Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, September 5 [Press play below]

51.1 This is what Jehovah says: “Here I am raising up a destructive wind Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.
51.2 I will send winnowers to Babylon, And they will winnow her and make her land empty; They will come against her on all sides in the day of calamity.
51.3 Let the archer not bend his bow. And let no one stand up in his coat of mail. Show no compassion for her young men. Devote all her army to destruction.
51.4 And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, Pierced through in her streets.
51.5 For Israel and Judah are not widowed from their God, from Jehovah of armies. But their land is full of guilt from the standpoint of the Holy One of Israel.
51.6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, And escape for your life. Do not perish because of her error. For it is the time for Jehovah’s vengeance. He is paying her back for what she has done.
51.7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah; She made all the earth drunk. From her wine the nations have drunk; That is why the nations have gone mad.
51.8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is broken. Wail over her! Get balsam for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.”
51.9 “We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Leave her and let us go, each to his own land. For her judgment has reached to the heavens; It is as high as the clouds.
51.10 Jehovah has brought about justice for us. Come, let us recount in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.”
51.11 “Polish the arrows; take up the circular shields. Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, Because he intends to bring Babylon to ruin. For this is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance for his temple.
51.12 Lift up a signal against the walls of Babylon. Strengthen the guard, post the watchmen. Prepare those in ambush. For Jehovah has devised the strategy, And he will carry out what he has promised against the inhabitants of Babylon.”
51.13 “O woman who resides on many waters, With abundant treasures, Your end has come, the limit of your profit-making.
51.14 Jehovah of armies has sworn by himself, ‘I will fill you with men, as numerous as locusts, And they will shout in triumph over you.’
51.15 He is the Maker of the earth by his power, The One who established the productive land by his wisdom And who stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
51.16 When he makes his voice heard, The waters in the heavens are in turmoil, And he causes clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, And he brings the wind out of his storehouses.
51.17 Every man acts unreasonably and without knowledge. Every metalworker will be put to shame because of the carved image; For his metal image is a falsehood, And there is no spirit in them.
51.18 They are a delusion, a work of mockery. When their day of reckoning comes, they will perish.
51.19 The Share of Jacob is not like these things, For he is the One who formed everything, Even the staff of his inheritance. Jehovah of armies is his name.”
51.20 “You are a war club for me, a weapon for battle, For with you I will smash nations. With you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
51.21 With you I will smash the horse and its rider. With you I will smash the war chariot and its rider.
51.22 With you I will smash man and woman. With you I will smash old man and boy. With you I will smash young man and woman.
51.23 With you I will smash shepherd and his flock. With you I will smash farmer and his team of animals. With you I will smash governors and deputy rulers.
51.24 And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea For all the evil that they have committed in Zion before your eyes,” declares Jehovah.
51.25 “Here I am against you, O destructive mountain,” declares Jehovah, “You destroyer of the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags And make you a burned-out mountain.”
51.26 “People will not take from you a cornerstone or a foundation stone, Because you will become desolate forever,” declares Jehovah.
51.27 “Lift up a signal in the land. Blow a horn among the nations. Appoint the nations against her. Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Commission against her a recruiting officer. Make the horses come up like bristling locusts.
51.28 Appoint against her the nations, The kings of Media, its governors and all its deputy rulers And all the lands they rule over.
51.29 And the earth will quake and tremble, For the thoughts of Jehovah against Babylon will be carried out To make the land of Babylon an object of horror, without an inhabitant.
51.30 The warriors of Babylon have quit fighting. They sit in their strongholds. Their strength has failed. They have become like women. Her homes have been set on fire. Her bars have been broken.
51.31 One courier runs to meet another courier, And one messenger to meet another messenger, To report to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured on every side,
51.32 That the fords have been seized, That the papyrus boats have been burned with fire, And that the soldiers are terrified.”
51.33 For this is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. It is the time to tread her down solid. Very soon the time of the harvest will come for her.”
51.34 “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; He has thrown me into confusion. He has set me down as an empty vessel. He has swallowed me down like a big snake; He has filled his stomach with my fine things. He has rinsed me away.
51.35 ‘May the violence done to me and to my person come upon Babylon!’ says the inhabitant of Zion. ‘And let my blood come upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!’ says Jerusalem.”
51.36 Therefore this is what Jehovah says: “Here I am pleading your legal case, And I will execute vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her wells dry.
51.37 And Babylon will become piles of stones, A lair of jackals, An object of horror and something to whistle at, Without an inhabitant.
51.38 All together they will roar just like young lions. They will growl like lion cubs.”
51.39 “When they are inflamed, I will set out their banquet and make them drunk, In order that they may exult; Then they will sleep a lasting sleep, From which they will not wake up,” declares Jehovah.
51.40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams along with the goats.”
51.41 “O how Sheshach has been captured, How the Praise of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
51.42 The sea has come up over Babylon. By the multitude of its waves she has been covered.
51.43 Her cities have become an object of horror, a waterless land and a desert. A land where no one will live and where no man will pass through.
51.44 I will turn my attention to Bel in Babylon, And I will take out of his mouth what he has swallowed. To him nations will stream no more, And the wall of Babylon will fall.
51.45 Get out of her midst, my people! Escape for your lives from the burning anger of Jehovah!
51.46 Do not be fainthearted or afraid about the report to be heard in the land. In one year the report will come, And the next year another report, Of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
51.47 Therefore look! the days are coming When I will turn my attention to the graven images of Babylon. All her land will be put to shame, And all her slain will fall in her midst.
