For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. ¹  Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. ²  For the Lord is a God who punishes; ³  he pays back in full. ⁴ 

“Why do you try to refute me? ¹  All of you have rebelled against me,” says the Lord.

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! ¹  Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two! ² 

I looked and saw that there were no more people, ¹  and that all the birds in the sky had flown away.

The people of those nations ¹  are both stupid and foolish. Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ² 

Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn ¹  in the field because there is no grass.

“I will deliver you from the power of the wicked. I will free you from the clutches of violent people.”

Lord, grant me relief from my suffering so that I may have some relief. Rescue me from those who persecute me so that I may be rescued. ¹ 

Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he rescues the oppressed from the clutches of evildoers. ¹ 

The Lord says, ¹  “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. ²  They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. ³ 

Do you people think ¹  that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God?” ²  the Lord asks. ³ 

The leaders will not be able to run away and hide. ¹  The shepherds of the flocks will not be able to escape.

For the Lord will rescue the descendants of Jacob. He will secure their release ¹  from those who had overpowered them. ² 

There at home they will say, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is just a big noise! ¹  He has let the most opportune moment pass by.’ ² 

“Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by it will be filled with horror; they will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ¹ 

“Get out of Babylon, my people! Flee to save your lives from the fierce anger of the Lord! ¹ 

In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

The snorting of the enemy’s horses is already being heard in the city of Dan. The sound of the neighing of their stallions ¹  causes the whole land to tremble with fear. They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it! They are coming to destroy ²  the cities and everyone who lives in them!”

The following events occurred in that same year, early in the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. To be more precise, it was the fifth month of the fourth year of his reign. ¹  The prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, spoke to Jeremiah ²  in the Lord’s temple in the presence of the priests and all the people. ³ 

“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. ¹  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” ²  says the Lord. “For ³  I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”