54"A voice! A cry from Babylon! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55For 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

57

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."

59The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.

60Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: "When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,

62and say, 'O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.'

63When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,

64and say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.