Jeremiah 50
50
Babylon's Capture
1 #
Is 13.1—14.23; 47.1–15 This is the message that the LORD gave me about the city of Babylon and its people:
2“Tell the news to the nations! Proclaim it!
Give the signal and announce the news!
Do not keep it a secret!
Babylon has fallen!
Her god Marduk has been shattered!
Babylon's idols are put to shame,
her disgusting images are crushed!
3“A nation from the north has come to attack Babylonia and will make it a desert. People and animals will run away, and no one will live there.”
Israel's Return
4The LORD says, “When that time comes, the people of both Israel and Judah will come weeping, looking for me, their God. 5They will ask the way to Zion and then go in that direction. They will make an eternal covenant with me and never break it.
6“My people are like sheep whose shepherds have let them get lost in the mountains. They have wandered like sheep from one mountain to another, and they have forgotten where their home is. 7They are attacked by all who find them. Their enemies say, ‘They sinned against the LORD, and so what we have done is not wrong. Their ancestors trusted in the LORD, and they themselves should have remained faithful to him.’
8 #
Rev 18.4
“People of Israel, run away from Babylonia! Leave the country! Be the first to leave! 9I am going to stir up a group of strong nations in the north and make them attack Babylonia. They will line up in battle against the country and conquer it. They are skilful hunters, shooting arrows that never miss the mark. 10Babylonia will be looted, and those who loot it will take everything they want. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Babylon's Fall
11The LORD says, “People of Babylonia, you plundered my nation. You are happy and glad, going about like a cow threshing corn or like a neighing horse, 12but your own great city will be humiliated and disgraced. Babylonia will be the least important nation of all; it will become a dry and waterless desert. 13Because of my anger no one will live in Babylon; it will be left in ruins, and all who pass by will be shocked and amazed.
14“Archers, line up for battle against Babylon and surround it. Shoot all your arrows at Babylon, because it has sinned against me, the LORD. 15Raise the war cry all round the city! Now Babylon has surrendered. Its walls have been broken through and torn down.#50.15 Hebrew has an additional word, the meaning of which is unclear. I am taking my revenge on the Babylonians. So take your revenge on them, and treat them as they have treated others. 16Do not let seeds be sown in that country or let a harvest be gathered. Every foreigner living there will be afraid of the attacking army and will go back home.”
Israel's Return
17The LORD says, “The people of Israel are like sheep, chased and scattered by lions. First, they were attacked by the emperor of Assyria, and then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia gnawed their bones. 18Because of this, I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, will punish King Nebuchadnezzar and his country, just as I punished the emperor of Assyria. 19I will restore the people of Israel to their land. They will eat the food that grows on Mount Carmel and in the region of Bashan, and they will eat all they want of the crops that grow in the territories of Ephraim and Gilead. 20When that time comes, no sin will be found in Israel and no wickedness in Judah, because I will forgive those people whose lives I have spared. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
God's Judgement on Babylonia
21The LORD says, “Attack the people of Merathaim and of Pekod. Kill and destroy them.#50.21 One ancient translation them; Hebrew after them. Do everything I command you. I, the LORD, have spoken. 22The noise of battle is heard in the land, and there is great destruction. 23Babylonia hammered the whole world to pieces, and now that hammer is shattered! All the nations are shocked at what has happened to that country. 24Babylonia, you fought against me, and you have been caught in the trap I set for you, even though you did not know it. 25I have opened the place where my weapons are stored, and in my anger I have taken them out, because I, the Sovereign LORD Almighty, have work to do in Babylonia. 26Attack it from every side and break open the places where its grain is stored! Pile up the loot like piles of grain! Destroy the country! Leave nothing at all! 27Kill all their soldiers! Slaughter them! The people of Babylonia are doomed! The time has come for them to be punished!”
28(Refugees escape from Babylonia and come to Jerusalem, and they tell how the LORD our God took revenge for what the Babylonians had done to his Temple.)
29 #
Rev 18.6
“Tell the archers to attack Babylon. Send out everyone who knows how to use the bow and arrow. Surround the city and don't let anyone escape. Pay it back for all it has done, and treat it as it has treated others, because it acted with pride against me, the Holy One of Israel. 30So its young men will be killed in the city streets, and all its soldiers will be destroyed on that day. I, the LORD, have spoken.
