Psalms 137 Cross References - MSB

¹ By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. ² There on the willows we hung our harps, ³ for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.” ⁴ How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land? ⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function. ⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy! ⁷ Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!” ⁸ O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us. ⁹ Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

¹⁰ Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters: ¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon; it winds through the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it runs along the east side of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

²¹ And there by the Ahava Canal I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.

³¹ On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us to protect us from the hands of the enemies and bandits along the way.

³ And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” ⁴ When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

³ and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

¹² When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head. ¹³ Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

⁴ These things come to mind as I pour out my soul: how I walked with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and praise.

⁹ For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears ¹⁰ because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside. ¹¹ My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass. ¹² But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations. ¹³ You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor—the appointed time has come. ¹⁴ For Your servants delight in her stones and take pity on her dust.

¹⁰ Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her,

¹⁷ But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive. ¹⁸ Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

¹⁷ I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.

⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword, depart and do not linger! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to mind.” ⁵¹ “We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.”

¹⁶ For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

¹⁰ The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. ¹¹ My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

¹⁸ The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.

⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵¹ My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

¹ In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.

³ the word of the LORD came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Kebar. And there the LORD’s hand was upon him.

¹⁵ I came to the exiles at Tel-abib who dwelt by the River Kebar. And for seven days I sat where they sat and remained there among them, overwhelmed.

³ So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

² In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks. ³ I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.

⁴¹ As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it

³ And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

² Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to Him with ten strings.

² Lift up a song, strike the tambourine, play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.

⁸ The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.

¹³ So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.

¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

²² And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.

²⁷ Now David was dressed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah, the director of music for the singers. David also wore a linen ephod.

⁷ On that day David first committed to Asaph and his brothers this song of thanksgiving to the LORD:

² before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”

¹⁴ that I may declare all Your praises—that within the gates of Daughter Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A song. Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion; to You our vows will be fulfilled.

¹ A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

⁶ You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.

³ Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt. ⁴ We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

¹⁰ So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹¹ So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹¹ “And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

¹⁸ “Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.’

¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish. ¹³ Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

¹⁵ All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” ¹⁶ All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹² Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

⁶ “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

¹ Then I looked and saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads. ² And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of many waters and the loud rumbling of thunder. And the sound I heard was like harpists strumming their harps. ³ And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

²¹ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”

¹⁴ The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. ¹⁵ Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

⁴ They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.

³ “In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”

² Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah. So I questioned them about the remnant of the Jews who had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

² so the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? This could only be sadness of the heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear ³ and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

¹ For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Hosts! ² My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

¹⁰ For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

⁵ For there the thrones of judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David. ⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper. ⁷ May there be peace within your walls, and prosperity inside your fortresses.” ⁸ For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” ⁹ For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.

¹ For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still, until her righteousness shines like a bright light, her salvation like a blazing torch.

⁶ On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD shall take no rest for yourselves, ⁷ nor give Him any rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword, depart and do not linger! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to mind.”

¹⁰ Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before. ¹¹ Then these men went as a group and found Daniel petitioning and imploring his God.

¹⁷ Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”

¹⁰ The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁷ The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

⁴ The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.

²⁶ I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course with joy and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

²⁰ I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

⁷ For this reason, brothers, in all our persecution and distress, we have been reassured about you, because of your faith. ⁸ For now we can go on living, as long as you are standing firm in the Lord. ⁹ How can we adequately thank God for you in return for our great joy over you in His presence?

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt.

¹⁸ Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.

⁸ Do not hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come quickly, for we are brought low. ⁹ Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; deliver us and atone for our sins, for the sake of Your name. ¹⁰ Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants. ¹¹ May the groans of the captives reach You; by the strength of Your arm preserve those condemned to death. ¹² Pay back into the laps of our neighbors sevenfold the reproach they hurled at You, O Lord.

⁵ When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. ⁶ The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

¹ Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.” ² Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress? ³ “I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained. ⁴ For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redemption had come. ⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me. ⁶ I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”

⁷ Concerning Edom, this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed? ⁸ Turn and run! Lie low, O dwellers of Dedan, for I will bring disaster on Esau at the time I punish him. ⁹ If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, would they not steal only what they wanted? ¹⁰ But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, and he will be unable to conceal himself. His descendants will be destroyed along with his relatives and neighbors, and he will be no more. ¹¹ Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your widows trust in Me.” ¹² For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for you must drink it too. ¹³ For by Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will be in ruins forever.” ¹⁴ I have heard a message from the LORD; an envoy has been sent to the nations: “Assemble yourselves to march against her! Rise up for battle!” ¹⁵ “For behold, I will make you small among nations, despised among men. ¹⁶ The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD. ¹⁷ “Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds. ¹⁸ As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there. ¹⁹ Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?” ²⁰ Therefore hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Edom and the strategies He has devised against the people of Teman: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them. ²¹ At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; their cry will resound to the Red Sea. ²² Look! An eagle will soar and swoop down, spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s mighty men will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

²¹ So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself. ²² O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

¹² This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt, ¹³ therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword. ¹⁴ I will take My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they will deal with Edom according to My anger and wrath. Then they will know My vengeance, declares the Lord GOD.’

