Jeremiah 50
50
Prophecies against Babylon
1This is the word the Lord spoke about Babylon,#Is 13:1 the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2Announce to the nations;
proclaim and raise up a signal flag;#Ps 60:4; Is 5:26; 18:3
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say, “Babylon is captured;
Bel#Is 46:1; Jr 51:44 is put to shame;
Marduk is terrified.”
Her idols are put to shame;
her false gods, devastated.
3For a nation from the north will attack her;#Is 41:25; Jr 1:13–15; 6:1,22; 47:2; 50:9,41; 51:48
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it —
both people and animals will escape.#50:3 Lit escape; they will walk#Ps 135:8; Jr 7:20; 21:6; 32:43; 33:10,12; 36:29; 51:62
4In those days and at that time —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,#Is 11:12–13; Jr 3:18; Ezk 37:15–22; Hs 11:1
weeping as they come,
and will seek the Lord their God.#2Ch 11:16; 15:4; Hs 3:5
5They will ask about Zion,
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves#50:5 LXX; MT reads Come and join yourselves to the Lord
in a permanent covenant#Gn 9:16; 17:7,13,19; Is 55:3; 61:8; Jr 32:40; Ezk 16:60; 37:26 that will never be forgotten.
6My people were lost sheep;#Is 53:6
their shepherds led them astray,#Jr 23:2,13
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.#Ezk 34:6
They wandered from mountain to hill;
they forgot their resting place.
7Whoever found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord,
their righteous grazing land,#Jr 31:23; 40:2–3
the hope of their ancestors,#Jr 14:8; 17:13 the Lord.”
8Escape from Babylon;#Jr 51:6; Rv 18:4
depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
9For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon#Jr 51:1,11,29,35
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;#Jr 6:23; 50:14,42; 51:27
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like a skilled#50:9 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read bereaving warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
10The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11Because you rejoice,
because you celebrate —
you who plundered my inheritance —
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions,#Jdg 5:22; Jr 8:16; 47:3
12your mother#Jr 2:31; 51:47; Hs 2:4–5 will be utterly humiliated;
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all#50:12 Lit Look! The last of the nations —
an arid wilderness, a desert.#Jr 51:43
13Because 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 appalled
and scoff because of all her wounds.#Dt 28:37; 2Ch 29:8; 30:7; Jr 5:30; 18:16; 19:8; 25:9,18; 29:18; 42:18; 44:12,22; 49:17; Mc 6:16; Zph 2:15
14Line up in battle formation around Babylon,
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
15Raise 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.#Jr 51:58
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,#Jr 46:10
take your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
16Cut off the sower from Babylon
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,#Jr 46:16
each will turn to his own people,#Is 13:14
each will flee to his own land.
The Return of God’s People
17Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions.#Jr 2:15; 4:7
The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last who crushed his bones
was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.#2Kg 24:10–12; 25:1–7
18Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon#Is 10:12 and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19I will return Israel to his grazing land,#Jr 22:6; 23:3; 33:12; Ezk 34:14
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.#Is 33:9; Mc 7:14; Nah 1:4
20In those days and at that time —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
one will search for Israel’s iniquity,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive#Nm 14:20; Jr 31:34; 36:3 those I leave as a remnant.#Jr 39:10; 52:16; Zph 3:12
The Invasion of Babylon
21Attack the land of Merathaim,
and those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
completely destroy them —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
do everything I have commanded you.#1Kg 9:4; 2Kg 21:8; 2Ch 7:17
22The sound of war is in the land#Jr 51:54–56 —
a crushing blow!
23How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!#Jr 51:41
24Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,#Jr 51:31; Dn 5:30–31
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you pitted yourself against the Lord.
25The Lord opened his armory
and brought out his weapons of wrath,#Is 13:5
because it is a task of the Lord God of Armies
in the land of the Chaldeans.
26Come against her from the most distant places.#50:26 Lit from the end
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
27Put 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.#Is 10:3; Jr 46:21; Ezk 21:25,29; Hs 5:9; Mc 7:4; 2Pt 2:9
The Humiliation of Babylon
28There is a voice of fugitives and refugees
from the land of Babylon.
The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
the vengeance for his temple.#2Kg 18:16; 23:4; 24:13; Jr 51:11
29Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;#Ps 28:4; Pr 24:12,29; Jr 25:14; 50:29; 51:24; Lm 3:64
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.#Ps 71:22; Is 1:4; 37:23; Jr 51:5
30Therefore, her young men will fall
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the Lord’s declaration.#Jr 49:26
31Look, I am against you, you arrogant one —
this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Armies —
for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32The arrogant will stumble and fall#Ps 27:2; Pr 24:16–17; Is 3:8; 8:15; 31:3
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.#Jr 21:14
The Desolation of Babylon
33This is what the Lord of Armies says:
Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast;#2Ch 28:11; 30:9; Is 14:17; 61:1; Jr 13:17
they refuse to release them.
34Their Redeemer is strong;
the Lord of Armies is his name.
