Jeremiah 50
50
A Prophecy against Babylon
1This is the message that the Lord spoke about Babylon and the land of the Babylonians through the prophet Jeremiah.
2“Announce this among the nations, and spread the news.
Raise a flag, and announce it.
Don’t hide anything.
Say, ‘Babylon will be captured.
Bel will be put to shame.
Marduk will be filled with terror.
Babylon’s statues will be put to shame.
Its idols will be filled with terror.’
3A nation from the north will attack Babylon
and destroy its land so that no one will live in it.
People and animals will run away.
4“In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord,
“the people of Israel and Judah will cry as they go together
to seek the Lord their God.
5They will ask which road goes to Zion and turn in that direction.
They will go there to make a permanent agreement with the Lord.
It will not be forgotten.
6My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray.
They wander around on the mountains.
They go from mountains to hills.
They have forgotten their resting place.
7Everyone who finds them eats them.
Their enemies say, ‘We’re not guilty.
They have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture.
They have sinned against the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.’
8“Run away from Babylon.
Leave the land of the Babylonians.
Be like the male goats that lead the flock.
9I am going to stir up an alliance of strong nations from the north
and bring it against Babylon.
Those nations will take up positions against Babylon.
Babylon will be captured from the north.
Its enemy’s arrows will be like skilled soldiers
who don’t come back empty-handed.
10The Babylonians will become the prize.
All who loot them will get everything they want,”
declares the Lord.
11“You are happy and excited.
You have looted the people who belong to me.
You dance around like calves on the grass
and neigh like stallions.
12But your mother will be greatly ashamed.
The woman who gave birth to you will be disgraced.
Babylon, you will be the least important nation.
You will become a parched desert.
13No one will live in Babylon because of the Lord’s anger.
It will be completely abandoned.
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified
and hiss at all its wounds.
14“Take up your positions around Babylon, all you archers with bows.
Shoot at it; don’t save any arrows,
because the people of Babylon have sinned against the Lord.
15Shout a war cry against them on every side.
They’ll surrender.
Their towers will fall and their walls will be torn down.
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take revenge against them.
Do to them what they did to others.
16Don’t allow anyone in Babylon to plant or harvest.
Everyone will turn to his own people and flee to his own homeland
because of the enemies’ swords.
17“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep that lions have chased.
The first to devour them was the king of Assyria.
The last to gnaw at their bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
18“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land
as I punished the king of Assyria.
19I will bring the people of Israel back to their pastures.
They will eat on Mount Carmel and Mount Bashan.
They will eat until they are full
on the mountains of Ephraim and Gilead.
20In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord,
“people will look for Israel’s crimes, but they will find none.
They will look for Judah’s sins, but none will be found.
I will forgive the faithful few whom I have spared.
21Attack the land of Merathaim
and the people who live in Pekod.
Claim them for me by killing them with a sword,”
declares the Lord.
“Do everything I commanded you.
22The noise of battle and great destruction fills the land.
23The hammer of the whole earth is broken and shattered.
See how desolate Babylon is of all the nations!
24I will set traps for you, Babylon.
You will be caught, but you won’t know it.
You will be found and captured
because you have opposed the Lord.
25The Lord will open his armory
and bring out the weapons of his fury,
because the Almighty Lord of Armies
has a job to do in the land of the Babylonians.
26Attack them from a distance,
open their storehouses,
pile up their corpses like piles of grain,
claim them for me by destroying them,
and don’t leave anyone behind.
27Kill all their young bulls.
Let them go to be slaughtered.
How horrible it will be for them when their time has come,
the time for them to be punished.
28Listen! Fugitives and refugees from Babylon
are coming to Zion to tell about
the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for his temple.
29“Call together the archers, the soldiers with bows, against Babylon.
Set up blockades around it. Don’t let anyone escape.
Pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done.
Do to them what they did to others.
They have disobeyed the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
30That is why their young men will die in the streets,
and all their soldiers will be silenced that day,”
declares the Lord.
31“I’m against you, you arrogant city,”
declares the Almighty Lord of Armies.
“Your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
32Those arrogant people will stumble and fall,
and there will be no one to help them get up.
