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[1]THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE AGAINST BABYLON. |
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[2]Proclaim ye among the Gentiles, and cause the tidings to be heard, and suppress them not: say ye, Babylon is taken, Belus is confounded; the fearless, the luxurious Maerodach is delivered up. |
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[3]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. |
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[4]In those days, and at that time, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together; they shall proceed, weeping as they go, seeking the Lord their God. |
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[5]They shall ask the way till they come to Sion, 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. |
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[6]My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds thrust them out, they caused them to wander on the mountains: they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting-place. |
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[7]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. |
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[8]Flee ye out of the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go forth, and be as serpents before sleep. |
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[9]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: thence shall she be taken, as the dart of an expert warrior shall not return empty. |
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[10]And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied. |
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[11]Because ye rejoiced, and boasted, while plundering mine heritage; because ye exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls. |
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[12]Your mother is greatly ashamed; your mother that bore you for prosperity is confounded: she is the last of the nations, desolate, |
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[13]by reason of the Lord's anger: it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be all a desolation; and every one that passes through Babylon shall scowl, and they shall hiss at all her plague. |
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[14]Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows, |
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[15]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. |
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[16]Utterly destroy seed out of Babylon, and him that holds a sickle in time of harvest: for fear of the Grecian sword, they shall return every one to his people, and every one shall flee to his own land. |
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[17]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. |
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[18]Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will take vengeance on the king of Babylon, and upon his land, as I took vengeance on the king of Assyria. |
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[19]And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and on mount Ephraim and in Galaad, and his soul shall be satisfied. |
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[20]In those days, and at that time, they shall seek for the iniquity of Israel, and there shall be none; and for the sins of Juda, and they shall not be found: for I will be merciful to them that are left |
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[21]on the land, saith the Lord. Go up against it roughly, and against them that dwell on it: avenge, O sword, and destroy utterly, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I command thee. |
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[22]A sound of war, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans! |
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[23]How is the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! |
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[24]They shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know it, Babylon, that thou wilt even be taken captive: thou art found and taken, because thou didst resist the Lord. |
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[25]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. |
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[26]For her times are come: open ye her storehouses: search her as a cave, and utterly destroy her: let there be no remnant of her. |
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[27]Dry ye up all her fruits, and let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, and the time of their retribution. |
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[28]A voice of men fleeing and escaping from the land of Babylon, to declare to Sion the vengeance that comes from the Lord our God. |
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[29]Summon many against Babylon, even every one that bends the bow: camp against her round about; let no one 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. |
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[30]Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her warriors shall be cast down, saith the Lord. |
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[31]Behold, I am against thee the haughty one, saith the Lord: for thy day is come, and the time of thy retribution. |
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[32]And thy pride shall fail, and fall, and there shall be no one to set it up again: and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all things round about her. |
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[33]Thus saith the Lord; The children of Israel and the children of Juda have been oppressed: all they that have taken them captive have oppressed them together; for they would not let them go. |
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[34]But their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name: he will enter into judgment with his adversaries, that he may destroy the earth; |
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[35]and he will sharpen a sword against the Chaldeans, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her nobles and upon her wise men; |
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[36]a sword upon her warriors, and they shall be weakened: a sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots: |
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[37]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, |
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[38]and they shall be ashamed: for it is a land of graven images; and in the islands, where they boasted. |
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[39]Therefore shall idols dwell in the islands, and the young of monsters shall dwell in it: it shall not be inhabited any more for ever. |
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[40]As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities bordering upon them, saith the Lord: no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn there. |
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[41]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: |
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[42]the people is fierce, and will have no mercy: their voices shall sound as the sea, they shall ride upon horses, prepared for war, like fire, against thee, O daughter of Babylon. |
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[43]The king of Babylon heard the sound of them, and his hands were enfeebled: anguish overcame him, pangs as of a woman in travail. |
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[44]Behold, he shall come up as a lion from Jordan to Gaethan; for I will speedily drive them from her, and I will set all the youths against her: for who is like me? and who will resist me? and who is this shepherd who will stand before me? |
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[45]Therefore hear ye 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. |
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[46]For at the sound of the taking of Babylon the earth shall quake, and a cry shall be heard among the nations. |
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