For this is what the LORD says: "When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm My promise concerning you to restore you to this place.

During his reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The LORD put it into the mind of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and [to put it] in writing:

This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: "The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.

in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70.

For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.'"

The word the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:

For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land desolate. No one will be living in it-- both man and beast will escape.

They will ask about Zion, [turning] their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

All who found them devoured them. Their adversaries said: We're not guilty; instead, they have sinned against the LORD, their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the LORD.

For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.

Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph-- you who plundered My inheritance-- because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,

Because of the LORD's wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be horrified and scoff because of all her wounds.

Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands [in surrender]; her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished. Since this is the LORD's vengeance, take out your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.

Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; this last who has crunched his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan; he will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.

Go against the land of Merathaim, and against those living in Pekod. Put them to the sword; completely destroy them-- [this is] the LORD's declaration-- do everything I have commanded you.

How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

The LORD opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath, because it is a task of the Lord God of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

Put all her young bulls to the sword; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, because their day has come, the time of their punishment.

Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow; camp all around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

Look, I am against you, you arrogant one-- [this is] the declaration of the Lord God of Hosts-- because your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed. All their captors hold them fast; they refuse to release them.

A sword is over the Chaldeans-- [this is] the LORD's declaration-- against those who live in Babylon, against her officials, and against her sages.

A sword is against his horses and chariots and against all the foreigners among them, and they will be like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.

Therefore, desert creatures will live with jackals, and ostriches will also live in her. It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.

Look! A people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the remote regions of the earth.

The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands fall helpless. Distress has seized him-- pain, like a woman in labor.

Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock's little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them.

Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay. In time their foot will slip, for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly."

He will say: "Where are their gods, the 'rock' they found refuge in?

See now that I alone am He; there is no God but Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue [anyone] from My hand.

when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand takes hold of judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me.

An oracle against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

I have commanded My chosen ones; I have also called My warriors, who exult in My triumph, to execute My wrath.

They are coming from a far land, from the distant horizon-- the LORD and the weapons of His wrath-- to destroy the whole country.

Therefore everyone's hands will become weak, and every man's heart will melt.

Look, the day of the LORD is coming-- cruel, with rage and burning anger-- to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it.

I will bring disaster on the world, and their [own] iniquity, on the wicked. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts, on the day of His burning anger.

An oracle against the desert by the sea: Like storms that pass over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from the land of terror.

Therefore I am filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor. I am too perplexed to hear, too dismayed to see.

Prepare a table, and spread out a carpet! Eat and drink! Rise up, you princes, and oil the shields!

When he sees riders-- pairs of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels-- pay close attention."

Look, riders come-- horsemen in pairs." And he answered, saying, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen. All the idols of her gods have been shattered on the ground."

An oracle against Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, "Watchman, what is [left] of the night? Watchman, what is [left] of the night?"

An oracle against Arabia: You will camp for the night in the scrublands of the desert, you caravans of Dedanites.

For they have fled from swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, from the stress of battle.

The remaining Kedarite archers will be few in number." For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols are consigned to beasts and cattle. The [images] you carry are loaded, as a burden for the weary [animal].

"Listen to Me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.

"Who will you compare Me or make Me equal to? Who will you measure Me with, so that we should be like each other?

They lift it to their shoulder and bear it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands; it does not budge from its place. They cry out to it but it doesn't answer; it saves no one from his trouble.

Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; [I am] God, and no one is like Me.

I call a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about. I have planned it; I will also do it.

I am bringing My justice near; it is not far away, and My salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion, My splendor in Israel.

King Belshazzar held a great feast for 1,000 of his nobles and drank wine in their presence.

So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them.

At that moment the fingers of a man's hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the king's palace wall next to the lampstand. As the king watched the hand that was writing,

The king called out to bring in the mediums, Chaldeans, and astrologers. He said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this inscription and gives me its interpretation will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around his neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom."

Then King Belshazzar became even more terrified, his face turned pale, and his nobles were bewildered.

There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your predecessor he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods. Your predecessor, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the diviners, mediums, Chaldeans, and astrologers. Your own predecessor, the king,

Then Daniel was brought before the king. The king said to him, "Are you Daniel, one of the Judean exiles that my predecessor the king brought from Judah?

Now the wise men and mediums were brought before me to read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not give its interpretation.

Then Daniel answered the king, "You may keep your gifts, and give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription for the king and make the interpretation known to him.

Because of the greatness He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages were terrified and fearful of him. He killed anyone he wanted and kept alive anyone he wanted; he exalted anyone he wanted and humbled anyone he wanted.

He was driven away from people, his mind was like an animal's, he lived with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky until he acknowledged that the Most High God is ruler over the kingdom of men and sets anyone He wants over it.

Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drank wine from them, you praised the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or understand. But you have not glorified the God who holds your life-breath in His hand and who controls the whole course of your life.

"This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN

TEKEL [means that] you have been weighed in the balance and found deficient.

Then Belshazzar gave an order, and they clothed Daniel in purple, [placed] a gold chain around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of 62.

I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what He will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late.

Moreover, wine betrays; an arrogant man is never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself; he collects all the peoples for himself.

Won't your creditors suddenly arise, and those who disturb you wake up? Then you will become spoil for them.

Woe to him who unjustly gains wealth for his house to place his nest on high, to escape from the reach of disaster!

For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will answer them from the woodwork.

Is it not from the LORD of Hosts, that the peoples labor [only] to fuel the fire and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?

Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, pouring out your wrath and even making them drunk, in order to look at their nakedness!

For [your] violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of [your] human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up! or to mute stone: Come alive! Can it teach? Look! It may be plated with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.

After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.

For all the nations have drunk the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her excessive luxury.

For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

As much as she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, give her that much torment and grief. Because she says in her heart, 'I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never see grief,'

The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and lived luxuriously with her will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her burning.

The merchants of the earth will also weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their merchandise any longer--

cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine wheat flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human bodies and souls.

The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,

because in a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed! And every shipmaster, seafarer, the sailors, and all who do business by sea, stood far off

They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping, and mourning: Woe, woe, the great city, where all those who have ships on the sea became rich from her wealth; because in a single hour she was destroyed.

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying: In this way, Babylon the great city will be thrown down violently and never be found again.

the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of a groom and bride will never be heard in you again. [All this will happen] because your merchants were the nobility of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery,

"Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd My people: You have scattered My flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I will attend to you because of your evil acts"-- the LORD's declaration.

For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land desolate. No one will be living in it-- both man and beast will escape.

Because of the LORD's wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be horrified and scoff because of all her wounds.

How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

Therefore, desert creatures will live with jackals, and ostriches will also live in her. It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.

Just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns-- [this is] the LORD's declaration-- so no one will live there; no human being will even stay in it as a resident alien.

Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock's little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them.

Look, I am against you, devastating mountain-- [this is] the LORD's declaration-- you devastate the whole earth. I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and turn you into a burned-out mountain.

No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will become desolate forever. [This is] the LORD's declaration.

You must say, 'LORD, You have threatened to cut off this place so that no one will live in it-- man or beast. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.'

Then say, 'In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.' " The words of Jeremiah end here.

And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

"I will make her a swampland and a region for wild animals, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction." [This is] the declaration of the LORD of Hosts.

The waters of Nimrim are desolate; the grass is withered, the foliage is gone, and the vegetation has vanished.

In the year that the commander-in-chief, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it--

the LORD said, "As My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

"Go down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter Chaldea! For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.

I will make you a perpetual desolation; your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.