Jeremiah 50

Babylon and its gods

1The word the LORD spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet: 2“Announce it among the nations; proclaim it!
Raise a signal flag; proclaim it, hide nothing!
Say, ‘Babylon is captured!
Bel is disgraced; Merodach is shattered.
Her images are disgraced;
her idols are shattered.’ 3A nation has come against her from the north.
It will turn her land into a desolation,
with no one living there.
People and animals alike
have fled and gone.

Lost sheep and their return

4In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD,
“the people of Israel and Judah will come together.
They will walk along weeping
and seek the LORD their God. 5They will ask the way to Zion,
their faces turned toward her:
‘Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD
in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.’ 6My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds led them astray,
turning them loose on the mountains.
They wandered from mountain to hill
and forgot their resting place. 7Everyone who found them devoured them.
Their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty,
because they sinned against the LORD,
the pasture of righteousness,
the LORD, the hope of their ancestors.’ 8Flee from Babylon;
leave the land of the Chaldeans.
Be like male goats at the head of the flock. 9I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon
an assembly of great nations from the north.
They will line up against her;
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows are like a skilled warrior
who does not return empty-handed. 10Chaldea will become plunder;
all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD. 11“Though you rejoice and exult,
you who pillage my inheritance,
though you frisk like a heifer threshing grain
and neigh like stallions, 12your mother will be deeply ashamed;
the one who bore you will be disgraced.
Look! She is last among the nations—
a wilderness, a dry and barren land. 13Because of the LORD's wrath, no one will live there;
she will be wholly desolate.
Everyone passing Babylon will be appalled
and hiss at all her wounds.

Repayment for Babylon

14Take your positions all around Babylon,
all you who draw the bow.
Shoot at her; spare no arrows,
for she has sinned against the LORD. 15Raise the battle cry against her on every side!
She has given her hand in surrender.
Her foundations have fallen;
her walls are torn down.
This is the LORD's vengeance.
Take vengeance on her;
do to her what she has done. 16Cut off the sower from Babylon
and the one who wields the sickle at harvest.
Before the oppressor's sword,
each will turn to their own people;
each will flee to their own land. 17Israel is a scattered sheep
driven away by lions.
First the king of Assyria devoured it;
now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
has gnawed its bones.” 18Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I will call the king of Babylon and his land to account, as I called the king of Assyria to account. 19I will bring Israel back to its pasture.
It will graze on Carmel and Bashan;
in Ephraim's hills and Gilead it will have its fill. 20In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD,
“Israel's guilt will be sought, but there will be none;
Judah's sins will not be found.
For I will forgive those I leave as a remnant. 21Advance against the land of Merathaim
and the inhabitants of Pekod.
Pursue them with the sword; devote them to destruction,” declares the LORD.
“Do everything I have commanded you. 22The sound of battle in the land!
Great destruction! 23How the hammer of the whole earth
has been cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations! 24I set a trap for you, Babylon,
and you were caught without knowing it.
You were found and seized,
for you challenged the LORD. 25The LORD has opened his armory
and brought out the weapons of his wrath.
The Lord GOD of hosts has work to do
in the land of the Chaldeans. 26Come against her from every side.
Open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain.
Devote her to destruction;
leave her no remnant. 27Slaughter all her bulls;
let them go down to the killing place.
Woe to them! Their day has come,
the time of their reckoning. 28Listen! Fugitives and survivors
from the land of Babylon
announce in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,
vengeance for his temple. 29Summon archers against Babylon,
all who draw the bow.
Camp all around her;
let no one escape.
Repay her for her deeds;
do to her everything she has done.
For she has acted arrogantly against the LORD,
against the Holy One of Israel. 30Therefore her young men will fall in her squares,
and all her fighting men will be silenced that day,”
declares the LORD.

Arrogance and the Redeemer

31“I am against you, Arrogance,”
declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
“Your day has come,
the time when I call you to account. 32Arrogance will stumble and fall,
with no one to raise it.
I will set its towns on fire,
and the fire will consume everything around it.” 33This is what the LORD of hosts says:
“The people of Israel and Judah are oppressed together.
All their captors hold them fast
and refuse to release them. 34Their Redeemer is strong;
the LORD of hosts is his name.
He will vigorously plead their case,
to give the earth rest
and make Babylon's inhabitants tremble. 35A sword against the Chaldeans,” declares the LORD,
“against Babylon's inhabitants,
her officials and her wise men! 36A sword against the false diviners—
let them become fools!
A sword against her warriors—
let them be shattered! 37A sword against her horses and chariots,
against all the mixed troops within her—
they will become women!
A sword against her treasures—
let them be plundered! 38A drought against her waters—
let them dry up!
For this is a land of carved images,
and they go mad over their fearsome idols. 39So desert creatures and howling animals will live there,
and ostriches will make their home there.
It will never again be inhabited,
never settled from generation to generation. 40As when God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors,” declares the LORD, “no one will live there; no human being will settle there.

A people from the north

41“Look! A people comes from the north,
a great nation and many kings
stirred up from the ends of the earth. 42They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their sound roars like the sea;
they ride on horses,
arrayed as one for battle against you,
daughter Babylon. 43Babylon's king hears the report,
and his hands go limp.
Distress grips him,
pain like a woman giving birth. 44Look!
Like a lion he comes up from the Jordan's thickets
against a lasting pasture.
In a moment I will drive them away from it.
Who is the chosen one I will appoint over it?
Who is like me?
Who can summon me?
What shepherd can stand before me? 45So hear the LORD's plan against Babylon,
what he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans:
Even the smallest of the flock will be dragged away;
he will lay the pasture waste because of them. 46At the sound of Babylon's capture the earth shakes;
a cry is heard among the nations.”