He will fervently champion their cause#1Sm 24:15; Pr 23:11; Is 47:4; Jr 51:36
so that he might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.#Mc 4:10
35A sword is over the Chaldeans —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
36A sword is against the diviners,
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
37A sword is against his horses and chariots
and against all the foreigners among them,#Ex 12:38; Neh 13:1–3; Jr 25:20
and they will be like women.#Is 19:16; Jr 48:41; 51:30; Nah 3:13
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
38A 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.#50:38 Or of dreaded gods#Ex 15:16; 23:27; Jb 20:25
39Therefore, desert creatures#50:39 Or desert demons will live with hyenas,
and ostriches will also live in her.
It will never again be inhabited
or lived in through all generations.#Is 13:20–21; 34:13–14
40Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring towns#Gn 19:24–25 —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
so no one will live there;
no human being will stay in it even temporarily
as a temporary resident.#Jr 49:18–21,33
The Conquest of Babylon
41Look! A people comes from the north.#Jr 6:22–24; 49:24
A great nation and many kings will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.#Jr 6:22; 25:32; 31:8
42They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,#Is 5:30; 17:12
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Babylon.
43The king of Babylon has heard about them;
his hands have become weak.
Distress has seized him —
pain, like a woman in labor.#Ps 48:6; Is 13:8; 21:3; 42:14; Jr 4:31; 6:24; 13:21; 22:23; 30:6; 49:24; Mc 4:9–10; 1Th 5:3
44“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets#50:44 Lit pride#Ps 10:9; 17:12; Is 5:29; Jr 2:15; 5:6; 12:5; 25:38; 50:17; Zch 11:3 of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Babylon#50:44 Lit them away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”
45Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans:#Jr 51:29 Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them. 46At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.#Jr 49:19–21
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Jeremiah 50: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Jeremiah 50
50
Jeremiah 50
1¶ The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.
2Declare ye among the Gentiles, and publish, and set up a banner; publish, and do not conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
3For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein: they shall leave, they shall depart, both man and beast.
4In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together, going and weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God.
5They shall ask the way to Zion, unto where they shall turn their faces, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in an eternal covenant that shall never be forgotten.
6My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their restingplace.
7All that found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.
8Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the meek in front of the flocks.
9¶ For, behold, I awake and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and from there they shall set themselves in array against her; she shall be taken; their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert one, who shall not return in vain.
10And the land of the Chaldeans shall be for a spoil; all that spoil her shall come forth full, saith the Lord.
11Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced destroying my heritage, because ye filled yourselves as a heifer on grass and neighed like horses;
12your mother was sore confounded; she that bore you was ashamed: see here the latter end of the Gentiles: wilderness, dry land, and desert.
13Because of the wrath of the Lord, she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be completely desolate; every one that goes by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues.
14Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about; all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows; for she has sinned against the Lord.
15Shout against her round about; she has given her hand; her foundations are fallen; her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the Lord; take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her.
16Cut off the sower from Babylon and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest; for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn each one to his people, and they shall flee each one to his own land.
17Israel has been like scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away; first the king of Assyria has devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
18Therefore thus hath the Lord of the hosts, the God of Israel said; Behold, I visit the king of Babylon and his land as I have visited the king of Assyria.
19And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
20In those days, and in that time, said the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon those whom I shall have left.
21¶ Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod; waste and utterly destroy after them, said the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.
22A sound of battle is in the land and of great destruction.
23How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! How is Babylon become a desolation among the Gentiles!
24I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware; thou art found, and also caught because thou hast provoked the Lord.
25The Lord has opened his treasury and has brought forth the vessels of his indignation; for this is the work of the Lord GOD of the hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
26Come against her from the ends of the earth, open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.
27Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
28The voice of those that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple.
29Call together the archers against Babylon; all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her; for she has become proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.
30Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, said the Lord.
31Behold, I am against thee, O thou proud one, said the Lord GOD of the hosts; for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.
32And the proud one shall stumble and fall and have no one to raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.
33¶ Thus hath the Lord of the hosts said: The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah were oppressed together; and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.
34Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of the hosts is his name: he shall thoroughly plead their cause that he may give rest to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35A sword is upon the Chaldeans, said the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon and upon her princes and upon her wise men.
36A sword is upon the fortune-tellers; and they shall be fools: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be broken.
37A sword is upon their horses and upon their chariots and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women; a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.
38A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up; for it is the land of graven images, and they are become mad upon their idols.
39Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall no longer be inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
41Behold, a people comes from the north, and a great nation and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
42They shall hold the bow and the lance; they shall be cruel and will not show 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.
43The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble; anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
44Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the strong habitation; but I will rest and will make him run from upon her; and he who shall be chosen I will appoint over her. For who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
45Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord that he has taken against Babylon and his thoughts that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall drag them out, and they shall destroy their habitations with them.
46At the noise of the taking of Babylon, the earth was moved, and the cry was heard among the Gentiles.
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