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The word that the Lord spake, concerning Babel, and cocerning the land of the Caldeans by the ministerie of Ieremiah the Prophet.
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Declare among the nations, and publish it, and set vp a standart, proclaime it and conceale it not: say, Babel is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken downe: her idols are confounded, and their images are burst in pieces.
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For out of the North there commeth vp a nation against her, which shall make her lande waste, and none shall dwel therein: they shall flee, and depart, both man and beast.
Hope for Israel and Judah
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In those daies, and at that time, sayeth the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they, and the children of Iudah together, going, and weeping shall they goe, and seeke the Lord their God.
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They shall aske the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let vs cleaue to the Lord in a perpetuall couenant that shall not be forgotten.
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My people hath beene as lost sheepe: their shepheards haue caused them to goe astray, and haue turned them away to the mountaines: they haue gone from mountaine to hil, and forgotten their resting place.
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Al that found them, haue deuoured them, and their enemies saide, We offende not, because they haue sinned against the Lord, the habitation of iustice, euen the Lord the hope of their fathers.
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Flee from the middes of Babel, and depart out of the lande of the Caldeans, and be ye as the hee goates before the flocke.
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For loe, I will raise, and cause to come vp against Babel a multitude of mightie natios from the North countrey, and they shall set themselues in aray against her, whereby shee shall be taken: their arrowes shall be as of a strong man, which is expert, for none shall returne in vaine.
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And Caldea shalbe a spoyle: all that spoyle her, shalbe satisfied, sayth the Lord.
Babylon’s Fall Is Certain
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Because yee were glad and reioyced in destroying mine heritage, and because ye are growen fatte, as the calues in the grasse, and neied like strong horses,
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Therefore your mother shall bee sore confounded, and she that bare you, shall be ashamed: beholde, the vttermost of the nations shalbe a desert, a drie land, and a wildernes.
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Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but shall be wholy desolate: euery one that goeth by Babel, shall be astonished, and hisse at all her plagues.
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Put your selues in aray against Babel rounde about: all ye that bende the bowe, shoote at her, spare no arrowes: for shee hath sinned against the Lord.
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Crie against her round about: she hath giuen her hand: her foundations are fallen, and her walles are destroyed: for it is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance vpon her: as she hath done, doe vnto her.
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Destroy the sower from Babel, and him that handleth the sieth in the time of haruest: because of the sworde of the oppressor they shall turne euery one to his people, and they shall flee euery one to his owne land.
Redemption for God’s People
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Israel is like scattered sheepe: the lions haue dispersed them: first the King of Asshur hath deuoured him, and last this Nebuchad-nezzar King, of Babel hath broken his bones.
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Therefore thus saith the Lord of hostes the God of Israel, Behold, I wil visit ye King of Babel, and his land, as I haue visited the King of Asshur.
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And I will bring Israel againe to his habitation: hee shall feede on Carmel and Bashan, and his soule shall be satisfied vpon the mount Ephraim and Gilead.
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In those daies, and at that time, sayeth the Lord, the iniquitie of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sinnes of Iudah, and they shall not be founde: for I will be mercifull vnto them, whome I reserue.
The Destruction of Babylon
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Goe vp against the lande of the rebelles, euen against it, and against the inhabitantes of Pekod: destroy, and lay it waste after them, saieth the Lord, and doe according to all that I haue commanded thee.
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A crie of battell is in the land, and of great destruction.
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Howe is the hammer of the whole world destroied, and broken! howe is Babel become desolate among the nations!
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I haue snared thee, and thou art taken, O Babel, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striuen against the Lord.
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The Lord hath opened his treasure, and hath brought foorth the weapons of his wrath: for this is the woorke of the Lord God of hostes in the lande of the Caldeans.
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Come against her from the vtmost border: open her store houses: treade on her as on sheaues, and destroy her vtterly: let nothing of her be left.
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Destroy all her bullockes: let them goe downe to the slaughter. Wo vnto them, for their day is come, and the time of their visitation.
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The voyce of them that flee, and escape out of the lande of Babel to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, and the vengeance of his Temple.
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Call vp the archers against Babel: al ye that bend the bow, besiege it rounde about: let none thereof escape: recompence her according to her worke, and according to all that she hath done, doe vnto her: for she hath bene proud against the Lord, euen against the holy one of Israel.
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Therefore shall her yong men fall in the streetes, and al her men of warre shalbe destroied in that day, sayeth the Lord.
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Beholde, I come vnto thee, O proude man, saith the Lord God of hostes: for thy day is come, euen the time that I will visite thee.
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And the proude shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him vp: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall deuoure all round about him.
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Thus saieth the Lord of hosts, The children of Israel, and the children of Iudah were oppressed together: and all that tooke them captiues, held them, and would not let them goe.
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But their strong redeemer, whose Name is the Lord of hostes, he shall maintaine their cause, that he may giue rest to the lande, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babel.
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A sworde is vpon the Caldeans, sayeth the Lord, and vpon the inhabitants of Babel, and vpon her princes, and vpon her wise men.
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A sworde is vpon the soothsaiers, and they shall dote: a sword is vpon her strong men, and they shalbe afraide.
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A sworde is vpon their horses and vpon their charets, and vpon all the multitude that are in the middes of her, and they shall be like women: a sworde is vpon her treasures, and they shall be spoyled.
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A drought is vpon her waters, and they shall be dried vp: for it is the lande of grauen images, and they dote vpon their idoles.
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Therefore the Ziims with the Iims shall dwel there, and the ostriches shall dwel therein: for it shall be no more inhabited, neither shall it be inhabited from generation vnto generation.
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As God destroied Sodom and Gomorah with the places thereof neere about, sayeth the Lord: so shall no man dwell theere, neither shall the sonne of man remaine therein.
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Beholde, a people shall come from the North, and a great nation, and many Kings shall be raised vp from the coastes of the earth.
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They shall holde the bowe and the buckeler: they are cruell and vnmercifull: their voyce shall roare like the sea, and they shall ride vpon horses, and be put in aray like men to the battell against thee, O daughter of Babel.
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The King of Babel hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: sorow came vpon him, euen sorowe as of a woman in trauaile.
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Beholde, hee shall come vp like a lyon from the swelling of Iorden vnto the strong habitation: for I will make Israel to rest, and I will make them to haste away from her: and who is a chosen man that I may appoynt against her? for who is like me, and who will appoynt me the time? and who is the shepheard that will stande before me?
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Therefore heare the counsell of the Lord that hee hath deuised against Babel, and his purpose that hee hath conceiued against the lande of the Caldeans: surely the least of the flocke shall drawe them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them.
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At the noyse of the winning of Babel the earth is moued, and the crye is heard among the nations.