Study Desk

^(C1)We are ashamed because we have heard rebuke; Disgrace has covered our faces, Because ^(C2)strangers have entered The holy places of the LORD'S house.

"Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will punish her ^(C1)idols, And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.

-"Though Babylon ^(C1)ascends to the heavens, And though she fortifies ^(F1)her lofty stronghold, Destroyers will come from ^(C2)Me to her," declares the LORD.

The ^(C1)sound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon, And He will make her loud ^(F1)noise vanish from her. And their ^(C1)waves will roar like many waters; The clamor of their voices ^(F2)sounds forth.

For the ^(C1)destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, And her warriors will be captured, Their ^(C2)bows shattered; For the LORD is a God of ^(C3)retribution, He will fully repay.

"I will ^(C1)make her leaders and her wise men drunk, Her governors, her officials, and her warriors, So that they will sleep a ^(C2)perpetual sleep and not wake up," ^(C3)Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of armies.

This is what the LORD of armies says: "The broad ^(C1)wall of Babylon will be completely demolished, And her high ^(C2)gates will be set on fire; So the peoples will ^(C3)labor for nothing, And the nations become ^(C4)exhausted only for fire."