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Revelation 18:6
Pay her back the way she also paid, and double it according to her works. In the cup in which she mixed, mix a double portion for her.
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Isaiah 13:1-22
An oracle against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:Lift up a banner on a barren mountain. Call out to them. Wave your hand, and they will go through the gates of the nobles.I have commanded My chosen ones; I have also called My warriors, who exult in My triumph, to execute My wrath.Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a mighty people! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations being gathered together! The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.They are coming from a far land, from the distant horizon— the Lord and the weapons of His wrath— to destroy the whole country.Wail! For the day of the Lord is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty.Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak, and every man’s heart will melt.They will be horrified; pain and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look at each other, their faces flushed with fear.Look, the day of the Lord is coming— cruel, with rage and burning anger— to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it.Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.I will bring disaster on the world, and their own iniquity, on the wicked. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.I will make man scarcer than gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, on the day of His burning anger.Like wandering gazelles and like sheep without a shepherd, each one will turn to his own people, each one will flee to his own land.Whoever is found will be stabbed, and whoever is caught will die by the sword.Their children will be smashed to death before their eyes; their houses will be looted, and their wives raped.Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them, who cannot be bought off with silver and who have no desire for gold.Their bows will cut young men to pieces. They will have no compassion on little ones; they will not look with pity on children.And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; a nomad will not pitch his tent there, and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.But desert creatures will lie down there, and owls will fill the houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.Hyenas will howl in the fortresses, and jackals, in the luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is almost up; her days are almost over.
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Revelation 14:8-11
A second angel followed, saying:“ It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, who made all nations drink the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath.”And a third angel followed them and spoke with a loud voice:“ If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, which is mixed full strength in the cup of His anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb,and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or anyone who receives the mark of his name.
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Jeremiah 25:12-14
When the 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation’— this is the Lord’s declaration—‘ the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, and I will make it a ruin forever.I will bring on that land all My words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.’”
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Isaiah 14:4-24
you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon and say: How the oppressor has quieted down, and how the raging has become quiet!The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows. It subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.All the earth is calm and at rest; people shout with a ringing cry.Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over you:“ Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter has come against us.”Sheol below is eager to greet your coming. He stirs up the spirits of the departed for you— all the rulers of the earth. He makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.They all respond to you, saying:“ You too have become as weak as we are; you have become like us!Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.”Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground.You said to yourself:“ I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North.I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit.Those who see you will stare at you; they will look closely at you:“ Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble, who shook the kingdoms,who turned the world into a wilderness, who destroyed its cities and would not release the prisoners to return home?”All the kings of the nations lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.But you are thrown out without a grave, like a worthless branch, covered by those slain with the sword and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.You will not join them in burial, because you destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of evildoers will never be remembered.Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons, because of the iniquity of their fathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or fill the surface of the earth with cities.“ I will rise up against them”— this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“ and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity”— this is the Lord’s declaration.“ I will make her a swampland and a region for screech owls, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.The Lord of Hosts has sworn: As I have purposed, so it will be; as I have planned it, so it will happen.
