God's judgment on Babylon JEREMIAH. her yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. in revenge of Israel. 50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still : remember the LORD 34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Baby- afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your lon hath devoured me, he hath crushed mind. me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he 51 We are confounded, because we have hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he heard reproach: shame hath covered our hath filled his belly with my delicates, he faces; for strangers are come into the hath cast me out. sanctuaries of the LORD's house. 35 The violence done to me and to my 52 Wherefore behold, the days come, flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant saith the LORD, that I will do judgment of Zion say; and, My blood upon the in- upon her graven images: and through all habitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. her land the wounded shall groan. 36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Be- 53 Though Babylon should mount up hold, I will plead thy cause, and take ven- to heaven, and though she should fortify geance for thee; and I will dry up her the height of her strength. yet from me shall sea, and make her springs dry. spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD. 37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a 54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babydwelling-place for dragons, an astonish-lon, and great destruction from the land of ment, and a hissing, without an inhabit- the Chaldeans: ant. 55 Because the LORD hath spoiled Ba 38 They shall roar together like lions: bylon, and destroyed out of her the great they shall yell as lions' whelps. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. 41 How is Sheshach taken ! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! : 42 The sea is come up upon Babylon she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. voice: when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: 56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite. 57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. 58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The 43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no broken, and her high gates shall be burnman dwelleth, neither doth any son of ed with fire; and the people shall labour man pass thereby. in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth 59 The word which Jeremiah the that which he hath swallowed up: and the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of nations shall not flow together any more Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he unto him: yea,the wall of Babylon shall fall. went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into 45 My people, go ye out of the midst Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. of her, and deliver ye every man his soul And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. from the fierce anger of the LORD. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the 46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear evil that should come upon Babylon, even for the rumour that shall be heard in the all these words that are written against land; a rumour shall both come one year, Babylon. and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 47 Therefore behold, the days come, 62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou that I will do judgment upon the graven hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, images of Babylon: and her whole land that none shall remain in it, neither man shall be confounded, and all her slain shall nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for fall in the midst of her. ever. 48 Then the heaven and the earth, and 63 And it shall be, when thou hast all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon : made an end of reading this book, that for the spoilers shall come unto her from thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it the north, saith the LORD. into the midst of Euphrates: 49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of 64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall BaIsrael to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the bylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil slain of all the earth. that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. CHAP. LII. Jerusalem taken and spoiled. 15 Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of ZEDEKIAH was one and twenty years the people that remained in the city; and 2 And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. those that fell away, that fell to the king of 17 Also the pillars of brass that were in 18 The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the 4 And it came to pass in the ninth spoons, and all the vessels of brass where19 And the basins, and the fire-pans, and year of his reign, in the tenth month, in with they ministered, took they away. the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all the bowls, and the caldrons, and the canhis army, against Jerusalem, and pitched dlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups ; against it, and built forts against it round that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the about. 5 So the city was besieged unto the captain of the guard away. 20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth brazen bulls that were under the bases, day of the month, the famine was sore in which king Solomon had made in the vessels was without weight. the city, so that there was no bread for house of the LORD: the brass of all these the people of the land. 21 And concerning the pillars, the height 7 Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a of the city by night by the way of the fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; and gate between the two w lls, which was by the thickness thereof was four fingers: it the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans was hollow. were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain. 22 And a chapter of brass was upon it; and the height of one chapiter was five 8 T But the army of the Chaldeans pur-cubits, with net-work and pomegranates sued after the king, and overtook Zede- upon the chapiters round about, all of kiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these. army was scattered from him. 9 Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah, in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him. 10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah,in Riblah. 23 And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pome dred round about. granates upon the net-work were a hun 24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the 11 Then he put out the eyes of Zede-door: 25 He took also out of the city a eunuch, kiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and which had the charge of the men of war; put him in prison till the day of his death. and seven men of them that were near the 12 Now in the fifth month, in the king's person, which were found in the tenth day of the month, which was the city; and the principal scribe of the host, nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king who mustered the people of the land; and of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain threescore men of the people of the land, of the guard, which served the king of that were found in the midst of the city. Babylon, into Jerusalem, 13 And burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire: 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. 39 26 So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 27 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land. 28 This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh 609 Misery of Jerusalem : twenty: LAMENTATIONS. Her complaint and confession. year three thousand Jews and three and that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of 29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchad- Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him rezzarhe carried away captive from Jerusa- forth out of prison, lem eight hundred thirty and two persons: 32 And spake kindly unto him, and set 30 In the three and twentieth year of Ne- his throne above the throne of the kings buchadrezzar, Nebuzar-adan the captain of that were with him in Babylon, the guard carried away captive of the Jews 33 And changed his prison garments: seven hundred forty and five persons: all the and he did continually eat bread before persons were four thousand and six hundred. him all the days of his life. 31 And it came to pass in the seven 34 And for his diet, there was a conand thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoi- tinual diet given him of the king of Babyachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, lon, every day a portion until the day of in the five and twentieth day of the month, his death, all the days of his life. ¶ The Lamentations of JEREMIAH. CHAP. I. 10 The adversary hath spread out his OW doth the city sit solitary, that was hand upon all her pleasant things: for she a widow! she that was great among the na-sanctuary, whom thou didst command that tions, and princess among the provinces, they should not enter into thy congregation. how is she become tributary! 