Jeremiah 50:1-Jeremiah 51:58 - A Message Concerning Babylon

¹ This is the message that the LORD spoke through the prophet Jeremiah about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans.

² "Declare and proclaim among the nations. Lift up a banner and proclaim. Don't conceal anything. Say, "Babylon will be captured. Bel will be disgraced, and Marduk will be destroyed. Her idols will be disgraced, and her filthy images will be destroyed.' ³ For a nation from the north will go up against her. It will make her land into an object of horror, and no one will live in it. Both people and animals will wander off, and they'll leave. ⁴ In those days, and at that time," declares the LORD, "the people of Israel will come together with the people of Judah. They'll be weeping as they travel along, and they'll be seeking the LORD their God. ⁵ They'll ask the way to Zion, turning their faces in that direction. They'll come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that won't be forgotten.

⁶ My people have become lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them toward the mountains. They go from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. ⁷ All who find them devour them, but their enemies say, "We're not guilty, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of righteousness, the LORD, the hope of their ancestors.'

⁸ Move away from the middle of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans. Be like male goats at the head of the flock. ⁹ Indeed, I'm going to stir up and bring against Babylon a great company of nations from the land of the north. They'll deploy for battle against her, and from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior; they won't miss their targets. ¹⁰ The Chaldeans will become plunder, and all who plunder them will get more than enough," declares the LORD. ¹¹ "Though you rejoice, though you exult, you plunderers of my inheritance, though you skip around like a heifer in the grass and neigh like stallions, ¹² your mother will be greatly devastated, she who gave birth to you will be ashamed. She will become the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. ¹³ Because of the anger of the LORD she won't be inhabited, but will be utterly devastated. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will scoff because of all her wounds. ¹⁴ Deploy the troops all around Babylon. All who bend the bow, shoot at her and spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD. ¹⁵ Raise a battle cry against her on every side. She has surrendered, her pillars have fallen, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the LORD. Take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her. ¹⁶ Eliminate from Babylon the one who plants seeds and the one who uses the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor's sword, let each one turn toward his own people and flee to his own land."

¹⁷ "Israel is a scattered flock, driven out by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria, and then afterward King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnawed his bones.

¹⁸ Therefore this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Look, I'm about to judge the king of Babylon and his land, just as I've judged the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ I'll bring Israel back to his pasture. He will graze on Carmel, on Bashan, on Mt. Ephraim, and on Gilead his hunger will be satisfied. ²⁰ In those days and at that time,' declares the LORD, "the iniquity of Israel will be searched for, but there will be none; and the sin of Judah, but none will be found, because I'll pardon those I leave as a remnant.'"

²¹ "Go up against the land of Merathaim and the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill them with swords, and completely destroy them," declares the LORD, "and do everything that I've commanded you. ²² The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction. ²³ How the hammer of all the earth is cut off and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! ²⁴ I'll set a trap for you, and you will be caught, Babylon, but you don't realize it. You will be found and also seized, because you challenged the LORD! ²⁵ "The LORD will open his armory, and bring out the weapons of his anger. Indeed, a work of the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will be in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ Come to her from afar. Open up her barns. Pile her up like heaps of grain, and completely destroy her. Don't leave any survivors. ²⁷ Put all her bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them because their day has come, the time of their judgment.

²⁸ "The sound of fugitives and refugees will come from the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his Temple. ²⁹ "Summon many to Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Camp all around her, let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds. Do to her just as she has done. For she has behaved arrogantly against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore, her warriors will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day," declares the LORD. ³¹ "Look, I'm against you, arrogant one," declares the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies. "Indeed your day is coming, the time of your judgment. ³² The arrogant one will stumble and fall, and there will be no one to lift him up. I'll set fire to his cities, and it will devour everything around him."

³³ This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "The people of Israel are oppressed, along with the people of Judah. All their captors have held on to them and refused to let them go. ³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is his name. He will vigorously plead their case in order to bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon. ³⁵ A sword against the Chaldeans," declares the LORD, "and against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her officials and her wise men. ³⁶ A sword against the diviners. They'll be made fools. A sword against her warriors. They'll be shattered. ³⁷ A sword against her horses, against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst. They'll become women. A sword against her treasures. They'll be plundered. ³⁸ A drought against her waters. They'll dry up. For it's a land of idols, and they go mad over their terrifying images.

³⁹ Therefore the desert creatures along with hyenas will live there. They'll live in it with ostriches, but people won't live in it again. They won't inhabit it from generation to generation. ⁴⁰ Just as when God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors," declares the LORD, "so also no one will live there. No human being will reside in it.

⁴¹ "Look, people are coming from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the ends of the earth. ⁴² They grab bow and spear. They're cruel and show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, as they ride on horses deployed like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Babylon. ⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands hang limp. Distress has seized him, like a woman in labor.

⁴⁴ "Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

⁴⁵ Therefore, hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the strategy that he devised against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely they'll drag the little ones of the flock away. Surely their pasture will be desolate because of them. ⁴⁶ At the shout that Babylon has been seized, the earth will be shaken, and the cry will be heard among the nations.