I will light a fire in their cities
that will burn up everything around them.”
33This is what the Lord of Armies says:
All the people of Israel and Judah are oppressed.
All their enemies have captured them.
They refuse to let them go.
34Their defender is strong.
His name is the Lord of Armies.
He will certainly take up their cause
in order to bring rest to the land of Israel
and unrest to the people who live in Babylon.
35“A sword will kill the Babylonians and everyone who lives in Babylon,”
declares the Lord.
“A sword will kill their officials and their wise men.
36A sword will kill the false prophets.
They will become fools.
A sword will kill their soldiers and defeat them.
37A sword will kill their horses, their chariots,
and all the foreigners within their ranks.
They will become women.
A sword will destroy their treasures, and they will be looted.
38A drought will diminish their water supply, and it will dry up.
Babylon is a land of idols, statues that will go crazy with fear.
39That is why desert animals will live with hyenas.
Desert owls will also live there.
It will no longer be inhabited or lived in for generations.
40Babylon will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighboring cities
when I, God, destroyed them.
No one will live there.
No human will stay there,” declares the Lord.
41“People are going to come from the north.
A great nation and many kings will rise from the ends of the earth.
42They will take hold of bows and spears.
They will be cruel and have no compassion.
They will sound like the sea when it roars.
They will ride horses.
They are ready for war, ready to attack you, people of Babylon.
43The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and he loses courage.
Anguish will grip him as pain grips a woman in labor.
44I will suddenly chase them from their places
like a lion coming out of the jungle
along the Jordan River into pastureland.
I will appoint over Babylon whomever I choose.
Who is like me? Who can challenge me?
Is there any leader who can stand up to me?
45Listen to the plans that the Lord is making against Babylon
and the things he intends to do to the land of the Babylonians.
He will surely drag away the little ones of the flock.
He will surely destroy the pasture because of the Babylonians.
46The earth will quake at the news that Babylon has been captured.
Its cry will be heard among the nations.”
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 50
50
Prophecy against Babylon
1Yahweh spoke to me this prophecy against mighty Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans: # 50:1 Jeremiah devotes two entire chapters to Yahweh’s message to Babylon (see chs. 50–51; see also Rev. 17–18), the most influential nation on earth at the time of his writing. Inside the nation of Babylon was a subgroup known as the Chaldeans. (Chaldeans possibly means “astrologers” or “occultists.”) They were a tribe of people who settled near the city of Babylon and the city of Ur. The Babylonian Empire (Babylonia) absorbed the Chaldean tribe and created a country of Chaldea in the southern part of their empire. The Chaldeans were known as a violent, fearsome people. Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar II was a Chaldean ruler in what became known as the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and the Chaldeans gradually became rulers of the empire.
2“Tell the nations the news; proclaim it everywhere.
Publicize it far and wide;
make no secret of it, and declare:
‘Babylon has fallen!
Her god Marduk is greatly humiliated, and his power is broken. # 50:2 Or “Bel is put to shame; Merodach is dismayed.” Bel and Merodach are two names for “Marduk,” the chief god of Babylon.
Her idols are disgraced;
her filthy images # 50:2 The word for “filthy images” (Hb. gillulim) is a somewhat crude word, meaning literally “a ball of excrement.” This is a term frequently applied to foreign gods and their images (in Ezekiel nearly forty times, often translated “idols”). are shattered.’
3For a nation is attacking Babylon from the north # 50:3 That is, Persia. Although Persia is not directly north of Babylon, to the Jews, the north was a colloquialism to describe where enemy invaders came from.
that will reduce her nation to a desert.
People and animals will flee,
and no one will inhabit it.”
Israel’s Return
4Yahweh says:
“When that day comes
the people of Israel and the people of Judah
will go out together with tears streaming down their cheeks
to seek Yahweh their God.
5They will ask the way to Zion
and turn their faces toward her, saying to one another,
‘Come, let us bind our hearts to Yahweh
in an eternal covenant,
which we will never break.’
6“My people are like lost sheep;
their shepherds # 50:6 That is, their rulers. led them astray.
They are lost, wandering about in the mountains.
