53. Though Babylon scale the heavens,and make her strong heights inaccessible,my destroyers shall reach her—oracle of the Lord.
54. A sound of crying from Babylon,great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;
55. For the Lord lays Babylon waste,silences her loud cry,Waves roaring like mighty waters,a clamor resounding.
56. For the destroyer comes upon her, upon Babylon;warriors are captured, their bows broken;The Lord is a God of recompense,he will surely repay.
57. I will make her princes and sages drunk, with her governors, officers, and warriors, so that they sleep an everlasting sleep, never to awaken—oracle of the King, whose name is Lord of hosts.
58. Thus says the Lord of hosts:The walls of spacious Babylon shall be leveled to the ground,its lofty gates destroyed by fire.The toil of the peoples is for nothing;the nations weary themselves for what the flames consume.
59. The mission Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign; Seraiah was chief quartermaster.
60. Jeremiah wrote down on one scroll the disaster that would befall Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.
61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you reach Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud,
62. and then say: Lord, you yourself spoke against this place in order to cut it down so that nothing, human being or beast, could live in it, because it is to remain a wasteland forever.
63. When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates,
64. and say: Thus Babylon shall sink. It will never rise, because of the disaster I am bringing upon it.” Thus far the words of Jeremiah.