For thus said the Lord: When seventy years shall be on the verge of being accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and will confirm My words to you, to bring back your people to this place.

In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant [for] three years. And [then] he turned and revolted against him.

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he issued a proclamation through all his kingdom, and that in writing, saying,

Thus said Cyrus king of the Persians: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has given me a command to build Him a house in Jerusalem that is in Judea.

I, Daniel understood by the books the number of years which was the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, [the] seventy years for the accomplishment of the desolation of Jerusalem.

[This translation omits this verse.]

The word of the Lord which He spoke against Babylon:

For a nation has come up against her from the north, he shall utterly ravage her land, and there shall be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast.

They shall ask the way till [they come to] Zion, for that way shall they set their face; and they shall come and flee for refuge to the Lord their God; for the everlasting covenant shall not be forgotten.

All that found them consumed them. Their enemies said, Let us not leave them alone, because they have sinned against the Lord. He that gathered their fathers [had] a pasture of righteousness.

For behold, I stir up against Babylon the gatherings of nations out of the land of the north, and they shall set themselves in array against her. From there shall she be taken, as the dart of an expert warrior shall not return empty.

Because you rejoiced, and boasted, [while] plundering My heritage; because you exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls.

by reason of the Lord's anger. It shall not be inhabited, but it all shall be a desolation; and everyone that passes through Babylon shall scowl, and they shall hiss at all her plagues.

and prevail against her. Her hands are weakened, her bulwarks are fallen, and her wall is broken down; for it is vengeance from God. Take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her.

Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have driven him out. The king of Assyria first devoured him, and afterward this king of Babylon [has gnawed] his bones.

And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and on Mount Ephraim and in Gilead, and his soul shall be satisfied.

on the land, says the Lord. Go up against it roughly, and against them that dwell on it. Avenge, O sword, and destroy utterly, says the Lord, and do according to all that I command you.

How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and crushed! How has Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

The Lord has opened His treasury, and brought forth the weapons of His anger; for the Lord God [has] a work in the land of the Chaldeans.

Dry up all her fruits, and let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, and the time of their retribution.

Summon many against Babylon, everyone that bends the bow. Camp against her round about; let none of her [people] escape. Render to her according to her works, according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has resisted the Lord, the Holy God of Israel.

Behold, I am against you, O haughty one, says the Lord; for your day has come, and the time of your retribution.

Thus says the Lord: The children of Israel and the children of Judah have been oppressed. All those that have taken them captive have oppressed them together, for they would not let them go.

and He will sharpen a sword against the Chaldeans, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her nobles and upon her wise men.

A sword upon their warriors and upon the mixed people in the midst of her; and they shall be as women. A sword upon the treasures, and they shall be scattered upon her water,

Therefore shall idols dwell in the islands, and the young ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall not be inhabited anymore, forever.

Behold, a people comes from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be stirred up from the end of the earth, holding bow and dagger.

The king of Babylon heard the sound of them, and his hands grew feeble. Anguish overcame him, pangs as of a woman in travail.

Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, which He has taken against Babylon; and His devices, which He has devised upon the Chaldeans inhabiting [it]: surely lambs of their flock shall be destroyed. Surely pasture shall be cut off from them.

In the day of vengeance I will recompense, whenever their foot shall be tripped up; for the day of their destruction [is] near to them, and the judgments at hand are close upon you.

And the Lord said, Where are their gods on whom they trusted?

Behold I, even I, am [He], and there is no God beside Me: I kill, and I will make to live: I will smite, and I will heal; and there is none who shall deliver out of My hands.

For I will sharpen My sword like lightning, and My hand shall take hold of judgment; and I will render judgment to My enemies, and will recompense them that hate Me.

The vision which Isaiah son of Amoz saw against Babylon.

I give command, and I bring them; giants are coming to fulfill My wrath, rejoicing at the same time and insulting.

to come from a land afar off, from the utmost foundation of heaven; the Lord and His warriors [are coming] to destroy all the world.

Therefore every hand shall become powerless, and every soul of man shall be dismayed.