31“Babylonia, you are filled with pride, so I, the Sovereign LORD Almighty, am against you! The time has come for me to punish you. 32Your proud nation will stumble and fall, and no one will help you up. I will set your cities on fire, and everything around will be destroyed.”
33The LORD Almighty says, “The people of Israel and of Judah are oppressed. All who captured them are guarding them closely and will not let them go. 34But the one who will rescue them is strong — his name is the LORD Almighty. He himself will take up their cause and will bring peace to the earth, but trouble to the people of Babylonia.”
35The LORD says,
“Death to Babylonia!
Death to its people,
to its rulers, to its men of wisdom.
36Death to its lying prophets —
what fools they are!
Death to its soldiers —
how terrified they are!
37Destroy its horses and chariots!
Death to its hired soldiers —
how weak they are!
Destroy its treasures;
plunder and loot.
38Bring a drought on its land
and dry up its rivers.
Babylonia is a land of terrifying idols,
that have made fools of the people.
39 #
Rev 18.2
“And so Babylon will be haunted by demons and evil spirits,#50.39 demons and evil spirits; or wildcats and jackals. and by unclean birds. Never again will people live there, not for all time to come. 40#Gen 19.24–25The same thing will happen to Babylon as happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, when I destroyed them and the nearby towns. No one will ever live there again. I, the LORD, have spoken.
41“People are coming from a country in the north,
a mighty nation far away;
many kings are preparing for war.
42They have taken their bows and swords;
they are cruel and merciless.
They sound like the roaring sea,
as they ride their horses.
They are ready for battle against Babylonia.
43The king of Babylonia hears the news,
and his hands hang limp.
He is seized by anguish,
by pain like a woman in labour.
44“Like a lion coming out of the thick woods along the Jordan up to the green pasture land, I, the LORD, will come and make the Babylonians run away suddenly from their city. Then the leader I choose will rule the nation. Who can be compared to me? Who would dare challenge me? What ruler could oppose me? 45So listen to the plan that I have made against the city of Babylon and to what I intend to do to its people. Even their children will be dragged off, and everyone will be horrified. 46When Babylon falls, there will be such a noise that the entire earth will shake, and the cries of alarm will be heard by the other nations.”
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Jeremiah 50: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 50
50
1The word that יהוה spoke concerning Baḇel, concerning the land of the Kasdim by Yirmeyahu the prophet.
2“Declare among the nations, and let it be heard. And lift up a banner, let it be heard, and do not conceal it. Say, ‘Baḇel shall be taken, Bĕl shall be put to shame, Meroḏaḵ shall be broken, her images shall be put to shame, her idols shall be broken.’
3For a nation shall come up against her from the north, which shall make her land waste, and none shall dwell in it. They shall flee, they shall go, both man and beast.
4“In those days and at that time,” declares יהוה, “the children of Yisra’ĕl shall come, they and the children of Yehuḏah together, weeping as they come, and seek יהוה their Elohim.
5“They shall ask the way to Tsiyon, their faces toward it, ‘Come and let us join ourselves to יהוה, in an everlasting covenant, never to be forgotten.’
6“My people have been wandering#Or lost, or straying, or perishing. sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.
7“All who found them have devoured them. And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty, because they have sinned against יהוה, the Home of righteousness, and the Expectation of their fathers: יהוה.’
8“Flee from the midst of Baḇel, come out#See Rev 18:4 of the land of the Kasdim. And be as rams before a flock.
9“For look, I am stirring up and bringing up against Baḇel an assembly of great nations from a land of the north, and they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be captured – their arrows are like those of a mighty skilled man, not returning empty-handed.
10“And Chaldea shall become plunder, all who plunder her shall satisfy themselves,” declares יהוה.
11“Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, you who plunder My inheritance, because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, and you neigh like stallions,
12your mother shall be greatly ashamed. She who bore you shall be humiliated. Look, the last of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
13“Because of the wrath of יהוה she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be deserted – all of it. Everyone passing by Baḇel shall be astonished and whistle at all her plagues.
14“Set yourselves in array against Baḇel all around, all you who bend the bow. Shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against יהוה.
