PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device {is} against Babylon, to destroy it; because it {is} the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple. {bright: Heb. pure}

Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.

I have raised up {one} from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as {upon} morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.

For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows {shall be} as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. {expert...: or, destroyer}

I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, {even} them that rejoice in my highness.

A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. {grievous: Heb. hard}

For jealousy {is} the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts. {direct: or, make straight}

All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these {things}? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm {shall be on} the Chaldeans.

In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor {by} the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD {spoken} by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and {put it} also in writing, saying,

And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and {it had} three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. {it raised...: or, it raised up one dominion}

And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,

The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this {is} the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

They shall hold the bow and the lance: they {are} cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, {every one} put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.

Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device {is} against Babylon, to destroy it; because it {is} the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple. {bright: Heb. pure}

Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, {yet} from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.

And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he {was} of the king's seed in Edom.

And God stirred him up {another} adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah:

They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, {even} the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. {grievous: Heb. hard}

Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, {and} anoint the shield.

And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows {shall be} as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. {expert...: or, destroyer}

Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.

Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had {two} horns: and the {two} horns {were} high; but one {was} higher than the other, and the higher came up last. {the other: Heb. the second}

And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; {so} it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.