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Jeremiah 50:1-51:64
The word the Lord spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing. Say: Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is devastated; her idols are put to shame; her false gods, devastated.For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land desolate. No one will be living in it— both man and beast will escape.In those days and at that time— this is the Lord’s declaration— the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the Lord their God.They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.All who found them devoured them. Their adversaries said,“ We’re not guilty; instead, they have sinned against the Lord, their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the Lord.”Escape from Babylon; depart from the Chaldeans’ land. Be like the rams that lead the flock.For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.The Chaldeans will become plunder; all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied. This is the Lord’s declaration.Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph— you who plundered My inheritance— because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,your mother will be utterly humiliated; she who bore you will be put to shame. Look! She will lag behind all the nations— a dry land, a wilderness, an Arabah.Because of the Lord’s wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be horrified and scoff because of all her wounds.Line up in battle formation around Babylon, all you archers! Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow, for she has sinned against the Lord.Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished. Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take out your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.Cut off the sower from Babylon as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last one who crushed his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:“ I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan; he will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.In those days and at that time— this is the Lord’s declaration— one will search for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.“ Go against the land of Merathaim, and against those living in Pekod. Put them to the sword; completely destroy them— this is the Lord’s declaration— do everything I have commanded you.The sound of war is in the land— a great destruction.How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught, but you did not even know it. You were found and captured because you fought against the Lord.The Lord opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath, because it is a task of the Lord God of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.Come against her from the most distant places. Open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain and completely destroy her. Leave her no survivors.Put all her young bulls to the sword; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, because their day has come, the time of their punishment.“ There is a voice of fugitives and those who escape from the land of Babylon announcing in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for His temple.Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow; camp all around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares; all the warriors will perish in that day. This is the Lord’s declaration.Look, I am against you, you arrogant one— this is the declaration of the Lord God of Hosts— because your day has come, the time when I will punish you.The arrogant will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him.”This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed. All their captors hold them fast; they refuse to release them.Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He might bring rest to the earth but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.A sword is over the Chaldeans— this is the Lord’s declaration— against those who live in Babylon, against her officials, and against her sages.A sword is against the diviners, and they will act foolishly. A sword is against her heroic warriors, and they will be terrified.A sword is against his horses and chariots and against all the foreigners among them, and they will be like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.A drought will come on her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of carved images, and they go mad because of terrifying things.Therefore, desert creatures will live with hyenas, and ostriches will also live in her. It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns— this is the Lord’s declaration— so no one will live there; no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.Look! A people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the remote regions of the earth.They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Babylon.The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands fall helpless. Distress has seized him— pain, like a woman in labor.“ Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. Indeed, I will chase Babylon away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like Me? Who will summon Me? Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them.At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.This is what the Lord says: I am about to stir up a destructive wind against Babylon and against the population of Leb-qamai.I will send strangers to Babylon who will scatter her and strip her land bare, for they will come against her from every side in the day of disaster.Don’t let the archer string his bow; don’t let him put on his armor. Don’t spare her young men; completely destroy her entire army!Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, those who were pierced through, in her streets.For Israel and Judah are not left widowed by their God, the Lord of Hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.Leave Babylon; save your lives, each of you! Don’t perish because of her guilt. For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance— He will pay her what she deserves.Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore, the nations go mad.Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered. Wail for her; get balm for her wound— perhaps she can be healed.We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches as far as the clouds.The Lord has brought about our vindication; come, let’s tell in Zion what the Lord our God has accomplished.Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The Lord has put it into the mind of the kings of the Medes because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the Lord’s vengeance, vengeance for His temple.Raise up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon; fortify the watch post; set the watchmen in place; prepare the ambush. For the Lord has both planned and accomplished what He has threatened against those who live in Babylon.You who reside by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, your life thread is cut.The Lord of Hosts has sworn by Himself: I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will sing the victory song over you.He made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, and spread out the heavens by His understanding.When He thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from His storehouses.Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them.They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.Jacob’s Portion is not like these because He is the One who formed all things. Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; Yahweh of Hosts is His name.You are My battle club, My weapons of war. With you I will smash nations; with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.With you I will smash the horse and its rider; with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.With you I will smash man and woman; with you I will smash the old man and the youth; with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock; with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team. With you I will smash governors and officials.