51.48 The heavens and the earth and everything in them Will shout joyfully over Babylon, For the destroyers will come to her out of the north,” declares Jehovah.
51.49 “Not only did Babylon cause the slain of Israel to fall But also at Babylon the slain ones of all the earth have fallen.
51.50 You who escape the sword, keep going, do not stand still! Remember Jehovah from far away, And may Jerusalem come up into your heart.”
51.51 “We have been put to shame, for we have heard taunts. Humiliation has covered our faces, For foreigners have come against the holy places of the house of Jehovah.”
51.52 “Therefore look! the days are coming,” declares Jehovah, “When I will turn my attention to her graven images, And throughout all her land the wounded will groan.”
51.53 “Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens, Even if she should fortify her towering strongholds, From me her destroyers will come,” declares Jehovah.
51.54 “Listen! There is an outcry from Babylon, The sound of great disaster from the land of the Chaldeans,
51.55 For Jehovah is destroying Babylon, He will silence her great voice, And their waves will roar like many waters. The sound of their voice will be heard.
51.56 For the destroyer will come upon Babylon; Her warriors will be captured, Their bows will be shattered, For Jehovah is a God of retribution. He will surely repay.
51.57 I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, Her governors and her deputy rulers and her warriors, And they will sleep a lasting sleep, From which they will not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is Jehovah of armies.
51.58 This is what Jehovah of armies says: “The wall of Babylon, though broad, will be completely demolished, And her gates, though high, will be set on fire. The peoples will toil for nothing; The nations will weary themselves just to feed the fire.”
51.59 This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet gave as a command to Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign; Seraiah was the quartermaster.
51.60 Jeremiah wrote in one book all the calamity that would come upon Babylon, all these words written against Babylon.
51.61 Furthermore, Jeremiah said to Seraiah: “When you come to Babylon and see her, you must read aloud all these words.
51.62 Then say, ‘O Jehovah, you have said against this place that it will be destroyed and left without an inhabitant, man or beast, and that she will become desolate forever.’
51.63 And when you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.
51.64 Then say, ‘This is how Babylon will sink down and never rise again because of the calamity that I am bringing on her; and they will grow weary.’” Down to this point are the words of Jeremiah.
Chapter 52

52.1 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
52.2 He continued to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
52.3 It was because of Jehovah’s anger that these things took place in Jerusalem and in Judah, until he cast them out of his sight. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
52.4 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem. They camped against it and built a siege wall all around it.
52.5 And the city was under siege until the 11th year of King Zedekiah.
52.6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.
52.7 Finally the city wall was broken through, and all the soldiers fled from the city by night through the gate between the double wall near the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were surrounding the city; and they continued by the way of the Arabah.
52.8 But the Chaldean army pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the desert plains of Jericho, and all his troops were scattered from his side.
52.9 Then they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.
52.10 And the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah there at Riblah.
52.11 Then the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with copper fetters, brought him to Babylon, and kept him imprisoned until the day of his death.
52.12 In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that is, in the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard, who was an attendant of the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.
52.13 He burned down the house of Jehovah, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he also burned down every large house.
52.14 And the walls surrounding Jerusalem were pulled down by the entire Chaldean army that was with the chief of the guard.
52.15 Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard took into exile some of the lowly people and the rest of the people who were left in the city. He also took the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon as well as the rest of the master craftsmen.
52.16 But Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to serve as vinedressers and as compulsory laborers.
52.17 And the Chaldeans broke into pieces the copper pillars of the house of Jehovah and the carriages and the copper Sea that were in the house of Jehovah, and they carried all the copper away to Babylon.
52.18 They also took the cans, the shovels, the extinguishers, the bowls, the cups, and all the copper utensils used in the temple service.
52.19 The chief of the guard took the basins, the fire holders, the bowls, the cans, the lampstands, the cups, and the bowls that were of genuine gold and silver.
52.20 As for the two pillars, the Sea, the 12 copper bulls under the Sea, and the carriages that King Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah, the copper of all these articles was beyond weighing.
52.21 As for the pillars, each pillar was 18 cubits high, a measuring cord of 12 cubits could encircle it; its thickness was four fingerbreadths, and it was hollow.
52.22 And the capital on it was of copper; and the height of the one capital was five cubits; and the network and pomegranates all around on the capital were all made of copper. The second pillar was just like it, also the pomegranates.
52.23 There were 96 pomegranates on the sides; in all, there were 100 pomegranates around the network.
52.24 The chief of the guard also took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.
52.25 And he took from the city one court official who was the commissioner over the soldiers, seven close associates of the king who were found in the city, as well as the secretary of the chief of the army, the one mustering the people of the land, and 60 men of the common people of the land who were yet found in the city.
52.26 Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
52.27 The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah went into exile from its land.
52.28 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar took into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews.
52.29 In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 people were taken from Jerusalem.
52.30 In the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard took Jews into exile, 745 people. In all, 4,600 people were taken into exile.
52.31 Then in the 37th year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 25th day of the month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, released King Jehoiachin of Judah and brought him out of prison.
52.32 He spoke kindly with him and put his throne higher than the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
52.33 So Jehoiachin took off his prison garments, and he regularly ate before him all the days of his life.
52.34 A regular allowance of food was given him from the king of Babylon, day after day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.