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
A Message About Babylon
1This is the message the Lord spoke about Babylon and the Babylonian people. He spoke this message through Jeremiah the prophet.
2“Announce this to the nations.
Lift up a banner and tell them.
Speak the whole message and say:
‘Babylon will be captured.
The god Bel will be put to shame.
The god Marduk will be very afraid.
Babylon’s idols will be put to shame.
Her idols will be filled with terror!’
3A nation from the north will attack Babylon.
That nation will make Babylon like an empty desert.
No people will live there.
Both men and animals will run away from there.”
4The Lord says, “At that time
the people of Israel and Judah will be together.
They will cry and look for the Lord their God.
5Those people will ask how to go to Jerusalem.
They will start to go in that direction.
They will come and join themselves to the Lord.
They will make an agreement that will last forever.
It will be an agreement that will never be forgotten.
6“My people have been like lost sheep.
Their leaders have led them in the wrong way.
Their leaders made them wander around in the mountains and hills.
They forgot where their resting place was.
7Whoever found my people hurt them.
And those enemies said, ‘We did nothing wrong.
Those people sinned against the Lord, their true resting place.
He was the God their fathers trusted.’
8“Run away from Babylon.
Leave the land of the Babylonians.
Be like the goats that lead the flock.
9I will bring against Babylon
many nations from the north.
This group of nations will take their places for war against Babylon.
Babylon will be captured by people from the north.
Their arrows are like trained soldiers
who do not return from war with empty hands.
10The enemy will take all the wealth from the Babylonians.
Those enemy soldiers will get all they want!” says the Lord.
11“Babylon, you are excited and happy.
You took my land.
You dance around like a young cow in the grain.
Your laughter is like the neighing of male horses.
12Your mother will be very ashamed.
The woman who gave you birth will be disgraced.
Babylonia will be the least important of all the nations.
She will be an empty, dry desert.
13The Lord will show his anger.
No people will live there.
Babylon will be completely empty.
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be afraid.
They will shake their heads when they see how it has been destroyed.
14“Take your positions for war against Babylon,
all you soldiers with bows.
Shoot your arrows at Babylon! Do not save any of them.
This is because Babylon has sinned against the Lord.
15Soldiers around Babylon, shout the war cry!
Babylon has surrendered. Her towers have fallen.
Her walls have been torn down.
The Lord is giving them the punishment they deserve.
You nations should give Babylon what she deserves.
Do to her what she has done to others.
16Don’t let the people from Babylon plant their crops.
Don’t let them gather the harvest.
The soldiers of Babylon treated their captives cruelly.
Now, let everyone go back home!
Let everyone run to his own country.
17“The people of Israel are like a flock of sheep that are scattered.
They are like sheep that have been chased away by lions.
The first lion to eat them up
was the king of Assyria.
The last lion to crush their bones
was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
18So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says:
“I will punish the king of Babylon and his country.
I will punish him as I punished the king of Assyria.
19But I will bring the people of Israel back to their own pasture.
They will eat on Mount Carmel and in Bashan.
They will eat and be full.
They will eat on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.”
20The Lord says,
“At that time people will try to find Israel’s guilt.
But there will be no guilt.
People will try to find Judah’s sins.
But no sins will be found.
This is because I am saving the few people left alive from Israel and Judah.
And I am forgiving their sins.
21“Attack the land of Merathaim.
Attack the people who live in Pekod.
Chase them, kill them and completely destroy them.
Do everything I commanded you!” says the Lord.
22“The noise of battle can be heard all over the country.
It is the noise of much destruction.
23Babylon was the hammer of the whole earth.
But how broken and shattered that hammer is now!
Babylon is truly the most ruined
of all the nations.
24Babylon, I set a trap for you.
And you were caught before you knew it.
You fought against the Lord.
So you were found and taken prisoner.
25The Lord has opened up his storeroom.
He has brought out the weapons of his anger.
This is because the Lord God of heaven’s armies has work to do.
He has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.
26Come against Babylon from far away.
Break open her storehouses of grain.
Pile up her dead bodies like big piles of grain.
Completely destroy Babylon
and do not leave anyone alive.
27Kill all the young men in Babylon.
Let them be killed.
The time has come for their defeat.
How terrible it will be for them!
It is time for them to be punished.
28Listen to the people running from the country of Babylon!
They are telling Jerusalem
how the Lord our God is punishing Babylon as it deserves.
This is because Babylon destroyed his Temple.
29“Call for the men who shoot arrows
to come against Babylon.
Tell them to surround the city.
Don’t let anyone escape.
Pay her back for the bad things she has done.
Do to her what she has done to other nations.
Babylon acted with pride against the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
30So Babylon’s young men will be killed in the streets.
All her soldiers will die on that day,” says the Lord.
31“Babylon, you are too proud. And I am against you,”
says the Master, the Lord of heaven’s armies.
“This is because the time has come
for you to be punished.
32Proud Babylon will stumble and fall.
And no one will help her get up.
I will start a fire in her towns.
It will completely burn up everything around her.”
33This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:
“The people of Israel
and Judah both are slaves.
The enemy took them as prisoners.
And they won’t let them go.
34But God is strong and will buy them back.
His name is the Lord of heaven’s armies.
He will defend them with power
so he can give rest to their land.
But he will not give rest to those living in Babylon.”
35The Lord says,
“Let a sword kill the people living in Babylon!
Let a sword kill its officers and wise men!
36Let a sword kill its false prophets!
They will become fools.
Let a sword kill Babylon’s warriors!
They will be full of terror.
37Let a sword kill its horses and chariots.
Let a sword kill all the soldiers hired from other countries!
They will be like frightened women.
Let there be a sword against Babylon’s treasures!
They will be taken away.
38Let there be a sword against its waters!
They will be dried up.
It is a land of idols.
Those idols will go crazy with fear.
39“Babylon will never be filled with people again.
Desert animals and hyenas will live there.
Owls will live there.
But no people will live there ever again.
40God completely destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
and the towns around them,” says the Lord.
“In the same way no people will live in Babylon.
No man will stay there.
41“Look! An army is coming from the north.
It comes from a powerful nation.
Many kings are coming together from all around the world.
42Their armies have bows and spears.
The soldiers are cruel and have no mercy.
The soldiers come riding on their horses.
And the sound is loud like the roaring sea.
They stand in their places, ready for battle.
They are ready to attack you, city of Babylon.
43The king of Babylon heard about those armies.
And he became helpless because of his fear.
His fear is like pain.
It is like the pain of a woman having a baby.
44“A lion will come from the thick bushes near the Jordan River.
It will go into the rich pastures where people feed their flocks.
I am like that lion! I will suddenly chase the people of Babylon from their land.
Who is the one I have chosen to do this?
There is no one like me.
There is no one who can challenge me.
None of their leaders can stand up against me.”
45So listen to what the Lord has planned to do against Babylon.
Listen to what he has decided to do to the people in Babylon.
He will surely drag away the young ones of Babylon.
Babylon’s pastures will be destroyed because of them.
46At the sound of Babylon’s fall, the earth will shake.
People in all nations will hear about their destruction.
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