Jeremiah 50:1-Jeremiah 51:58 - A Message Concerning Babylon
1 The word the Lord spoke about Babylon,
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proclaim and raise up a signal flag;
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say: Babylon is captured;
Bel
Marduk is devastated;
her idols are put to shame;
her false gods, devastated.
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it—
both man and beast will escape.
this is the Lord’s declaration—
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,
weeping as they come,
and will seek the Lord their God.
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves
in an everlasting covenant
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their shepherds have led them astray,
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.
They have wandered from mountain to hill;
they have forgotten their resting place.
Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord,
their righteous grazing land,
the hope of their ancestors,
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depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled
who does not return empty-handed.
all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
because you sing in triumph—
you who plundered My inheritance—
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions,
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all
a dry land, a wilderness,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be horrified
and scoff because of all her wounds.
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,
take out your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,
each will turn to his own people,
each will flee to his own land.
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The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last one who crushed his bones
was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
18 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to punish the king of Babylon
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and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.
this is the Lord’s declaration—
one will search for Israel’s guilt,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive
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and against those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
completely destroy them—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
do everything I have commanded you.
a great destruction.
is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you fought against the Lord.
and brought out His weapons of wrath,
because it is a task of the Lord God of Hosts
in the land of the Chaldeans.
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.
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from the land of Babylon
announcing in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
the vengeance for His temple.
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Hosts—
because your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.”
33 This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
All their captors hold them fast;
they refuse to release them.
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
He will fervently plead their case
so that He might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.
this is the Lord’s declaration—
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
and against all the foreigners among them,
and they will be like women.
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images,
and they go mad because of terrifying things.
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and ostriches will also live in her.
It will never again be inhabited
or lived in through all generations.
and their neighboring towns
this is the Lord’s declaration—
so no one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it
as a temporary resident.
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A great nation and many kings will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Babylon.
and his hands fall helpless.
Distress has seized him—
pain, like a woman in labor.
44 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets
45 Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them. 46 At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.
1 This is what the Lord says:
and against the population of Leb-qamai.
who will scatter her and strip her land bare,
for they will come against her
from every side in the day of disaster.
don’t let him put on
Don’t spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!
those who were pierced through, in her streets.
by their God, the Lord of Hosts,
though their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.
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save your lives, each of you!
Don’t perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance—
He will pay her what she deserves.
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore, the nations go mad.
Wail for her;
get balm
perhaps she can be healed.
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but she could not be healed.
Abandon her!
Let each of us go to his own land,
for her judgment extends to the sky
and reaches as far as the clouds.
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come, let’s tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has accomplished.
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Fill the quivers!
The Lord has put it into the mind
of the kings of the Medes
because His plan is aimed at Babylon
to destroy her,
for it is the Lord’s vengeance,
vengeance for His temple.
against the walls of Babylon;
fortify the watch post;
set the watchmen in place;
prepare the ambush.
For the Lord has both planned and accomplished
what He has threatened
against those who live in Babylon.
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
your life thread is cut.
14 The Lord of Hosts has sworn by Himself:
and they will sing the victory song over you.
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established the world
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.
the waters in the heavens are in turmoil,
and He causes the clouds
to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from His storehouses.
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Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image,
for his cast images are a lie;
there is no breath in them.
At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.
because He is the One who formed all things.
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
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My weapons of war.
With you I will smash nations;
with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.
with you I will smash the old man and the youth;
with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.
with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team.
With you I will smash governors and officials.
24 “I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion before your very eyes.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
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this is the Lord’s declaration—
you devastate the whole earth.
I will stretch out My hand against you,
roll you down from the cliffs,
and turn you into a charred mountain.
or a foundation stone from you,
because you will become desolate forever.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
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blow a ram’s horn among the nations;
set apart the nations against her.
Summon kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a marshal against her;
bring up horses like a swarm
the kings of Media,
her governors and all her officials,
and all the lands they rule.
because the Lord’s intentions against Babylon stand:
to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited desolation.
they sit in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,
her gate bars are shattered.
and herald to meet herald,
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his city has been captured
from end to end.
the marshes set on fire,
and the soldiers are terrified.
33 For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:
at the time it is trampled.
In just a little while her harvest time will come.
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he has crushed me.
He has set me aside like an empty dish;
he has swallowed me like a sea monster;
he filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has vomited me out,”
“Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon.
Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
and take vengeance on your behalf;
I will dry up her sea
and make her fountain run dry.
a jackals’ den,
a desolation and an object of scorn,
without inhabitant.
they will growl like lion cubs.
and I will make them drunk so that they revel.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
like rams together with male goats.
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the praise
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!
she is covered with its turbulent waves.
a dry and arid land,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being passes through.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon’s wall will fall.
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Save your lives, each of you,
from the Lord’s burning anger.
when the report is proclaimed in the land,
for the report will come one year,
and then another the next year.
There will be violence in the land
with ruler against ruler.
when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.
Her entire land will suffer shame,
and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
will shout for joy
because the destroyers from the north
will come against her.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
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even as the slain of all the earth fell
because of Babylon.
go and do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.
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because we have heard insults.
Humiliation covers our faces
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the Lord’s temple.
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this is the Lord’s declaration—
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
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The sound of great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans!
He will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like abundant waters;
the tumult of their voice resounds,