About Babylon
50
📚✭The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.2 📚“Declare it among the nations,
and proclaim✭ it,
and set up a banner.
Proclaim it, and do not conceal it.
Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel has been
put to shame, Merodach is broken
in pieces.
Her idols have been put to shame,
her images are broken in pieces.’
3 📚For from the north a nation✭ comes up
against her, which will make her
land desolate,
and no one will live in it.
They will move, they will depart,
both man and beast.
4 📚In those days, and at that time,
says the LORD, the children
of Israel will come, they and the children
of Judah together,
walking along and weeping;
they will come and seek the LORD
their God.
5 📚They will ask the way to Zion
with their faces toward it, saying,
‘Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD
in a permanent covenant✭ that
will not be forgotten.’
6 📚✭“My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have caused them
to go astray.
They have turned away on
the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill.
They have forgotten their resting place.
7 📚✭All who found them devoured them,
and their adversaries said,
‘We are not to blame, because
they have sinned against the LORD,
the habitation of justice, the LORD,
the hope of their fathers.’
8 📚Move out of the midst of Babylon,
and go out of the land of the Chaldeans✭,
and be like the male goats
in front of the flocks.
9 📚For, see, I will raise up against Babylon
an assembly of great nations
from the land of the north,
and cause them to come;
and they will set themselves
in array against her.
From there she will be taken.
Their arrows will be like those
of a skillful warrior;
none will return in vain.
10 📚And Chaldea will become plunder.
All who plunder her will be satisfied,
says the LORD.
11 📚✭Because you were glad,
because you rejoiced,
O you destroyers of my inheritance,
because you have grown fat like
a heifer threshing grain,
and you bellow like bulls,
12 📚Your mother will be greatly disgraced;
she who gave you birth will be ashamed.
See, she will become the least
of the nations, a wilderness,
a dry land, and a desert.
13 📚✭Because of the wrath of the LORD
it will not be inhabited,
but will be completely desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon
will be astonished,
and hiss at all her plagues.
14 📚“Put yourselves in array against
Babylon all around.
All you who bend the bow,
shoot at her, spare no arrows,
for she has sinned against the LORD✭.
15 📚✭Shout against her all around.
She has given her hand in surrender;
her foundations have fallen,
her walls have been torn down;
for it is the vengeance of the LORD.
Take vengeance on her.
Do to her as she has done.
16 📚Cut off the sower from Babylon,
and the one who handles the sickle
in the time of harvest.
Every one of them will turn away
to his people for fear of the oppressing
sword,
and everyone will flee to his own land.
17 📚✭Israel is like scattered sheep.
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him,
and at last this Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon has broken his bones.
18 📚✭“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts,
the God of Israel:
See, I will punish the king of Babylon
and his land, as I have punished
the king of Assyria.
19 📚And I will bring Israel back
to his dwelling place,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan,
and his soul will be satisfied on Mount Ephraim
and Gilead.
20 📚✭In those days, and at that time,
says the LORD,
the wickedness of Israel will be sought,
and none will be there,
and the sins of Judah,
and they will not be found,
for I will pardon those whom I keep.
21 📚✭“Go up against the land of Merathaim,
against it and against the inhabitants
of Pekod.
Lay waste and utterly destroy after them,
says the LORD, and act in accordance
with all that I have commanded you.
22 📚A sound of battle and of
great destruction is
in the land.
23 📚How the hammer✭ of the whole earth
is cut in two and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation
among the nations!
24 📚✭I have laid a snare for you,
and you were also caught,
O Babylon, and you were not aware of it.
You were found, and also captured,
because you have fought against the LORD.
25 📚The LORD has opened his armoury,
and has brought out the weapons✭
of his indignation;
for this is the work of the Lord God
of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 📚Come against her from the farthest border.
Open her storehouses.
Pile her up like heaps of grain,
and completely destroy her.
Let nothing of her be left.
27 📚✭Slay all her bulls; let them go down
to the slaughter. Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time
of their punishment.
28 📚The voice of those who flee✭ and escape
from the land of Babylon declares in Zion
the vengeance of the LORD our God,
the vengeance concerning his temple✭.
29 📚✭“Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow,
camp against it all around.
Let no one belonging to it escape.
Repay her according to her deeds,
do to her in accordance
with all that she has done;
for she has been proud against the LORD,
against the Holy One of Israel.
30 📚Therefore her young men
will fall in the streets,
and all her warriors will be cut off in that day,
says the LORD.
31 📚See, I am against you,
O most proud, says the Lord God of hosts,
and your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32 📚And the most proud one will stumble
and fall, and no one will raise him up;
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour all around him”.
33 📚✭Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“The children of Israel and the children of Judah
were oppressed together,
and all who took them captive held them fast;
they refused to let them go.
34 📚✭Their Redeemer✭ is strong.
The LORD of hosts is his name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
that he may give rest to the land,
but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 📚A sword is over the Chaldeans,
says the LORD, and over the inhabitants
of Babylon, and over her princes,
and over her wise men.
36 📚A sword is over the false prophets
and they will behave like fools.
A sword is over her mighty men,
and they will be dismayed.
37 📚A sword is over their horses
and over their chariots and over all the mixed
people who are in her midst,
and they will become like women.
A sword is over her treasures,
and they will be robbed.
38 📚✭A drought is on her waters,
and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
and they are crazy about their idols✭.
39 📚✭“Therefore the wild beasts
of the desert together with jackals
will live there,
and the owls will live in it;
and it will no longer be inhabited, forever;
it will not be lived in from generation
to generation.
40 📚As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighbouring cities,
says the LORD,
so no one will remain there,
and no son of man will live in it.
41 📚✭“See, a people will come from the north,
and a great nation and many kings will be
raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 📚They will hold the bow and the lance.
They are cruel,
and will not show mercy.
Their voice will roar like the sea,
and they will ride on horses,
everyone set in array like
men for battle, against you,
O daughter of Babylon.
43 📚The king of Babylon has heard
the report about them,
and his hands have become weak.
Anguish has seized him, and pangs
like a woman in labour.
44 📚✭See, he will come up like a lion
from the flooding of the Jordan
to the dwelling place of the strong;
but I will make them suddenly
run away from her.
And who is the chosen man whom
I may appoint over her?
For who is like me?
And who will appoint me the time?
And who is that shepherd
who can stand against me?”
45 📚Therefore hear the plan of the LORD,
that he has devised against Babylon,
and his purposes, that he has formed
against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock will
drag them away;
surely he will make their dwelling
place desolate by them.
46 📚At the sound of the capture
of Babylon the earth will shake,
and the cry will be heard among the nations.