Jeremiah 28
A Destroying Wind Roused Against Babylon
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A Destroying Wind Against Babylon
28:1Thus says the Lord: I am rousing a destroying hot wind against Babylon and against the Chaldeans who live there.
28:2I will send insolent men to Babylon; they will abuse her and ravage her land. Woe upon Babylon all around on the day of her affliction!
28:3Against her let the archer stretch his bow, and let the man who has armor put it on. Do not spare her young men; obliterate her whole force.
28:4Wounded men will fall in the Chaldeans’ land, and pierced men outside her.
28:5For Israel and Judah have not been widowed of their God, of the Lord Almighty, because their land was filled with injustice from Israel’s holy ones.
28:6Flee from Babylon’s midst; each of you save your life. Do not be cast away in her injustice, for her time of vengeance is from the Lord; He is repaying her recompense.
Babylon Was a Golden Cup
28:7Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. Nations drank her wine; therefore they were shaken.
28:8Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered. Lament her! Take resin for her corruption, if somehow she may be healed.
28:9We treated Babylon, but she was not healed. Let us leave her; let each of us go to our own land, for her judgment reached heaven and rose to the stars.
28:10The Lord has brought forth His judgment. Come, let us announce in Zion the works of the Lord our God.
28:11Prepare the arrows; fill the quivers. The Lord roused the spirit of the Medes’ king, for His anger against Babylon is to destroy her. This is the Lord’s vengeance, vengeance for His people.
28:12Raise a signal on Babylon’s walls; set up quivers, raise guards, prepare weapons, for the Lord has undertaken and will do what He spoke against Babylon’s inhabitants,
28:13who dwell beside many waters and her abundance of treasures. Your end has truly come to your inward parts.
28:14For the Lord swore by His arm: I will fill you with people like locusts, and those coming down will speak out against you.
The Maker of Earth and the Folly of Carved Images
28:15He makes the earth by His strength, prepares the inhabited world by His wisdom, and stretched out heaven by His understanding.
28:16At His voice He set a sound of water in heaven and brought clouds up from the earth’s end. He made lightning for rain and brought light out of His treasuries.
28:17Every person became foolish, without knowledge; every goldsmith was disgraced by his carvings, because they cast false things, and there is no spirit in them.
28:18They are vain, mocked works; at the time of their visitation they will perish.
28:19Jacob’s portion is not like this, for the One who formed all things is Himself his inheritance. The Lord is His name.
28:20You scatter instruments of war for Me. In you I will scatter nations, and from you I will remove kings.
Horse and Rider, Shepherd and Flock Scattered
28:21In you I will scatter horse and rider; in you I will scatter chariots and their riders.
28:22In you I will scatter young man and virgin; in you I will scatter man and woman.
28:23In you I will scatter shepherd and flock; in you I will scatter farmer and farmland; in you I will scatter your leaders and generals.
28:24I will repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans who live there for all the evils they did against Zion before your eyes, says the Lord.
Against the Ruined Mountain
28:25I am against you, ruined mountain that ruins the whole earth. I will stretch My hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you like a burned mountain.
28:26They will certainly not take from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, for you will be a disappearance forever, says the Lord.
28:27Raise a signal on the earth; sound a trumpet among the nations. Consecrate nations against her; give orders against her to Ararat’s kingdoms from Me and to the Ashkenazites. Set up arrow batteries against her; bring up horses against her like a multitude of locusts.
28:28Consecrate nations against her: the king of the Medes and of all the earth, his leaders and all his generals.
28:29The earth was shaken and suffered, for the Lord’s purpose rose against Babylon, to make Babylon’s land a disappearance, no longer inhabited.
28:30Babylon’s warrior has ceased fighting; they will sit there in confinement. Their power was crushed; they became like women. Her dwellings were burned; her bars were shattered.
28:31Pursuer will pursue to meet pursuer, and announcer to meet announcer, to tell Babylon’s king that his city has been captured;
28:32from the extremity of his crossings they were taken, and their gatherings were burned with fire, and his warriors are going out.
The Houses of Babylon Like a Threshing Floor
28:33For thus says the Lord: The houses of Babylon’s king will be threshed like a threshing floor ready for use; a little longer, and her harvest will come.
28:34Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon devoured me, divided me, seized me, a thin vessel. He swallowed me like a dragon, filled his belly, and drove me from my luxury.
28:35My toils and miseries be upon Babylon, the woman dwelling in Zion will say; my blood be upon the Chaldeans who live there, Jerusalem will say.
28:36Therefore thus says the Lord: I will judge your adversary and avenge you; I will lay her sea waste and dry her spring.
28:37Babylon will become a disappearance and will not be inhabited.
28:38Together they were roused like lions and like lions’ cubs.
28:39In their heat I will give them a drink and make them drunk, so that they are stupefied and sleep an everlasting sleep and certainly do not rise, says the Lord.
28:40I will bring them down like lambs to slaughter and like rams with young goats.
How the Boast of the Whole Earth Was Captured
28:41How the boast of the whole earth was captured and hunted! How Babylon became a disappearance among the nations!
28:42The sea rose over Babylon with the sound of its waves, and she was covered.
28:43Her cities became a waterless and untrodden land; not one person will live there, nor will any human lodge there.
28:44I will exact vengeance on Babylon and bring what she swallowed out of her mouth. Nations will certainly no longer gather to her.
28:49And in Babylon wounded men from all the earth will fall.
28:50You who escape from the land, go on; do not stand still. You who are far away, remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise in your hearts.
28:51We were disgraced, for we heard our reproach; dishonor covered our face. Foreigners entered our holy places, the Lord’s house.
28:52Therefore days are coming, says the Lord, when I will exact vengeance on her carvings, and wounded men will fall throughout her land.
28:53Even if Babylon rises as high as heaven and fortifies the height of her strength, those who destroy her will come from Me, says the Lord.
28:54A sound of crying in Babylon, a great shattering in the Chaldeans’ land!
28:55For the Lord destroyed Babylon and silenced her loud voice sounding like many waters; He gave her voice over to destruction.
28:56For misery came upon Babylon. Her warriors were captured; their bow is terrified, because God repays them; the Lord repays her recompense.
28:57He will make her leaders and wise men and generals thoroughly drunk, says the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
28:58Thus says the Lord: Babylon’s wall was broadened; it will be utterly demolished, and her high gates burned. Peoples will not labor in vain, and nations will perish at the beginning.
The Word Commanded to Seraiah
28:59The word the Lord commanded Jeremiah the prophet to tell Seraiah son of Neriah son of Maaseiah when he went from Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was an official over gifts.
28:60Jeremiah wrote in one scroll all the evils that would come upon Babylon, all these words written against Babylon.
28:61Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you arrive in Babylon, you will see and read all these words,
28:62and say, Lord, Lord, You spoke against this place to destroy it and leave no inhabitants in it, from human to livestock, for it will be a disappearance forever.
28:63When you finish reading this scroll, bind a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates,
28:64and say, Thus Babylon will sink and certainly not rise because of the evils I am bringing upon her.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.