Jeremiah 50

1This is the word that Yahweh spoke through the prophet Jeremiah concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans:

2Announce it among the nations and proclaim it; raise a signal flag and proclaim it; do not hide it. Say, “Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered. Her images are put to shame; her idols are shattered.”

3For a nation from the north has come up against her; it will make her land a desolation, and no one will live in it. Both people and animals have fled and gone away.

4In those days and at that time, declares Yahweh, the people of Israel will come, they and the people of Judah together. They will come weeping as they go, and they will seek Yahweh their God.

5They will ask the way to Zion, with their faces turned toward it. They will come and join themselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

6My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and made them wander on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill and have forgotten their resting place.

7All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, “We are not guilty, for they sinned against Yahweh, their pasture of righteousness, Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.”

8Flee from the midst of Babylon; go out from the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the male goats that lead the flock.

9For I am about to stir up and bring against Babylon a company of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up for battle against her, and from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior who does not come back empty-handed.

10Chaldea will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill, declares Yahweh.

11Though you rejoice, though you celebrate, you who plunder my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions,

12your mother will be deeply ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. Look, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13Because of Yahweh’s wrath she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss in scorn at all her wounds.

14Take up your positions all around Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her; spare no arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh.

15Raise the battle cry against her on every side! She has surrendered; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. For this is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done.

16Cut off from Babylon the sower and the one who handles the sickle at harvest time. Because of the sword of the oppressor, each will turn back to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.

17Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.

18Therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.

19I will bring Israel back to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and in Bashan; his hunger will be satisfied on the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead.

20In those days and at that time, declares Yahweh, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but none will be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.

21Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it and against those who live in Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction to the last one, declares Yahweh; do everything I have commanded you.

22The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction!

23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

24I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and seized, because you challenged Yahweh.

25Yahweh has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Lord Yahweh of Armies has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

26Come against her from every side. Open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction; leave her no remnant.

27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment!

28Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon are declaring in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, vengeance for his temple.

29Summon archers against Babylon, all who draw the bow. Camp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her just as she has done. For she has defied Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day, declares Yahweh.

31I am against you, you arrogant one, declares the Lord Yahweh of Armies, for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

32The arrogant one will stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will set fire to his towns, and it will consume everything around him.

33This is what Yahweh of Armies says: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. All who took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.

34But their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will surely plead their case, so that he may bring rest to the earth, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

35A sword against the Chaldeans, declares Yahweh, against those who live in Babylon, against her officials and her wise men!

36A sword against her false prophets, and they will become fools! A sword against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror!

37A sword against her horses and her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst, and they will become like women! A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!

38A drought against her waters, and they will dry up! For it is a land of idols, and they go mad over their horrid images.

39Therefore desert creatures will live there with hyenas, and ostriches will live in it. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, declares Yahweh, no one will live there; no human being will stay in it.

41Look, a people is coming from the north, a great nation, and many kings are being stirred up from the far ends of the earth.

42They grasp bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea as they ride on horses, lined up like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Babylon.

43The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has seized him, pain like that of a woman in labor.

44Look, like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a pasture that never fails, I will suddenly chase them away from it, and I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who can summon me to court? What shepherd can stand against me?

45Therefore hear the plan that Yahweh has made against Babylon and the purposes he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; surely their pasture will be appalled at their fate.

46At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake, and a cry will be heard among the nations.