They went from mountain to hill, # 50:6 The implication is that Israel’s leaders led them into spiritual danger by practicing idolatry.
forgetting their resting place.
7Whoever came across them took advantage of them.
Their enemies said, ‘We are not to blame,
for they have sinned against Yahweh, the True Home of Justice, # 50:7 God, the “True Home of Justice,” is the source and fountain of true righteousness, justice, and peace.
against Yahweh, the Living Hope of their ancestors.’
8“My people, flee Babylon # 50:8 See Rev. 18:4. and run from
the land of the Chaldeans.
Be the first ones to leave! # 50:8 Or “Be like he-goats, leading the sheep!” He-goats are known for their characteristic of being the first to push themselves through when a gate is opened. God was encouraging the captives of Judah to push forward and be the first to enjoy their freedom.
9For listen, I am stirring up trouble
out of the north against Babylon,
and raising up a coalition of mighty nations to attack her.
They will take up battle positions against her
and conquer her.
Their arrows are like a skilled soldier who kills
and never returns empty-handed.
10I, Yahweh, declare that Chaldea will be plundered,
and all who plunder her will be satisfied.”
The Fall of Babylon
11“I, Yahweh, say to the people of Babylon:
You rejoiced when you robbed my people, my inheritance.
You had a good time,
making more noise than horses neighing
and frolicking like playful heifers
at the time of the threshing of grain. # 50:11 See Deut. 25:4.
12But your motherland is covered with shame,
and the city that nurtured you like a mother
is totally disgraced.
Now, she is the least of nations,
nothing but a desert, a parched wasteland.
13Because of Yahweh’s anger,
Babylon will become desolate and uninhabited forever.
Everyone who passes by
will be shocked to see what has happened
and will hiss out their scorn.
14Archers! Take your positions against Babylon
and surround her.
Shoot at her! Empty your quiver,
for she has sinned against Yahweh.
15Raise the war cry against her from all sides.
She surrenders!
The attackers have broken down
her fortifications and walls. # 50:15 According to Streane: “This was not done by Cyrus, who, after diverting the river, entered the city beneath its walls by the riverbed. It therefore points to the later capture of Babylon by Darius who ‘having become the master of the place, destroyed the wall, and tore down all the gates.’ Herodotus III, 159.” A. W. Streane, The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah: Together with the Lamentations (Cambridge: University Press, 1952), 322.
This is Yahweh’s vengeance! Take revenge on her.
Do to them what they did to others.
16Uproot from Babylon those
who plant fields and harvest crops.
They have all fled from the attacking army
and returned to their homelands.”
Israel’s Return
17“Israel was like straying lambs,
driven away and scattered by lions.
“First, the king of Assyria devoured them, # 50:17 The Assyrians conquered Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in 722 BC. and now, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed their bones. 18So I, Yahweh, God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, say this: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation as I punished the king of Assyria.
19“I will bring Israel back to her own land.
The people will be like sheep eating their fill on Mount Carmel,
in Bashan, in the hill country of Ephraim, and in Gilead.
They will all be satisfied.
20I, Yahweh, declare that at that time,
you may look for Israel’s guilt, but it will disappear,
you may search for Judah’s sins, but you will not find them,
for I will forgive the remnant whose lives I have spared.”
Yahweh’s Message to the Enemies of Babylon
21Yahweh says:
“Now, carry out my instructions to the letter.
Attack the land of Merathaim
and those who live in Pekod! # 50:21 Merathaim means “double-rebellion” or “double-bitterness.” Merathaim could be seen as a sarcastic pun used as a reference to Babylon. See J. Andrew Dearman, Jeremiah and Lamentations, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 410. These two locations represent an untranslatable play on words in Hebrew: Marratim was the name of a district of southern Babylonia at the head of the Persian Gulf (Marratim means “the land of the bitter river”), while Puqudu was the name of a people in the eastern region of the Babylonian Empire. Used together, Merathaim and Pekod make an implied connection between rebellion and punishment.
Kill them and destroy everything they leave behind.
22For the noise of battle fills the land,
and already great destruction is taking place.
23Babylon, you hammered the whole world to pieces,
but now your hammer is broken and shattered to pieces.
Now you are an object of horror to the nations.
