50. You who have escaped the sword,go, do not delay.Remember the Lord in a faraway land.Think about Jerusalem.
51. ‘We are ashamed because we have been insulted.Our faces show our disgrace.For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms in the Lord’s temple.’
52. Yes, but the time will certainly come,” says the Lord,“when I will punish her idols.Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.
53. Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky and fortifies her elevated stronghold,I will send destroyers against her,”says the Lord.
54. Cries of anguish will come from Babylon,the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.
55. For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon,and put an end to her loud noise.Their waves will roar like turbulent waters.They will make a deafening noise.
56. For a destroyer is attacking Babylon.Her warriors will be captured;their bows will be broken.For the Lord is a God who punishes;he pays back in full.
57. “I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, and warriors.They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,”says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all.
58. This is what the Lord who rules over all says,“Babylon’s thick wall will be completely demolished.Her high gates will be set on fire.The peoples strive for what does not satisfy.The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.”
59. This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.)
60. Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon – all these prophecies written about Babylon.
61. Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies.
62. Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’
63. When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.