² “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it,

² But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

¹¹ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly.

¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever. ¹¹ On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them. ¹² But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress. ¹³ You should not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over their affliction in the day of their disaster, nor loot their wealth in the day of their disaster. ¹⁴ Nor should you stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, nor deliver up their survivors in the day of their distress.

¹⁸ Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph a burning flame; but the house of Esau will be stubble—Jacob will set it ablaze and consume it. Therefore no survivor will remain from the house of Esau.” For the LORD has spoken. ¹⁹ Those from the Negev will possess the mountains of Esau; those from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. ²⁰ And the exiles of this host of the Israelites will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev. ²¹ The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will belong to the LORD.

¹³ You went forth for the salvation of Your people, to save Your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked and stripped him from head to toe. Selah

⁶ May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands, ⁷ to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, ⁸ to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with shackles of iron, ⁹ to execute the judgment written against them. This honor is for all His saints. Hallelujah!

¹ This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received: ² Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. ³ I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph. ⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war. ⁵ They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country. ⁶ Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷ Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. ⁸ Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear. ⁹ Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it. ¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. ¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless. ¹² I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir. ¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger. ¹⁴ Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land. ¹⁵ Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword. ¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished. ¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold. ¹⁸ Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children. ¹⁹ And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰ She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there. ²¹ But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about. ²² Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

⁴ you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended! ⁵ The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. ⁶ It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. ⁷ All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song. ⁸ Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: “Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.” ⁹ Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. ¹⁰ They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!” ¹¹ Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket. ¹² How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. ¹³ You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. ¹⁴ I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” ¹⁵ But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. ¹⁶ Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble, ¹⁷ who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?” ¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. ¹⁹ But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot. ²⁰ You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned. ²¹ Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the iniquities of their forefathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or cover the earth with their cities. ²² “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD. ²³ “I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts. ²⁴ The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.

¹ This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.

²⁸ who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd will fulfill all that I desire,’ who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundation be laid.’”

¹ “Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of Chaldea! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate. ² Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams. ³ Your nakedness will be uncovered and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.” ⁴ Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name—is the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ “Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of Chaldea. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms. ⁶ I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke. ⁷ You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome. ⁸ So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’ ⁹ These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells. ¹⁰ You were secure in your wickedness; you said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray; you told yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’ ¹¹ But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly. ¹² So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror! ¹³ You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate. ¹⁴ Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside. ¹⁵ This is what they are to you—those with whom you have labored and traded from youth—each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.

¹² But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.’”

¹ This is the word that the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans: ² “Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’ ³ For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land a desolation. No one will live in it; both man and beast will flee.” ⁴ “In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God. ⁵ They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ⁶ My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, causing them to roam the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. ⁷ All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’ ⁸ Flee from the midst of Babylon; depart from the land of the Chaldeans; be like the he-goats that lead the flock. ⁹ For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. ¹⁰ Chaldea will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD. ¹¹ “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions, ¹² your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. ¹³ Because of the wrath of the LORD, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate. All who pass through Babylon will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds. ¹⁴ Line up in formation around Babylon, all you who draw the bow! Shoot at her! Spare no arrows! For she has sinned against the LORD. ¹⁵ Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD, take out your vengeance upon her; as she has done, do the same to her. ¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. In the face of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land. ¹⁷ Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” ¹⁸ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ I will return Israel to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. ²⁰ In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve. ²¹ Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD. ²² “The noise of battle is in the land—the noise of great destruction. ²³ How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations! ²⁴ I laid a snare for you, O Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it. You were found and captured because you challenged the LORD. ²⁵ The LORD has opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath, for this is the work of the Lord GOD of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ Come against her from the farthest border. Break open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain. Devote her to destruction; leave her no survivors. ²⁷ Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment. ²⁸ Listen to the fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for His temple. ²⁹ Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD. ³¹ “Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you. ³² The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.” ³³ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them. ³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Babylon. ³⁵ A sword is against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and wise men. ³⁶ A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror. ³⁷ A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered. ³⁸ A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols. ³⁹ So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation. ⁴⁰ As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there. ⁴¹ Behold, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are stirred up from the ends of the earth. ⁴² They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Babylon. ⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor. ⁴⁴ Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?” ⁴⁵ Therefore hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them. ⁴⁶ At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.