15“Shout against her all around. She has given her hand, her foundations have fallen, her walls are thrown down, for it is the vengeance of יהוה. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, so do to her.
16“Cut off the sower from Baḇel, and him who handles the sickle at harvest time. From before the sword of the oppressor each one turns to his own people, and each one flees to his own land.
17“Yisra’ĕl is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away. First the sovereign of Ashshur devoured him, and now, at last, this Neḇuḵaḏretstsar sovereign of Baḇel has broken his bones.”
18Therefore thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “See, I am punishing the sovereign of Baḇel and his land, as I have punished the sovereign of Ashshur.
19“And I shall bring back Yisra’ĕl to his pasture, and he shall feed on Karmel and Bashan. And his being shall be satisfied on Mount Ephrayim and Gil‛aḏ.
20“In those days and at that time,” declares יהוה, “the crookedness of Yisra’ĕl shall be searched for, but there shall be none; and the sin of Yehuḏah, but none shall be found. For I shall pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
21“Go up against the land of Merathayim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Peqoḏ. Slay and put them under the ban,” declares יהוה, “and do according to all that I have commanded you.
22“There is a sound of battle in the land, and of great destruction.
23“How the hammer of all the earth has been cut off and broken! How Baḇel has become a ruin among the nations!
24“I have laid a snare for you, and you were captured, O Baḇel, and you yourself did not know! You have been found and also caught, because you strove against יהוה.”
25יהוה has opened His armoury, and has brought out the weapons of His displeasure, for the Master Elohim of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Kasdim.
26Come against her from every quarter, open her storehouses, pile her up as heaps of ruins, and put her under the ban. Let her have no remnant.
27Slay all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28Listen! They flee and escape from the land of Baḇel, to declare in Tsiyon the vengeance of יהוה our Elohim, the vengeance of His Hĕḵal.
29“Summon archers against Baḇel. All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around, let no one escape. Repay her according to her work, do to her according to all she has done. For she has been proud against יהוה, against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
30“Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets, and all her men of battle shall perish in that day,” declares יהוה.
31“See, I am against you, O proud one!” declares the Master יהוה of hosts, “for your day has come, the time for your punishment.
32“And the proud one shall stumble, and he shall fall, with no one to raise him up. And I shall kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all around him.”
33Thus said יהוה of hosts, “The children of Yisra’ĕl were oppressed, along with the children of Yehuḏah. And all who took them captive have held them fast, they refused to let them go.
34“Their Redeemer is strong, יהוה of hosts is His Name. He shall strongly plead their case, so as to give rest to the land, but unrest to the inhabitants of Baḇel.
35“A sword is upon the Kasdim,” declares יהוה, “and it is upon the inhabitants of Baḇel, and upon her heads and upon her wise men.
36“A sword is upon the liars, and they shall be fools. A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be broken down.
37“A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mixed peoples who are in her midst, and they shall become like women. A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be plundered.
38“A sword is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up. For it is a land of carved images, and they boast about their idols.
39“Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell with the jackals, and the ostriches dwell in it. And it shall never again be inhabited, nor dwelt in, unto all generations.
40“As Elohim overthrew Seḏom and Amorah and their neighbouring cities,” declares יהוה, “so no one would dwell there, nor would son of man sojourn in it.
41“See, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation and many sovereigns stirred up from the ends of the earth.
42“They strengthen their bow and spear, they are cruel and they show no compassion. They sound like the roaring sea, and ride on horses, set in array, like a man for the battle, against you, O daughter of Baḇel.
43“The sovereign of Baḇel has heard the report about them, and his hands became weak. Distress has taken hold of him, pain like that of a woman in labour.
44“See, he comes up like a lion from the Yardĕn jungle, against the enduring pasture. But in an instant I shall make them run away from her. And who is the Chosen One whom I appoint against her? For who is like Me? Who summons Me? And who is that Shepherd who stands before Me?”
45Therefore hear the counsel of יהוה which He has counselled concerning Baḇel, and His purposes He has purposed concerning the land of the Kasdim: the least of the flock shall drag them away! He shall make their pasture a waste before them!
46At the sound of Baḇel’s capture the earth shall be shaken, and the outcry shall be heard among the nations.
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