“ I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion before your very eyes.” This is the Lord’s declaration.Look, I am against you, devastating mountain— this is the Lord’s declaration— you devastate the whole earth. I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and turn you into a charred mountain.No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will become desolate forever. This is the Lord’s declaration.Raise a signal flag in the land; blow a ram’s horn among the nations; set apart the nations against her. Summon kingdoms against her— Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.Set apart the nations for battle against her— the kings of Media, her governors and all her officials, and all the lands they rule.The earth quakes and trembles because the Lord’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited desolation.Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their might is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, her gate bars are shattered.Messenger races to meet messenger, and herald to meet herald, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.“ Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty dish; he has swallowed me like a sea monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out,”says the inhabitant of Zion;“ Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon. Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am about to plead your case and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her fountain run dry.Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den, a desolation and an object of scorn, without inhabitant.They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they revel. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the Lord’s declaration.I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with male goats.How Sheshach has been captured, the praise of the whole earth seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its turbulent waves.Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no human being passes through.I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him vomit what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even Babylon’s wall will fall.Come out from among her, My people! Save your lives, each of you, from the Lord’s burning anger.May you not become cowardly and fearful when the report is proclaimed in the land, for the report will come one year, and then another the next year. There will be violence in the land with ruler against ruler.Therefore, look, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s carved images. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.Heaven and earth and everything in them will shout for joy over Babylon because the destroyers from the north will come against her. This is the Lord’s declaration.Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel, even as the slain of all the earth fell because of Babylon.You who have escaped the sword, go and do not stand still! Remember the Lord from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.We are ashamed because we have heard insults. Humiliation covers our faces because foreigners have entered the holy places of the Lord’s temple.Therefore, look, the days are coming— this is the Lord’s declaration— when I will punish her carved images, and the wounded will groan throughout her land.Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens and fortify her tall fortresses, destroyers will come against her from Me. This is the Lord’s declaration.The sound of a cry from Babylon! The sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
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Zechariah 2:7
“ Go, Zion! Escape, you who are living with Daughter Babylon.”
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Revelation 18:20
Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets, because God has executed your judgment on her!
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Psalms 149:6-9
Let the exaltation of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,inflicting vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,binding their kings with chains and their dignitaries with iron shackles,carrying out the judgment decreed against them. This honor is for all His godly people. Hallelujah!
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Isaiah 21:1
An oracle against the desert by the sea: Like storms that pass over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from the land of terror.
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Isaiah 44:28
who says to Cyrus,“ My shepherd, he will fulfill all My pleasure” and says to Jerusalem,“ She will be rebuilt,” and of the temple,“ Its foundation will be laid.”
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Isaiah 47:1-15
“ Go down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter Chaldea! For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.Take millstones and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, wade through the streams.Your nakedness will be uncovered, and your shame will be exposed. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer; Yahweh of Hosts is His name.“ Daughter Chaldea, sit in silence and go into darkness. For you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms.I was angry with My people; I profaned My possession, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.You said,‘ I will be the mistress forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or think about their outcome.“ So now hear this, lover of luxury, who sits securely, who says to herself,‘ I exist, and there is no one else. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’These two things will happen to you suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood. They will happen to you in their entirety, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.You were secure in your wickedness; you said,‘ No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself,‘ I exist, and there is no one else.’But disaster will happen to you; you will not know how to avert it. And it will fall on you, but you will be unable to ward it off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.So take your stand with your spells and your many sorceries, which you have wearied yourself with from your youth. Perhaps you will be able to succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!You are worn out with your many consultations. So let them stand and save you— the astrologers, who observe the stars, who predict monthly what will happen to you.Look, they are like stubble; fire burns them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. This is not a coal for warming themselves, or a fire to sit beside!This is what they are to you— those who have wearied you and have traded with you from your youth— each wanders on his own way; no one can save you.
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Revelation 17:1-18
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me:“ Come, I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who sits on many waters.The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.”So he carried me away in the Spirit to a desert. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns.The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She had a gold cup in her hand filled with everything vile and with the impurities of her prostitution.On her forehead a cryptic name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE VILE THINGS OF THE EARTH.Then I saw that the woman was drunk on the blood of the saints and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.Then the angel said to me,“ Why are you astonished? I will tell you the secret meaning of the woman and of the beast, with the seven heads and the 10 horns, that carries her.The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction. Those who live on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast that was, and is not, and will be present again.“ Here is the mind with wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.They are also seven kings: Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for a little while.The beast that was and is not, is himself an eighth king, yet he belongs to the seven and is going to destruction.The 10 horns you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.These will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”He also said to me,“ The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.The 10 horns you saw, and the beast, will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh, and burn her up with fire.For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His plan by having one purpose and to give their kingdom to the beast until God’s words are accomplished.And the woman you saw is the great city that has an empire over the kings of the earth.”
