Study Desk

"The arrogant (proud) one will stumble and fall With no one to raise him up; And I will set fire to his cities And it will devour all who are around him."

"Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is His name. He will most certainly plead their case and defend their cause So that He may bring rest to their land, But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.

"The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, And his hands fall limp and helpless; Anguish has seized him, And agony like that of a woman in childbirth.

"See, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan against the enduring habitation [of Babylon] and its watered pastures; for in an instant I will make Babylon run from his land. I will appoint over Babylon the one whom I choose. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me [into court] and prosecute Me [for this]? Who is the [earthly] shepherd who can stand [defiantly] before Me?"

"Do not let him (the Chaldean defender) who bends his bow bend it, Nor let him rise up in his coat of armor. So do not spare her young men; Devote her entire army to destruction.

For neither Israel nor Judah has been abandoned By his God, the LORD of hosts, Though their land is full of sin and guilt Before the Holy One of Israel.

Flee out of Babylon, Let every one of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, For this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; He is going to pay her what she has earned.

We would have healed Babylon, but she was not to be healed. Abandon her and let each [captive] return to his own country, For her guilt and judgment have reached to heaven And are lifted up to the very skies.

Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields [and cover yourselves]! 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 [on Babylon] for [plundering and destroying] His temple.

He made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom And stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain And brings out the wind from His storehouses.

Every man has become stupid and brutelike, without knowledge [of God]; Every goldsmith is shamed by the cast images he has made; For his molten idols are a lie, And there is no breath [of life] or spirit in them.

The Portion of Jacob [the true God of Israel] is not like these [handmade gods]; For He is the Maker of all and the One who formed and fashioned all things, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance— The LORD of hosts is His name.

"With you I shatter the horse and his rider, With you I shatter the chariot and its driver,

With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock, With you I shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen, And with you I shatter governors and commanders.

One courier runs to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To tell the king of Babylon That his city has been captured from end to end;

"Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, He has set me down like an empty vessel. Like a monster he has swallowed me up, He has filled his belly with my delicacies; He has spit me out and washed me away.

"I will punish and judge Bel [the handmade god] in Babylon And take out of his mouth what he has swallowed up [the stolen sacred articles and the captives of Judah and elsewhere]. The nations will no longer flow to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon has fallen down!

"I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, Her governors and her commanders and her mighty warriors; They will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up," Says the King—the LORD of hosts is His name.

The message which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now this Seraiah was chief chamberlain or quartermaster [and brother of Baruch].