Jeremiah 51:51-64

We are ashamed because we have heard insults.  Humiliation covers our faces because foreigners have entered the holy places of the  Lord’s temple.  Therefore, look, the days are coming — this is the  Lord’s declaration — when I will punish her carved images, and the wounded will groan throughout her land. Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens  and fortify her tall fortresses, destroyers will come against her from me. This is the  Lord’s declaration. The sound of a cry from Babylon!  The sound of terrible destruction  from the land of the Chaldeans! For the Lord is going to devastate Babylon; he will silence her mighty voice. Their waves roar like a huge torrent; the tumult of their voice resounds, for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, their bows shattered, for the Lord is a God of retribution; he will certainly repay. I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up.  This is the King’s declaration; the Lord of Armies is his name.  This is what the Lord of Armies says: Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,  and her high gates set ablaze. The peoples will have labored for nothing;  the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire. This is what the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah,  the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon;  all these words were written against Babylon. Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. Say, ‘Lord, you have threatened to cut off  this place so that no one will live in it — people or animals.  Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’ When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.  Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.’ ” The words of Jeremiah end here.