken,

that they may be convulsed, And sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake,

Saith the LORD.

40I will bring them down like lambs

to the slaughter,

Like rams with he-goats. "How is Sheshach taken!

And the praise of the whole earth seized!

How is Babylon become an astonishment

Among the nations!

42The sea is come up upon Babylon; She is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

43 Her cities are become a desolation, A dry land, and a desert,

A land wherein no man dwelleth, Neither doth any son of man pass thereby.

"And I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up,

And the nations shall not flow any more unto him;

Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

of her,

And save yourselves every man From the fierce anger of the LORD. 46And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye,

For the rumour that shall be heard in the land;

For a rumour shall come one year, And after that in another year a rumour,

And violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47Therefore, behold, the days come, That I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon,

And her whole land shall be ashamed;

And all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein,

Shall sing for joy over Babylon; For the spoilers shall come unto her From the north, saith the LORD. 49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall,

So at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.

50 Ye that have escaped the sword, Go ye, stand not still;

Remember the LORD from afar,

And let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51'We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach,

Confusion hath covered our faces; For strangers are come

Into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.'

52Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD,

That I will do judgment upon her graven images;

And through all her land the wounded shall groan.