Study Desk

In those days and in that time, says the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping and seeking the LORD their God.

All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries have said, We shall not spare them, because they have sinned against the LORD and against his righteous habitation; even the LORD, the hope of their families.

For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come against Babylon a multitude of many nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken; their arrows shall be as those of an expert archer; none shall return empty.

Cut off from Babylon both the sower and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest; because of the fear of the oppressing sword, they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

In those days and in that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I reserve as a remnant.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them captive have held them fast; they refused to let them go.

A sword is upon her soothsayers, and they shall be dismayed; a sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be defeated.

A sword is upon her horses and upon her chariots and upon all sojourners that are in the midst of her; and they shall become cowards; a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be plundered.

A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for she is the land of the makers of images, who boast in their idols.

They are armed with bows and lances; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voices are like the roaring of the sea, and they ride upon horses, arrayed as mighty men to the battle against you, O daughter of Babylon.

Therefore, hear the counsel of the LORD which he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans; for they shall shear even the least of the flock, and they shall make their folds a desolation upon them.

And I will send to Babylon destroyers, and they shall plunder her and tread her land under their feet; and they shall gather against her from every side in the day of trouble.

The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, numerous as locusts; and they shall lift up a shout against you, saying, It is done! It is done!

Every man is brutish, lacking knowledge; all silversmiths are put to shame by the images they have made; for they have cast falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

And I will recompense to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, before your eyes, for all the evil that they have done in Zion, says the LORD.

And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says the LORD.

With venom I will prepare their drinks, and I will make them drunk, and they shall fall down and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, says the LORD.

And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her noble men and her rulers and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

And say, Thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise, because of the evil that I will bring upon her people; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the kings garden (now the Chaldeans were round about the city), and they went by the way of the plain.