Jeremiah 50
1The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.
and set up a standard;
publish, and don’t conceal:
say, ‘Babylon has been taken,
Bel is disappointed,
Merodach is dismayed!
Her images are disappointed.
Her idols are dismayed.’
which will make her land desolate,
and no one will dwell in it.
They have fled.
They are gone,
both man and animal.
“the children of Israel will come,
they and the children of Judah together;
they will go on their way weeping,
and will seek Yahweh their God.
saying, ‘Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant
that will not be forgotten.’
Their shepherds have caused them to go astray.
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill.
They have forgotten their resting place.
Their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty,
because they have sinned against Yahweh,
the habitation of righteousness,
even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.’
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans,
and be as the male goats before the flocks.
and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country;
and they will set themselves in array against her.
She will be taken from there.
Their arrows will be as of an expert mighty man.
None of them will return in vain.
All who prey on her will be satisfied,” says Yahweh.
because you rejoice,
O you who plunder my heritage,
because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain,
and neigh as strong horses;
She who bore you will be confounded.
Behold, she will be the least of the nations,
a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
but she will be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished,
and hiss at all her plagues.
all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her.
Spare no arrows;
for she has sinned against Yahweh.
She has submitted herself.
Her bulwarks have fallen.
Her walls have been thrown down,
for it is the vengeance of Yahweh.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, do to her.
and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest.
For fear of the oppressing sword,
they will each return to their own people,
and they will each flee to their own land.
The lions have driven him away.
First, the king of Assyria devoured him,
and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”
18Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
as I have punished the king of Assyria.
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan.
His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
“the iniquity of Israel will be sought for,
and there will be none,
also the sins of Judah,
and they won’t be found;
for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.
even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Kill and utterly destroy after them,” says Yahweh,
“and do according to all that I have commanded you.
and of great destruction.
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
and you are also taken, Babylon,
and you weren’t aware.
You are found,
and also caught,
because you have fought against Yahweh.
and has brought out the weapons of his indignation;
for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
Open her storehouses.
Cast her up as heaps.
Destroy her utterly.
Let nothing of her be left.
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them! For their day has come,
the time of their visitation.
to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God,
the vengeance of his temple.
all those who bend the bow.
Encamp against her all around.
Let none of it escape.
Pay her back according to her work.
According to all that she has done, do to her;
for she has been proud against Yahweh,
against the Holy One of Israel.
All her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says Yahweh.
“for your day has come,
the time that I will visit you.
and no one will raise him up.
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour all who are around him.”
All who took them captive hold them fast.
They refuse to let them go.
Yahweh of Armies is his name.
He will thoroughly plead their cause,
that he may give rest to the earth,
and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
“and on the inhabitants of Babylon,
on her princes,
and on her wise men.
and they will become fools.
A sword is on her mighty men,
and they will be dismayed.
on their chariots,
and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her;
and they will become as women.
A sword is on her treasures,
and they will be robbed.
and they will be dried up;
for it is a land of engraved images,
and they are mad over idols.
with the wolves will dwell there.
The ostriches will dwell therein;
and it will be inhabited no more forever;
neither will it be lived in from generation to generation.
“so no man will dwell there,
neither will any son of man live therein.
and a great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
They are cruel, and have no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea.
They ride on horses,
everyone set in array,
as a man to the battle,
against you, daughter of Babylon.
and his hands become feeble:
anguish has taken hold of him,
pains as of a woman in labor.
from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation;
for I will suddenly make them run away from it.
Whoever is chosen,
I will appoint him over it;
for who is like me?
Who will appoint me a time?
Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?”
that he has taken against Babylon;
and his purposes,
that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely they will drag them away,
even the little ones of the flock.
Surely he will make their habitation desolate over them.
and the cry is heard among the nations.