For behold, the day of the Lord is coming which cannot be escaped, [a day] of wrath and anger, to make the world desolate, and to destroy sinners out of it.

And I will command evils for the whole world, and [will visit] their sins on the ungodly; and I will destroy the pride of transgressors, and will bring low the pride of the haughty.

For the heaven shall be enraged, and the earth shall be shaken from her foundation, because of the fierce anger of the Lord of hosts, in the day in which His wrath shall come on.

The vision of the desert. As though a whirlwind should pass through the desert, coming from a desert, [even] from such a land,

Therefore are my loins filled with feebleness, and pangs have seized me as a travailing woman; I dealt wrongfully that I might not hear; I hastened that I might not see.

Prepare the table; eat, drink. Arise, you princes, and prepare [your] shields.

And I saw two mounted horsemen, and a rider on a donkey, and a rider on a camel.

and behold, he comes riding in a chariot and pair; and he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all her images and her idols have been crushed to the ground.

The vision of Edom. Call to me out of Seir; guard the bulwarks.

You may lodge in the forest in the evening, or in the way of Dedan.

meet the fugitives with bread, because of the multitude of the slain, and because of the multitude of them that lose their way, and because of the multitude of swords, and because of the multitude of bent bows, and because of the multitude of them that have fallen in war.

and the remnant of the strong bows of the sons of Kedar shall be small; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken [it].

Bel has fallen, Nebo is broken to pieces, their graven images have gone to the wild beasts and the cattle; you take them packed up as a burden to the weary, exhausted, hungry, and [at the same time] helpless man;

Hear Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, who are borne [by Me] from the womb, and taught [by Me] from infancy, [even] to old age;

To whom have you compared Me? See [and] consider, you that go astray.

They bear it upon the shoulder, and go; and if they put it upon its place, it remains, it cannot move; and whosoever shall cry to it, it cannot hear; it cannot save him from trouble.

and remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none besides Me,

calling a bird from the east, and from a land afar off, for the things which I have planned; I have spoken, and brought [him]; I have created and made [him]; I have brought him, and prospered his way.

I have brought near My righteousness, and I will not be slow with the salvation that is from Me; I have given salvation in Zion to Israel for glory.

Belshazzar the king made a great supper for his thousand nobles, and [there was] wine before the thousand.

So the gold and silver vessels were brought which [Nebuchadnezzar] had taken out of the temple of God in Jerusalem; and the king, and his nobles, and his mistresses, and his concubines drank out of them.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote in front of the lamp on the plaster of the wall of the king's house: and the king saw the knuckles of the hand that wrote.

And the king cried aloud to bring in the magicians, Chaldeans, [and] soothsayers. And he said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and make known to me the interpretation, shall be clothed with scarlet, and [there shall be] a golden chain upon his neck, and he shall be the third ruler in my kingdom.

And King Belshazzar was troubled, and his countenance changed upon him, and his nobles were troubled with him.

There is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the Spirit of God; and in the days of your father watchfulness and understanding were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father made him chief of the enchanters, magicians, Chaldeans, [and] soothsayers.

Then Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king said to Daniel, Are you Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Judah, which my father the king brought [from Judah]?

And now, the wise men, magicians, [and] soothsayers have come in before me, to read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation, but they could not tell it to me.

And Daniel said before the king, Let your gifts be to yourself, and give the presents of your house to another; but I will read the writing, and will make known to you its interpretation.

And by reason of the majesty which He gave to him, all nations, tribes, [and] languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he exalted; and whomever he wished, he abased.

And he was driven forth from men. And a heart was given to him after the nature of wild beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. And they fed him with grass like an ox, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God is Lord of the kingdom of men, and will give it to whomever He chooses.

And you have exalted yourself against the Lord God of heaven; and they have brought before you the vessels of His house, and you, your nobles, your mistresses, and your concubines have drunk wine out of them; and you have praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, and which hear not, and know not: and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.

And this is the ordered writing: Mene, Tekel, Peres.

Tekel; it has been weighed in the balance, and found wanting.

Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put the golden chain about his neck, and proclaimed concerning him that he was the third ruler in the kingdom.

And Darius the Mede succeeded to the kingdom, being sixty-two years [old].

I will stand upon my watch, and mount upon the rock, and watch to see what He will say by me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry, wait for him; for he will surely come, and will not tarry.

But the arrogant man and the scorner, the boastful man, shall not finish anything; who has enlarged his desire as the grave, and like death he is never satisfied, and he will gather to himself all the nations, and will receive to himself all the peoples.

For suddenly there shall arise up those that bite him, and those that plot against you shall awake, and you shall be a plunder to them.

Woe to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evils.

For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beetle out of the timber shall speak.

Are not these things of the Lord Almighty? Surely many people have been exhausted in the fire, and many nations have fainted.

Woe to him that gives his neighbor to drink the thick lees of wine, and intoxicates him, that he may look upon their secret parts.

For the ungodliness of Lebanon shall cover you, and distress because of wild beasts shall dismay you, because of the blood of men, and the sins of the land and city, and of all that dwell in it.

Woe to him that says to the wood, Awake, arise; and to the stone, Arise! For it is an image, and this is a casting of gold and silver, and there is no breath in it.

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was lit up from his splendor.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the wealth of her luxury."

Because her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

In as many things as she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give to her torment and sorrow; because she says in her heart, 'I sit as queen, and am not a widow, and I shall by no means see sorrow.'

"The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her shall weep and mourn over her, when they see the smoke of her burning,

"And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:

and cinnamon and incense, perfume and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.

The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, shall stand at afar on account of the fear of her torment, both weeping and sorrowing,

Because in one hour such great wealth was laid waste.' And every captain, and all those sailing along the coast, and sailors, and as many as work on the sea, stood from afar

"And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and sorrowing, and saying, 'Alas, alas, that great city, by which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! Because in one hour she was laid waste.'

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence Babylon the great city shall be cast down, and shall by no means be found anymore.

And the light of a lamp shall by no means shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and of a bride shall by no means be heard in you anymore. Your merchants were the magnates of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

Therefore thus says the Lord against them that tend My people: You have scattered My sheep, and driven them out, and you have not visited them: behold, I [will] take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices.

For a nation has come up against her from the north, he shall utterly ravage her land, and there shall be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast.

by reason of the Lord's anger. It shall not be inhabited, but it all shall be a desolation; and everyone that passes through Babylon shall scowl, and they shall hiss at all her plagues.

How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and crushed! How has Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

Therefore shall idols dwell in the islands, and the young ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall not be inhabited anymore, forever.

As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities bordering upon them, says the Lord: no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn there.

Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, which He has taken against Babylon; and His devices, which He has devised upon the Chaldeans inhabiting [it]: surely lambs of their flock shall be destroyed. Surely pasture shall be cut off from them.

Behold, I am against you, the ruined mountain, that destroys the whole earth; and I will stretch out My hand upon you, and will roll you down upon the rocks, and will make you as a burnt mountain.

And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation; for you shall be a desolation forever, says the Lord.

then you shall say, O Lord God, You have spoken against this place, to destroy it, and that there should be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast; for it shall be a desolation forever.

and shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and not rise, because of the evils which I bring upon it.

And Babylon, which is called glorious by the king of the Chaldeans, shall be as [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I will make the region of Babylon a desert, so that hedgehogs shall dwell [there], and it shall come to nothing; and I will make it a pit of clay for destruction.

The water of Nimrim shall be desolate, and its grass shall fail; for there shall be no green grass.

In the year that Tartan came to Azotus, when he was sent by Sargon king of the Assyrians, and warred against Azotus, and took it;

And the Lord said, As My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, there shall be three years for signs and wonders to the Egyptians and Ethiopians;

And the Egyptians, being defeated, shall be ashamed of the Ethiopians, in whom they had trusted; for they were their glory.

Come down, sit on the ground, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called tender and luxurious.

I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited anymore; and you shall know that I am the Lord.