though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the
LORD.
[54] A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
[55]
Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great 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 broad walls of
Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour
in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.
[59] The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded
Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into
Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
[60] So Jeremiah wrote in a
book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
[61]
And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these
words;
[62] Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none
shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
[63] And it shall be, when
thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst
of Euphrates:
[64] And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will
bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Jer.52
[1] Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in
Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
[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.
[4] And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign,
in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and
all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about.
[5] So the
city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
[6] And in the fourth month, in the ninth day
of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
[7]
Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the
way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were by
the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.
[8] But the army of the Chaldeans pursued
after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his 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.
[11] Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of
Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
[12]
Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, which served the king of 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.
[15] Then Nebuzar-adan
the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the
people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest
of the multitude.
[16] But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for
vinedressers and for husbandmen.
[17] Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and
the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all
the brass of them to Babylon.
[18] The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls,
and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.
[19] And the
basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and
the cups; that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the captain of the
guard away.
[20] The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king