The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia through the prophet Jeremiah.

So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord.

“Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Lord God who rules over all. “Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you.

“Destructive forces will come against the Babylonians,” says the Lord. “They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom.

The Lord who rules over all has solemnly sworn, ‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers. They will swarm over it like locusts. They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’

“Get out of Babylon, my people! Flee to save your lives from the fierce anger of the Lord!

ח (Khet) The Lord’s loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end.

כ (Kaf) The Lord fully vented his wrath; he poured out his fierce anger. He started a fire in Zion; it consumed her foundations.

ר (Resh) Our very life breath – the Lord’s anointed king – was caught in their traps, of whom we thought, “Under his protection we will survive among the nations.”

O Lord, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace.

Then a wind lifted me up and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me as the glory of the Lord rose from its place,

A wind lifted me up and carried me away. I went bitterly, my spirit full of fury, and the hand of the Lord rested powerfully on me.

At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me:

“This is what the sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.

They will know that I am the Lord; my threats to bring this catastrophe on them were not empty.’

“This is what the sovereign Lord says: A disaster – a one-of-a-kind disaster – is coming!

Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.

You will die by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done, says the sovereign Lord.”

The glory of the Lord rose up from within the city and stopped over the mountain east of it.