ttle while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed
me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a
dragon, he hath filled his maw with my delicates; he hath cast me
out.'

"The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the
inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of
Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord: 'Behold, I will plead thy cause, and
take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her
fountain dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for
jackals, an astonishment, and an hissing, without inhabitant. They
shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions'
whelps. When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make
them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and
not wake,' saith the Lord.

{341}

"'I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with
he-goats. How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth
surprised! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! The
sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the
waves thereof. Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a
desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man
pass thereby. And I will do judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will
bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the
nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of
Babylon shall fall.'

"My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every
man from the fierce anger of the Lord. And let not your heart faint,
neither fear ye for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; for a
rumour shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come
a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

"'Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the
graven images of Babylon, and her whole land shall be ashamed; and all
her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Then the heaven and the
earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for
the spoilers shall come unto her from the north,' saith the Lord.

"As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon
shall fall the slain of all the land. Ye that have escaped the sword,
go ye, stand not still; {342} remember the Lord from afar,