Jeremiah 49:20–50:45

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 declaration—

one will search for Israel’s iniquity,

but there will be none,

and for Judah’s sins,

but they will not be found,

for I will forgive^k those I leave as a remnant.^l

THE INVASION OF BABYLON

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim,

and those living in Pekod.

Put them to the sword;

completely destroy them—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

do everything I have commanded you.^m

²²The sound of war is in the landⁿ —

a crushing blow!

²³How the hammer of the whole earth

is cut down and smashed!

What a horror Babylon has become

among the nations!^o

²⁴Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,^p

but you did not even know it.

You were found and captured

because you pitted yourself against the Lord.

²⁵The Lord opened his armory

and brought out his weapons of wrath,^q

because it is a task of the Lord God of Armies

in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from the most distant places.^A

Open her granaries;

pile her up like mounds of grain

and completely destroy her.

Leave her no survivors.

²⁷Put all her young bulls to the sword;

let them go down to the slaughter.

Woe to them because their day has come,

the time of their punishment.^r

THE HUMILIATION OF BABYLON

²⁸There is a voice of fugitives and refugees

from the land of Babylon.

The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,

the vengeance for his temple.^s

²⁹Summon the archers to Babylon,

all who string the bow;

camp all around her; let none escape.

Repay her according to her deeds;^t

just as she has done, do the same to her,

for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,

against the Holy One of Israel.^u

³⁰Therefore, her young men will fall

in her public squares;

all the warriors will perish in that day.

This is the Lord’s declaration.^a

³¹Look, I am against you, you arrogant one—

this is the declaration of

the Lord God of Armies—

for your day has come,

the time when I will punish you.

³²The arrogant will stumble and fall^b

with no one to pick him up.

I will set fire to his cities,

and it will consume everything around him.^c

THE DESOLATION OF BABYLON

³³This is what the Lord of Armies says:

Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.

All their captors hold them fast;^d

they refuse to release them.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong;

the Lord of Armies is his name.

He will fervently champion their cause^e

so that he might bring rest to the earth

but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.^f

³⁵A sword is over the Chaldeans—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

against those who live in Babylon,

against her officials, and against her sages.

³⁶A sword is against the diviners,

and they will act foolishly.

A sword is against her heroic warriors,

and they will be terrified.

³⁷A sword is against his horses and chariots

and against all the foreigners among them,^g

and they will be like women.^h

A sword is against her treasuries,

and they will be plundered.

³⁸A drought will come on her waters,

and they will be dried up.

For it is a land of carved images,

and they go mad because of terrifying things.^Ai

³⁹Therefore, desert creatures^B will live with hyenas,

and ostriches will also live in her.

It will never again be inhabited

or lived in through all generations.^j

⁴⁰Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah

and their neighboring towns^k —

this is the Lord’s declaration—

so no one will live there;

no human being will stay in it even temporarily

as a temporary resident.^l

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