¹ This is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to stir up a destroying wind against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-kamai. ² I'll send foreigners to Babylon, and they'll winnow her, and devastate her land. They'll come against her from every side on the day of her disaster. ³ Don't let the archer bend the bow; don't let him rise up in his armor. Don't spare her young men. Completely destroy her entire army. ⁴ The slain will fall in the land of Chaldea, pierced through in her streets. ⁵ Indeed, Israel and Judah haven't been abandoned by their God, by the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, although their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel."

⁶ Flee from Babylon, and each of you, escape with your life! Don't be destroyed because of her guilt, for it's time for the LORD's vengeance. He is paying back what is due to her. ⁷ Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine, therefore the nations have gone mad. ⁸ Suddenly, Babylon fell down and was shattered. Wail for her! Bring balm for her wound, perhaps she will be healed.

⁹ We tried to heal Babylon, but she wouldn't be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and is lifted up to the sky.

¹⁰ The LORD will vindicate us. Come! Let us declare the work of the LORD our God in Zion.

¹¹ Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes he has decided to destroy Babylon. Indeed, it's the LORD's vengeance, vengeance for his Temple. ¹² Lift up the battle standard against Babylon's walls. Strengthen the guard; post watchmen. Set men in position for an ambush. For the LORD will both plan and carry out what he has declared against the inhabitants of Babylon. ¹³ You who live beside many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, your life thread is cut.

¹⁴ The LORD of the Heavenly Armies has sworn by himself: "I'll surely fill you with soldiers like a swarm of locusts, and they'll sing songs of victory over you."

¹⁵ He made the earth by his power. He established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he spread out the heavens. ¹⁶ When his voice sounds, there is thunder from the waters of heaven, and he makes clouds rise up from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings wind out of his storehouses.

¹⁷ Everyone is stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his own idols, for his images are false, and there is no life in them. ¹⁸ They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish. ¹⁹ The Portion of Jacob is not like these. He made everything, including the tribe of his inheritance. The LORD of the Heavenly Armies is his name.

²⁰ "You are my war-club and weapons of war. I'll smash nations with you and destroy kingdoms with you. ²¹ I'll smash the horse and its rider with you. I'll smash the chariot and its rider with you. ²² I'll smash man and woman with you. I'll smash old man and young boy with you. I'll smash young man and young woman with you. ²³ I'll smash the shepherd and his flock with you. I'll smash the farmer and his team of oxen with you. I'll smash governors and officials with you.

²⁴ "Before your eyes I'll repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they did in Zion," declares the LORD.

²⁵ "Look, I'm against you, destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth," declares the LORD. "I'll stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags. And I'll make you a burned-out mountain. ²⁶ They won't get a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will be a wasteland forever," declares the LORD.

²⁷ Lift up a battle standard in the land. Blow a trumpet among the nations. Consecrate the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz against her. Appoint a commander against her, bring up horses like bristling locusts. ²⁸ Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors, their prefects, and every land under their domination. ²⁹ The land quakes and writhes because the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand firm, to make the land of Babylon a waste without inhabitants. ³⁰ The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting. They stay in their strongholds; their strength is dried up; they have become like women. Her buildings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken. ³¹ One runner runs to meet another runner, and one messenger to meet another messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been seized from one end to the other. ³² The fords have been captured, and the marshes burned with fire. The soldiers are terrified.

³³ For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it's pounded down. In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come."

³⁴ "King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me. He set me down like an empty vessel. He swallowed me like a monster, and filled his belly with my delicacies. Then he washed me away. ³⁵ May the violence done to me and my flesh be on Babylon," says the inhabitant of Zion. "May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea," says Jerusalem.

³⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to argue your case and take vengeance for you. I'll dry up her sea and make her fountain dry. ³⁷ Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a refuge for jackals, a desolate place and an object of scorn. ³⁸ They'll roar together like young lions; they'll growl like lion cubs. ³⁹ When they're excited I'll serve them their banquet, and make them drunk until they're merry. They'll sleep forever and won't wake up," declares the LORD. ⁴⁰ "I'll bring them down like lambs for the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

⁴¹ "How Sheshak will be captured, and the prince of all the earth seized! How Babylon will become an object of horror among the nations! ⁴² The sea will come up against Babylon, and she will be covered by wave upon wave. ⁴³ Her cities will become an object of horror, a dry land and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no human being passes. ⁴⁴ I'll punish Bel in Babylon, and I'll make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth. The nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵ "Come out of her, my people, flee for your lives from the LORD's anger! ⁴⁶ Do this now, so your heart does not grow faint, and so you don't become frightened because of the rumors that are heard in the land a rumor comes one year and then after it another rumor comes the next year about violence in the land and one ruler against another ruler. ⁴⁷ Therefore, look, days are coming when I'll punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst. ⁴⁸ Then the heavens and the earth and all that are in them will shout for joy about Babylon because the destroyers will come out of the north against her," declares the LORD.

⁴⁹ "So Babylon will fall because of the slain of Israel, even as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. ⁵⁰ Go, you who escaped the sword! Don't stand around! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹ We have been put to shame because we have heard insults. Disgrace has covered our faces because foreigners have come into the Holy Places of the LORD's house.

⁵² "Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan. ⁵³ Though Babylon should reach up to the heavens and fortify her high fortresses, from me destroyers will come to her," declares the LORD.

⁵⁴ "The sound of a cry is coming from Babylon, great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans. ⁵⁵ For the LORD is destroying Babylon, and he will make the loud sounds from her disappear. Their waves will roar like many waters, the noise of their voices will sound forth.