Jeremiah 49–50

PROPHECIES AGAINST AMMON

49About the Ammonites,^b this is what the Lord says:

Does Israel have no sons?

Is he without an heir?

Why then has Milcom^BC dispossessed Gad^c

and his people settled in their cities?

²Therefore look, the days are coming^d —

this is the Lord’s declaration—

when I will make the shout of battle^e heard

against Rabbah^f of the Ammonites.

It will become a desolate mound,

and its surrounding villages will be set on fire.

Israel will dispossess their dispossessors,

says the Lord.

³Wail, Heshbon,^g for Ai is devastated;

cry out, daughters of Rabbah!

Clothe yourselves with sackcloth,^h and lament;

run back and forth within your walls,^D

because Milcom will go into exile

together with his priests and officials.ⁱ

⁴Why do you boast about your valleys,

your flowing valley,^E

you faithless daughter—

you who trust in your treasures

and say, “Who can attack me?”

⁵Look, I am about to bring terror on you^j —

this is the declaration of the Lord God of Armies—

from all those around you.

You will be banished, each person headlong,

with no one to gather up the fugitives.

⁶But after that, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites.^k

This is the Lord’s declaration.

PROPHECIES AGAINST EDOM

⁷About Edom,^l this is what the Lord of Armies says:

Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?^m

Has counsel perished from the prudent?

Has their wisdom rotted away?ⁿ

⁸Run! Turn back! Lie low,

residents of Dedan,^o

for I will bring Esau’s calamity on him^p

at the time I punish him.^q

⁹If grape harvesters came to you,

wouldn’t they leave a few grapes?^r

Were thieves to come in the night,

they would destroy only what they wanted.^s

¹⁰But I will strip Esau bare;

I will uncover his secret places.^t

He will try to hide,^u but he will be unable.

His descendants will be destroyed

along with his relatives and neighbors.

He will exist no longer.^v

¹¹Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them;

let your widows trust in me.^w

¹²For this is what the Lord says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, for you must drink it too. ¹³For by myself I have sworn”^x —this is the Lord’s declaration—“Bozrah^A will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and an example for cursing, and all its surrounding cities will become ruins forever.”^y

¹⁴I have heard an envoy from the Lord;

a messenger has been sent among the nations:

Assemble yourselves to come against her.

Rise up for war!

¹⁵I will certainly make you insignificant among the nations,

despised among humanity.

¹⁶As to the terror you cause,^B

your arrogant heart has deceived you.

You who live in the clefts of the rock,^C

you who occupy the mountain summit,

though you elevate your nest like the eagles,

even from there I will bring you down.

This is the Lord’s declaration.^a

¹⁷“Edom will become a desolation. Everyone who passes by her will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds.^{b 18}As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,”^c says the Lord, “no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.^d

¹⁹“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets^D of the Jordan to the watered grazing land.^e I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me?^f Who will issue me a summons?^g Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”^h

²⁰Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Edom and the strategies he has devised against the people of Teman:ⁱ The flock’s little lambs will certainly be dragged away,^j and their grazing land will be made desolate because of them.^{k 21}At the sound of their fall the earth will quake;^l the sound of her cry will be heard at the Red Sea.^{m 22}Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.ⁿ

PROPHECIES AGAINST DAMASCUS

²³About Damascus:^o

Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,^p

for they have heard a bad report and are agitated,

like^A the anxious sea that cannot be calmed.

²⁴Damascus has become weak;

she has turned to run;

panic has gripped her.

Distress and labor pains have seized her

like a woman in labor.^q

²⁵How can the city of praise not be abandoned,^r

the town that brings me joy?

²⁶Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares;

all the warriors will perish in that day.

This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.^s

²⁷I will set fire to the wall of Damascus;

it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.^t

PROPHECIES AGAINST KEDAR AND HAZOR

²⁸About Kedar^u and the kingdoms of Hazor, which King Nebuchadnezzar^v of Babylon defeated, this is what the Lord says:

Rise up, attack Kedar,

and destroy the people of the east!

²⁹They will take their tents and their flocks

along with their tent curtains and all their equipment.

