1   The word that our Lord hath spoken ^note of Babylon, and the Land of the Chaldees in the hand of Ieremie the prophete.

2   Declare among the Gentiles, and make it heard, lift vp a signe: proclame and conceale it not: say; Babylon is taken, ^note Bel is confounded, Merodach is ouercome, their sculptiles are confounded, their idoles are ouercome.

3   Because a nation is come vp against them from the North,

which shal bring her Land into desolation: and there shal be none to dwel therein, from man euen to beast, and they are remoued, and gone away.

4   In those daies, and in that time, saith our Lord, the children of Israel shal come, they and the children of Iuda together: walking and ^note weeping they shal hasten, and shal seeke the Lord their God.

5   Into Sion they shal aske the way, their faces hitherward. They shal come, and shal be ioyned to our Lord by an euerlasting couenant, which shal by no obliuion be abolished.

6   My people is become a lost flock, their pastours haue seduced them, and haue made them wander in the mountaynes: they haue passed from mountayne to hil, they haue frogotten their couch.

7   Al that found them, haue eaten them: and their enemies said: We haue not sinned: because they haue sinned to the Lord the beautie of Iustice, and to the Lord the expectation of their fathers.

8   Depart out of the middes of Babylon, and goe forth out of the land of the Chaldees: and be ye as kiddes before the flocke.

9   Because loe I rayse vp, and wil bring into Babylon an assemblie of great nations from the land of ^note the North: and they shal be prepared against her, and thereby she shal be taken: his arrow as a valiant mans that is a killer, shal not returne voide.

10   And Chaldea shal be for a praye: al that waste it shal be filled, saith our Lord.

11   Because you reioyce, and speake great thinges, spoyling mine inheritance: because you are powred out as calues vpon the grasse, and you haue belowed as bulles.

12   Your ^note Mother is confounded exceedingly, and made euen with the dust she that bare you: behold she shal be the last among the Gentiles, desolate, without accesse, and drie.

13   Of the wrath of our Lord it shal not be inhabited, but shal be brought wholly into desolation: euerie one that shal passe by Babylon, shal be astonied, and shal hisse vpon al the plagues thereof.

14   Be prepared against Babylon round about al ye that bend bow; ouerthrow her, spare not arrowes: because she hath sinned to our Lord.

15   Crie against her, she hath geuen the hand euerie where, her foundations are fallen, her walles are destroyed, because it is the vengeance of our Lord. Take vengeance of her: as she hath done, so doe to her.

16   Destroy the sower out of Babylon, and him that holdeth the sickle in the haruest time: at the face of the sword of the ^note doue euerie man shal returne to his people, and euerie one shal flee to his owne land.

17   Israel is a flock dispersed,

lyons haue cast him out: first the king ^note of Assur did eate him: last this Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon hath spoyled his bones

18   Therefore thus saith the Lord of hostes the God of Israel: Behold I wil visite the king of Babylon and his land, as I haue visited the king of Assur:

19   and I wil bring Israel againe to his habitation: and Carmel shal be fed, and Basan, and in mount Ephraim, and Galaad his soule shal be filled.

20   In those daies, and in that time, saith our Lord, the iniquitie of Israel shal be sought, and it shal not be: and the sinne of Iuda, and it shal not be found: because I wil be propicious to them, whom I shal leaue.

21   Ascend vpon the land of them that rule, and visite vpon the inhabitants thereof, destroy, and kil the thinges that are behind them, saith our Lord: and doe according to al thinges that I haue commanded thee.

22   A voice of battel in the land, and great destruction.

23   How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed? how is Babylon turned into a desert among the nations?

24   I haue snared thee, and thou art taken Babylon, and thou knewest it not: thou art found & apprehended, because thou hast prouoked our Lord.

25   Our Lord hath opened his treasure, and brought forth the vessels of his wrath: because the Lord the God of hostes hath a worke in the land of the Chaldees.

26   Come ye vnto her from the vttermost borders, open that they may goe forth that shal tread her downe: take the stones out of the way, and bring it into heapes, and kil her: neither let there be anie thing left.

27   Destroy al her valiants, let them descend into slaughter: woe vnto them, because their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28   A voice of them that flee, and of them, that haue escaped out of the land of Babylon: to tel in Sion the reuenge of the Lord our God, the reuenge of his temple.

29   Declare ye against Babylon to verie manie, to al that bend bow: stand together against her round about, and let none escape: repay her according to her worke: according to al thinges, that she hath done, doe ye to her: because she is erected against our Lord, against the holie one of Israel.

30   Therefore shal her yongmen fal in her streetes: and al her men of warre shal hold their peace in that day, saith our Lord.

31   Behold I to thee thou prowd one, saith our Lord the God of hostes: because thy day is come, the time of thy visitation.

32   And the prowd shal fal, and tumble downe, and there shal be none to raise him vp: and I wil kindle a fire in his cities, and it shal deuoure al

thinges round about him.

33   Thus sairh the Lord of hostes: ^note The children of Israel, and the children of Iuda susteyne calumnie together: al that haue taken them, hold them, they wil not let them goe.

34   Their ^note strong redeemer, the Lord of hostes is his name, in iudgement wil defend their cause, to terrifie the land, and to stirre vp the inhabitantes of Babylon.

35   The sword to the Chaldees, saith our Lord, and to the inhabitants of Babylon, and to her princes, and to her wise men.

36   The sword to her diuiners, who shal be foolish: the sword to her valiants, who shal be afraid.

37   The sword to his horses, and to his chariots, and to al the common people, that is in the middes of her: and they shal be as wemen: the sword to her treasures, which shal be spoyled.

38   There shal be drought vpon her waters, and they shal be dryed vp: because it is a land of sculptiles, and they glorie in monstrous thinges.

39   Therefore shal the dragons dwel with the foolish murderers: and the ostriches shal dwel in it: and it shal no more be inhabited for euer, neither shal it be built euen to generation and generation.

40   As our Lord ouerthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and the neighbours thereof, saith our Lord: there shal no man dwel there, and sonne of man shal not inhabite it.

41   Behold a people cometh from the North, and a great nation, and manie kinges shal rise from the endes of the earth.

42   They shal take bow and shield: they are cruel and vnmerciful: their voice shal sound as the sea, and they shal mount vpon horses: as a man prepared to battel against thee ô daughter of Babylon.

43   The king of Babylon hath heard the fame of them, and his handes are dissolued: anguish hath caught him, sorow as a woman in trauel.

44   Behold ^note as a lion he shal come vp ^note from the pride of Iordan to the strong beautifulnes: because I wil make him runne sodenly to her: and who shal be a chosen one, whom I may appoint ouer her? For who is like to me? and who shal abide me? and who is this pastour, that can resist my countenance?

45   Therefore heare ye the counsel of our Lord, which he hath conceiued in his minde against Babylon: and his cogitations, which he hath thought vpon the land of the Chaldees: Vnles the litle ones of the flockes shal plucke them downe, vnles their habitation shal be destroyed with them.

46   At the voice of the captiuitie of Babylon the earth is moued, and the crie is heard amongst the Nations.

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