⁵⁹This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the quartermaster Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon — all these words that had been written concerning Babylon. ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud, ⁶²and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain — neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’ ⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’”