Study Desk

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.

Babylon has suddenly fallen and is shattered! Wail for her [if you care to]! Get balm for her [incurable] pain; Perhaps she may be healed.

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.

Set up a signal on the walls of Babylon [to spread the news]; Post a strong blockade, Station the guards, Prepare the men for ambush! For the LORD has both purposed and done That which He spoke against the people of Babylon.

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.

"You [Cyrus of Persia, soon to conquer Babylon] are My battle-axe and weapon of war— For with you I shatter nations, With you I destroy kingdoms.

"And I will [completely] repay Babylon and all the people of Chaldea for all the evil that they have done in Zion—before your very eyes [I will do it]," says the LORD.

"They will not take from you [even] a stone for a cornerstone Nor any rock for a foundation, But you will be desolate forever," says the LORD.

Lift up a signal in the land [to spread the news]! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Dedicate the nations [for war] against her; Call against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; Cause the horses to come up like bristly locusts [with their wings not yet released from their cases].

Prepare and dedicate the nations for war against her— The kings of Media, With their governors and commanders, And every land of their dominion.

The land trembles and writhes [in pain and sorrow], For the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, To make the land of Babylon A desolation without inhabitants.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor At the time it is being trampled and prepared; Yet in a little while the time of harvest will come for her."

Therefore thus says the LORD, "Behold, I will plead your case And take full vengeance for you; I will dry up her sea and great reservoir And make her fountain dry.

"Now beware so that you do not lose heart, And so that you are not afraid at the rumor that will be heard in the land— For the rumor shall come one year, And after that another rumor in another year, And violence shall be in the land, Ruler against ruler—

"Then heaven and earth and all that is in them Will shout and sing for joy over Babylon, For the destroyers will come against her from the north," Says the LORD.

Indeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel, As also for Babylon the slain of all the earth have fallen.

We are perplexed and ashamed, for we have heard reproach; Disgrace has covered our faces, For foreigners [from Babylon] have come Into the [most] sacred parts of the sanctuary of the LORD [even those places forbidden to all but the appointed priest].