Jeremiah 51:36–58

36   Therefore thus says the LORD:
  “Behold, I will plead your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
  I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,
37   and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    the haunt of jackals,
  a horror and a hissing,
    without inhabitant.
38   “They shall roar together like lions;
    they shall growl like lions’ cubs.
39   While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast
    and make them drunk, that they may become merry,
  then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and not wake, declares the LORD.
40   I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and male goats.
41   “How Babylon is taken,
    the praise of the whole earth seized!
  How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
42   The sea has come up on Babylon;
    she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
43   Her cities have become a horror,
    a land of drought and a desert,
  a land in which no one dwells,
    and through which no son of man passes.
44   And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
    and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.
  The nations shall no longer flow to him;
    the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45   “Go out of the midst of her, my people!
    Let every one save his life
    from the fierce anger of the LORD!
46   Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
    at the report heard in the land,
  when a report comes in one year
    and afterward a report in another year,
  and violence is in the land,
    and ruler is against ruler.
47   “Therefore, behold, the days are coming
    when I will punish the images of Babylon;
  her whole land shall be put to shame,
    and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48   Then the heavens and the earth,
    and all that is in them,
  shall sing for joy over Babylon,
    for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
      declares the LORD.
49   Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
    just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.
50   “You who have escaped from the sword,
    go, do not stand still!
  Remember the LORD from far away,
    and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
51   ‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
    dishonor has covered our face,
  for foreigners have come
    into the holy places of the LORD’s house.’
52   “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,
    when I will execute judgment upon her images,
  and through all her land
    the wounded shall groan.
53   Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
    and though she should fortify her strong height,
  yet destroyers would come from me against her,
    declares the LORD.
54   “A voice! A cry from Babylon!
    The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
55   For the LORD is laying Babylon waste
    and stilling her mighty voice.
  Their waves roar like many waters;
    the noise of their voice is raised,
56   for a destroyer has come upon her,
    upon Babylon;
  her warriors are taken;
    their bows are broken in pieces,
  for the LORD is a God of recompense;
    he will surely repay.
57   I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
    her governors, her commanders, and her warriors;
  they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
    declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58   “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
  The broad wall of Babylon
    shall be leveled to the ground,
  and her high gates
    shall be burned with fire.
  The peoples labor for nothing,
    and the nations weary themselves only for fire.”

2 Kings 24:10–19

10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. 11 And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it, 12 and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign 13 and carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the LORD, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the LORD had foretold. 14 He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land. 15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16 And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war. 17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.