11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; 2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her they have given their pleasant things for tears are on her cheeks: among all her meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her and consider; for I am become vile. friends have dealt treacherously with her, 12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass they are become her enemies. by? behold, and see if there be any sor 3 Judah is gone into captivity because row like unto my sorrow, which is done of affliction, and because of great servi- unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicttude: she dwelleth among the heathen, ed me in the day of his fierce anger. she findeth no rest: all her persecutors 13 From above hath he sent fire into my overtook her between the straits. bones, and it prevaileth against them: he 4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turnnone come to the solemn feasts: all her ed me back: he hath made me desolate gates are desolate her priests sigh, her and faint all the day. virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. 14 The yoke of my transgressions is 5 Her adversaries are the chief, her ene-bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and mies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted come up upon my neck: he hath made my her for the multitude of her transgressions: strength to fall, the LORD hath delivered her children are gone into captivity before me into their hands, from whom I am not the enemy. able to rise up. 6 And from the daughter of Zion all her 15 The LORD hath trodden under foot beauty is departed: her princes are be- all my mighty men in the midst of me: he come like harts that find no pasture, and hath called an assembly against me to they are gone without strength before the crush my young men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as pursuer. 7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of in a wine-press. her affliction and of her miseries all her 16 For these things I weep; mine eye, pleasant things that she had in the days of mine eye runneth down with water, beold, when her people fell into the hand of cause the comforter that should relieve my the enemy, and none did help her: the ad- soul is far from me: my children are desoversaries saw her, and did mock at her late, because the enemy prevailed. sabbaths. 17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and 8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath therefore she is removed: all that honour-commanded concerning Jacob, that his aded her despise her, because they have seen versaries should be round about him: Jeher nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turn-rusalem is as a menstruous woman among eth backward. them. 9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she re- 18 ¶ The LORD is righteous; for I have membereth not her last end; therefore she rebelled against his commandment: hear, came down wonderfully: she had no com- I pray you, all people, and behold my sorforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for row: my virgins and my young men are the enemy hath magnified himself. gone into captivity. Jerusalem's misery lamented. CHAP. II. Jeremiah's complaint. 9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; 19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me my priests and mine elders he hath destroyed and broken her bars: Gentiles: the law is no more: her prophets gave up the ghost in the city, while they her king and her princes are among the sought their meat to relieve their souls. 10 The elders of the daughter of Zion 20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: also find no vision from the LORD. my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously sit upon the ground, and keep silence; rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at they have cast up dust upon their heads: they have girded themselves with sackhome there is as death. cloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. CHAP. II. OW hath the LORD covered the daugh Hter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! 11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. 12 They say to their mothers, Where is wounded in the streets of the city, when corn and wine? when they swooned as the their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom. 13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? 2 The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: 14 Thy prophets have seen vain and he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath foolish things for thee: and they have not brought them down to the ground: he hath discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy dens and causes of banishment. polluted the kingdom and the princes captivity; but have seen for thee false burthereof. all 3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. 15 All that pass by, clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the Perfection of beauty, the Joy of the whole earth? 16 All thine enemies have opened their 4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adver-mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the sary and slew all that were pleasant to the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her ed for; we have found, we have seen it. eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of up: certainly this is the day that we look17 The LORD hath done that which he Zion: he poured out his fury like fire. 5 The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong he had commanded in the days of old: he and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice holds, and hath increased in the daughter hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: of Judah mourning and lamentation. over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. 6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. 18 Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. 19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the be7 The LORD hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given ginning of the watches pour out thy heart up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her like water before the face of the LORD: lift palaces; they have made anoise in the house up thy hands toward him for the life of of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. thy young children, that faint for hunger in 8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the top of every street. 20 T Behold, O LORD, and consider to the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn whom thou hast done this. Shall the women his hand from destroying therefore he eat their fruit, and children of a span long? made the rampart and the wall to lament; shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the LORD? 611 they languished together. i Jeremiah bewails LAMENTATIONS. his own calamities. 21 The young and the old lie on the hope and quietly wait for the salvation of ground in the streets; my virgins and my the LORD. young men are fallen by the sword; thou 27 It is good for a man that he bear the hast slain them in the day of thine anger; yoke in his youth. thou hast killed, and not pitied. 28 He sitteth alone, and keepeth si 22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day lence, because he hath borne it upon him. my terrors round about, so that in the day 29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if of the LORD's anger none escaped or re-so be there may be hope. mained: those that I have swaddled and 30 He giveth his cheek to him that brought up, hath mine enemy consumed. smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. 31 For the LORD will not cast off for CHAP. III. 32 But though he cause grief, yet will' he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33 For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. 34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, 36 To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not. 7 He hath hedged me about, that I can- 37 Who is he that saith, and it comnot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.eth to pass, when the LORD commandeth 8 Also when I cry and shout, he shut- it not? teth out my prayer. 9 He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. 10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. 11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. 12 He hath bent his bow, and set as a mark for the arrow. me 13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. 14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. 15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. 16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel-stones, he hath covered me with ashes. 17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. 18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: 19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 38 Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good? 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. 42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. 43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. 44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. 45 Thou hast made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the people. 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. 48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. 51 Mine eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city. 52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. 53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. 54 Waters flowed over my head; then 25 The LORD is good unto them that I said, I am cut off. wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, 26 It is good that a man should both out of the low dungeon. |