Jeremiah 51:24-35

‘Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion,’ declares the LORD. ‘I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burnt-out mountain. No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate for ever,’ declares the LORD. ‘Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts. Prepare the nations for battle against her – the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule. The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand – to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no-one will live there. Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become weaklings. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken. One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured, the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.’ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Daughter Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.’ ‘Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out. May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon,’ say the inhabitants of Zion. ‘May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,’ says Jerusalem.