24You defied me and fought against me, Babylon,
so I laid a trap for you.
You were caught before you knew it!
25I, Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies,
had a work to do in Babylon,
So, I opened my armory and brought out
the mighty weapons of my wrath.
26Attack it from every side!
Open her granaries.
Pile her up like heaps of grain;
curse her with destruction
until nothing is left of her.
27Slaughter all her warriors; # 50:27 Or “bulls,” a figure of speech for warriors. See Ps. 22:12; Isa. 34:7.
lead them away as cattle to be slaughtered.
Woe to them, for their day of reckoning has come,
their time for being punished is here.
28Listen! Fugitives and refugees
from the country of Babylon arrive in Zion,
proclaiming on Mount Zion
how Yahweh our God has punished the Babylonians
for destroying his temple!”
The Sin of Arrogance
29“Assemble the archers and attack Babylon!
Encamp around her and leave no way of escape.
Treat her as she has treated others
and repay her for all she has done,
for she was arrogant and defiant to Yahweh,
the Holy One of Israel.
30“I, Yahweh, say to you:
On that day, your young men will fall in the streets,
and all your warriors will perish.
31I am against you, O arrogant one!
I, Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, decree:
Your day of reckoning has now come,
the time for me to punish you is here.
32Your proud, arrogant city will stumble and fall
with no one to lift her up.
I will set the cities of Babylon on fire,
and everything around you will go up in flames.”
Yahweh, the Avenger of Israel
33Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, says:
“My people, Israel and Judah, are oppressed,
You hold them fast and will not let them go.
34But their Redeemer # 50:34 This is the Hebrew word gaʾal, which means “kinsman-redeemer.” See Ruth 2:20. is powerful!
My name is Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.
I will take up their cause and rescue them.
I will give the nation rest
but make the people of Babylon tremble.
35“I, Yahweh, have decreed war against the Chaldeans,
against the people of Babylon,
and against her mighty rulers and advisers.
36I have decreed war against her false prophets.
May they lose their wits!
I have decreed war against her warriors;
let them panic.
37War against her horses, her chariots,
and the foreign troops among them!
Their mighty warriors will become frightened like ordinary citizens. # 50:37 Or “like women.” See 51:30.
May the war result in all their treasure being plundered!
38May a drought # 50:38 The root word for “drought” is the same as that for the word for “sword.” This play on words achieved through the use of the homonym is lost in translation. dry up all their rivers! # 50:38 The city of Babylon was famous for its never-ending source of water, the Euphrates River.
For it is a country full of idols,
and their terrors make them delirious.
39Demons and dark spirits # 50:39 Although the Hebrew can be translated “wild beasts [desert creatures] and hyenas [jackals],” many scholars and commentators see them as metaphors for creatures of the demonic realm. One commentator translates this as “ghouls and goblins.” dwell in Babylon,
and ostriches # 50:39 Or “desert owls.” make their home there.
For all generations, no one will live there again.
40As Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns
were destroyed and left uninhabited,
not one person will ever settle in Babylon again,
for I, Yahweh, have spoken.
41“Look! They’re coming! Warriors approach from the north. # 50:41 See Hab. 1:6–8.
From the remote parts of the earth,
great nations and mighty kings are preparing for war.
42Armed with bows and scimitars,
they are merciless and without compassion.
The sound of their armies riding their horses
is like the roaring sea.
The cavalry is in battle formation
and ready to attack you, Fair Babylon.
43The king of Babylon heard the news, and his strength melted away.
Anguish seized him, like the pain of a woman in labor.
44“Behold, like a lion suddenly comes out of the jungle of the Jordan to a rich pastureland, I will suddenly make the people of Babylon run away, and I will appoint a leader that I choose. For who can be compared to me? Who is able to challenge me? Name the ruler # 50:44 Or “shepherd.” who can stand up to me. 45So now, listen to the plans that I have against you, Babylon. Listen to what I have in store for the land of the Chaldeans. Like little lambs, your children will be dragged away before your own eyes, and everyone will be horrified! # 50:45 Or “they will be appalled because of what has happened to the sheep.” 46The earth will shudder at the sound of Babylon’s downfall as their cry echoes to the nations.”
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