behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Jehovah, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around. And I will completely destroy them, and make them a waste, and a hissing, and perpetual ruins.

For, lo, I am stirring up and bringing up against Babylon a company of great nations from a northern land. And they shall array themselves against her. She shall be captured there. Their arrows shall be as those of a skillful, mighty man; none shall return in vain.

There are the rulers of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain, in shame at the terror which they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

How Sheshach is captured! And how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a waste among the nations!

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are fulfilled, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, and the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity, says Jehovah; and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

The Word that Jehovah spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which shall make her land a waste, and no one shall dwell in it. They shall flee, they shall depart, both man and beast.

They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces headed there, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten.

All who have found them have devoured them. And their enemies said, We have done no wrong, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.

For, lo, I am stirring up and bringing up against Babylon a company of great nations from a northern land. And they shall array themselves against her. She shall be captured there. Their arrows shall be as those of a skillful, mighty man; none shall return in vain.

Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O destroyers of My inheritance; because you are fat like a heifer in lush grass, and bellow like bulls;

Because of the wrath of Jehovah it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly a waste. Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified and hiss at all her plagues.

Shout against her all around. She has given her hand; her foundations have fallen, her walls have been thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do unto her.

Israel is like scattered sheep, driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has crushed his bones.

And I will bring Israel back to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.

Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and exterminate after them, says Jehovah, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

How the hammer of the whole earth is chopped off and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

Jehovah has opened His armory, and has brought forth the weapons of His indignation. For this is the work of the Lord Jehovah of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their punishment.

Summon the archers against Babylon. All you who bend the bow, camp against it all around; let none of them escape. Repay her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her. For she has been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel.

Behold, I am against you, O proud ones, says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts; for your day has come, the time that I will judge you.

Thus says Jehovah of Hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together. And all who captured them have held them fast; they have refused to let them go.

A sword is upon the Chaldeans, says Jehovah, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her rulers, and upon her wise men.

A sword is upon their horses and their chariots, and upon all the mixed people in her midst; and they shall become as women. A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

Therefore the beasts of the desert shall dwell there with the howling beasts. And the young owls shall dwell in it. And it shall not again be inhabited forever; it shall not be lived in from generation to generation.

Behold, a people shall come from the north, even a great nation; and many kings shall be aroused from the ends of the earth.

The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands became feeble. Anguish has taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in labor.

Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah that He has taken against Babylon; and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely the least of the flock shall drag them; surely He shall make their dwelling desolate to them.

The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

I have commanded My consecrated ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger, those who rejoice in My majesty.

They come from a distant land, from the ends of the heavens; Jehovah and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land.

Therefore all hands shall be faint, and every man's heart shall melt;

Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel and with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land waste; and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.

And I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.

Thus I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger.

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground. There is no throne for you, O daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, your shame shall be seen; I will take vengeance and I will not meet you as a man.

Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the Queen of Kingdoms.

And you said, I shall be a queen forever; so you did not lay these things to heart, nor remember the latter end of it.

But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great power of your enchantments.

Therefore evil shall come upon you, and you shall not know its origin. And disaster shall fall upon you, and you shall not be able to cover it over. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not be informed of.

You are wearied by your many counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers and the fortunetellers step forth and save you from what shall come upon you.

Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, your merchants from your youth. They shall wander, each one, to his own region; no one shall save you.

Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his nobles. And he drank wine before the thousand.

Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God in Jerusalem. And the king, his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.

At that moment fingers of a man's hand came out and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace across from the lampstand. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

The king cried aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the fortunetellers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever can read this writing and explain its interpretation shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold around his neck. And he shall rule third in the kingdom.

Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed, and his nobles were perplexed.

There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom were found in him, like the wisdom of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, your father the king, appointed him master of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans and fortunetellers;

Then Daniel was thrust in before the king. And the king spoke and said to Daniel, Are you that Daniel who is of the sons of the captives of Judah, whom my father the king brought out of Judah?

And now, the wise men and the conjurers have been thrust in before me, so that they might read this writing and make the interpretation known to me. But they were not able to declare the interpretation of the thing.

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

And for the majesty that He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed whom he desired, and whom he desired he kept alive. And whom he would, he set up; and whom he desired, he put down.

And he was driven from the sons of men. And his heart was made like the animals, and his home was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the heavens, until he knew that the Most High God is Ruler in the kingdom of men, and that He appoints over it whomever He desires.

But you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of Heaven. And they have brought the vessels of His house before you. And you, and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver, and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, nor hear, and do not know. And you have not glorified the God in whose hand your life, breath, and all your ways is.

And this is the writing that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

TEKEL: You are weighed in the balances and found deficient.

Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a necklace of gold around his neck. And they made a proclamation concerning him, that he should rule third in the kingdom.

And Darius the Mede took the kingdom, being about sixty two years old.

You are filled with shame instead of glory; you drink also, and are counted as uncircumcised. The cup of the right hand of Jehovah shall turn on you, and disgrace shall be your glory.

After these things I saw another angel coming down from Heaven, having great power, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual perversities, the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the power of her luxury.

For her sins have reached to Heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

By however much she has glorified herself and lived luxuriously, by the same amount give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.

The kings of the earth who prostituted themselves and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,

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

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

The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance because of the terror of her torment, weeping and wailing,

For in one hour such great riches is come to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance

And they threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.

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

And the light of a lamp shall not ever shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not ever be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were led astray.