¹ This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I will stir up against Babylon and against the people of Leb-kamai the spirit of a destroyer. ² I will send strangers to Babylon to winnow her and empty her land; for they will come against her from every side in her day of disaster. ³ Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction! ⁴ And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and pierced through in her streets. ⁵ For Israel and Judah have not been abandoned by their God, the LORD of Hosts, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.” ⁶ Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves. ⁷ Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad. ⁸ Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed. ⁹ “We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches to the clouds.” ¹⁰ “The LORD has brought forth our vindication; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has accomplished.” ¹¹ Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple. ¹² Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; post the guard; station the watchmen; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both devised and accomplished what He spoke against the people of Babylon. ¹³ You who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut. ¹⁴ The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.” ¹⁵ The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. ¹⁶ When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses. ¹⁷ Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁸ They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish. ¹⁹ The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and of the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name. ²⁰ “You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin. ²¹ With you I shatter the horse and rider; with you I shatter the chariot and driver. ²² With you I shatter man and woman; with you I shatter the old man and the youth; with you I shatter the young man and the maiden. ²³ With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen; with you I shatter the governors and officials. ²⁴ Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD. ²⁵ “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD. I will stretch out My hand against you; I will roll you over the cliffs and turn you into a charred mountain. ²⁶ No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, because you will become desolate forever,” declares the LORD. ²⁷ “Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts. ²⁸ Prepare the nations for battle against her—the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the lands they rule. ²⁹ The earth quakes and writhes because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. ³⁰ The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken. ³¹ One courier races to meet another, and messenger follows messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end. ³² The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.” ³³ For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.” ³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out. ³⁵ May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the dweller of Zion. “May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem. ³⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her springs run dry. ³⁷ Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant. ³⁸ They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs. ³⁹ While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the LORD. ⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. ⁴¹ How Sheshach has been captured! The praise of all the earth has been seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations! ⁴² The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered in turbulent waves. ⁴³ Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through. ⁴⁴ I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall. ⁴⁵ Come out of her, My people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the LORD. ⁴⁶ Do not let your heart grow faint, and do not be afraid when the rumor is heard in the land; for a rumor will come one year—and then another the next year—of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler. ⁴⁷ Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her. ⁴⁸ Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon because the destroyers from the north will come against her,” declares the LORD. ⁴⁹ “Babylon must fall on account of the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. ⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword, depart and do not linger! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to mind.” ⁵¹ “We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.” ⁵² “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan. ⁵³ Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, the destroyers I send will come against her,” declares the LORD. ⁵⁴ “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! ⁵⁵ For the LORD will destroy Babylon; He will silence her mighty voice. The waves will roar like great waters; the tumult of their voices will resound. ⁵⁶ For a destroyer is coming against her—against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken, for the LORD is a God of retribution; He will repay in full. ⁵⁷ I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts. ⁵⁸ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.” ⁵⁹ This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the quartermaster Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ⁶⁰ Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words that had been written concerning Babylon. ⁶¹ And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud, ⁶² and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain—neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’ ⁶³ When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴ Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’” Here end the words of Jeremiah.

⁷ “Get up, O Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon!”

⁸ Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.” ⁹ And a third angel followed them, calling out in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

¹ Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. ² The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” ³ And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. ⁵ And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. ⁶ I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her. ⁷ “Why are you so amazed?” said the angel. “I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. ⁸ The beast that you saw—it was, and now is no more, but is about to come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. And those who dwell on the earth whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet will be. ⁹ This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. ¹⁰ There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. ¹¹ The beast that was, and now is not, is an eighth king, who belongs to the other seven and is going into destruction. ¹² The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but will receive one hour of authority as kings, along with the beast. ¹³ These kings have one purpose: to yield their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴ They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones.” ¹⁵ Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. ¹⁶ And the ten horns and the beast that you saw will hate the prostitute. They will leave her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. ¹⁷ For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by uniting to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. ¹⁸ And the woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

⁶ Give back to her as she has done to others; pay her back double for what she has done; mix her a double portion in her own cup.

²⁰ Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

¹² “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”

¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.

¹⁴ the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.

¹⁶ Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

¹⁰ Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.