They will take their camels for themselves.

They will call out to them,

“Terror is on every side!”^w

³⁰Run! Escape quickly! Lie low,

residents of Hazor—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

has drawn up a plan against you;

he has devised a strategy against you.

³¹Rise up, attack a nation at ease,

one living in security.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

They have no doors, not even a gate bar;

they live alone.^x

³²Their camels will become plunder,

and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil.^y

I will scatter them to the wind in every direction,

those who clip the hair on their temples;

I will bring calamity on them across all their borders.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

³³Hazor will become a jackals’ den,^z

a desolation forever.

No one will live there;

no human being will stay in it even temporarily.^aa

PROPHECIES AGAINST ELAM

³⁴This is the word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam^A at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah.^{ab 35}This is what the Lord of Armies says:

I am about to shatter Elam’s bow,^a

the source^B of their might.

³⁶I will bring the four winds against Elam

from the four corners of the heavens,

and I will scatter them to all these winds.

There will not be a nation

to which Elam’s banished ones will not go.

³⁷I will devastate Elam before their enemies,

before those who intend to take their lives.

I will bring disaster on them,

my burning anger.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

I will send the sword after them^b

until I finish them off.

³⁸I will set my throne in Elam,

and I will destroy the king and officials from there.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

³⁹Yet, in the last days,

I will restore the fortunes of Elam.^c

This is the Lord’s declaration.

PROPHECIES AGAINST BABYLON

50This is the word the Lord spoke about Babylon,^d the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

²Announce to the nations;

proclaim and raise up a signal flag;^e

proclaim, and hide nothing.

Say, “Babylon is captured;

Bel^f is put to shame;

Marduk is terrified.”

Her idols are put to shame;

her false gods, devastated.

³For a nation from the north will attack her;^g

it will make her land desolate.

No one will be living in it—

both people and animals will escape.^Ch

⁴In those days and at that time—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

the Israelites and Judeans will come together,ⁱ

weeping as they come,

and will seek the Lord their God.^j

⁵They will ask about Zion,

turning their faces to this road.

They will come and join themselves^D to the Lord

in a permanent covenant^k that will never be forgotten.

⁶My people were lost sheep;^l

their shepherds led them astray,^m

guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.ⁿ

They wandered from mountain to hill;

they forgot their resting place.

⁷Whoever found them devoured them.

Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;

instead, they have sinned against the Lord,

their righteous grazing land,^o

the hope of their ancestors,^p the Lord.”

⁸Escape from Babylon;^q

depart from the Chaldeans’ land.

Be like the rams that lead the flock.

⁹For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon^r

an assembly of great nations from the north country.

They will line up in battle formation against her;^s

from there she will be captured.

Their arrows will be like a skilled^A warrior

who does not return empty-handed.

¹⁰The Chaldeans will become plunder;

all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

¹¹Because you rejoice,

because you celebrate—

you who plundered my inheritance—

because you frolic like a young cow treading grain

and neigh like stallions,^t

¹²your mother^u will be utterly humiliated;

she who bore you will be put to shame.

Look! She will lag behind all^B the nations—

an arid wilderness, a desert.^v

¹³Because of the Lord’s wrath,

she will not be inhabited;

she will become a desolation, every bit of her.

Everyone who passes through Babylon

will be appalled

and scoff because of all her wounds.^a

¹⁴Line up in battle formation around Babylon,

all you archers!

Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,

for she has sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵Raise a war cry against her on every side!

She has thrown up her hands in surrender;

her defense towers have fallen;

her walls are demolished.^b

Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,^c

take your vengeance on her;

as she has done, do the same to her.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon

as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.

Because of the oppressor’s sword,^d

each will turn to his own people,^e

each will flee to his own land.

THE RETURN OF GOD’S PEOPLE

¹⁷Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions.^f

The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;

the last who crushed his bones

was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.^g

¹⁸Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon^h and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will return Israel to his grazing land,ⁱ

and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;

he will be satisfied

in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.^j

²⁰In those days and at that time—

this is the Lord’s…