Jeremiah 50–51

50TH CHAPTER

A Prophecy against Babylon

¹This is the message that the Lord spoke about Babylon and the land of the Babylonians through the prophet Jeremiah. 

²“Announce this among the nations, and spread the news. 

Raise a flag, and announce it. 

Don’t hide anything. 

Say, ‘Babylon will be captured. 

Bel will be put to shame. 

Marduk will be filled with terror. 

Babylon’s statues will be put to shame. 

Its idols will be filled with terror.’ 

³A nation from the north will attack Babylon 

and destroy its land so that no one will live in it. 

People and animals will run away. 

⁴“In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, 

“the people of Israel and Judah will cry as they go together 

to seek the Lord their God. 

⁵They will ask which road goes to Zion and turn in that direction. 

They will go there to make a permanent agreement with the Lord. 

It will not be forgotten. 

⁶My people have been lost sheep. 

Their shepherds have led them astray. 

They wander around on the mountains. 

They go from mountains to hills. 

They have forgotten their resting place. 

⁷Everyone who finds them eats them. 

Their enemies say, ‘We’re not guilty. 

They have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture. 

They have sinned against the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.’ 

⁸“Run away from Babylon. 

Leave the land of the Babylonians. 

Be like the male goats that lead the flock. 

⁹I am going to stir up an alliance of strong nations from the north 

and bring it against Babylon. 

Those nations will take up positions against Babylon. 

Babylon will be captured from the north. 

Its enemy’s arrows will be like skilled soldiers 

who don’t come back empty-handed. 

¹⁰The Babylonians will become the prize. 

All who loot them will get everything they want,” 

declares the Lord. 

¹¹“You are happy and excited. 

You have looted the people who belong to me. 

You dance around like calves on the grass 

and neigh like stallions. 

¹²But your mother will be greatly ashamed. 

The woman who gave birth to you will be disgraced. 

Babylon, you will be the least important nation. 

You will become a parched desert. 

¹³No one will live in Babylon because of the Lord’s anger. 

It will be completely abandoned. 

Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified 

and hiss at all its wounds. 

¹⁴“Take up your positions around Babylon, all you archers with bows. 

Shoot at it; don’t save any arrows, 

because the people of Babylon have sinned against the Lord. 

¹⁵Shout a war cry against them on every side. 

They’ll surrender. 

Their towers will fall and their walls will be torn down. 

Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take revenge against them. 

Do to them what they did to others. 

¹⁶Don’t allow anyone in Babylon to plant or harvest. 

Everyone will turn to his own people and flee to his own homeland 

because of the enemies’ swords. 

¹⁷“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep that lions have chased. 

The first to devour them was the king of Assyria. 

The last to gnaw at their bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 

¹⁸“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 

I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land 

as I punished the king of Assyria. 

¹⁹I will bring the people of Israel back to their pastures. 

They will eat on Mount Carmel and Mount Bashan. 

They will eat until they are full 

on the mountains of Ephraim and Gilead. 

²⁰In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, 

“people will look for Israel’s crimes, but they will find none. 

They will look for Judah’s sins, but none will be found. 

I will forgive the faithful few whom I have spared. 

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim 

and the people who live in Pekod. 

Claim them for me by killing them with a sword,” 

declares the Lord. 

“Do everything I commanded you. 

²²The noise of battle and great destruction fills the land. 

²³The hammer of the whole earth is broken and shattered. 

See how desolate Babylon is of all the nations! 

²⁴I will set traps for you, Babylon. 

You will be caught, but you won’t know it. 

You will be found and captured 

because you have opposed the Lord. 

²⁵The Lord will open his armory 

and bring out the weapons of his fury, 

because the Almighty Lord of Armies 

has a job to do in the land of the Babylonians. 

²⁶Attack them from a distance, 

open their storehouses, 

pile up their corpses like piles of grain, 

claim them for me by destroying them, 

and don’t leave anyone behind. 

²⁷Kill all their young bulls. 

Let them go to be slaughtered. 

How horrible it will be for them when their time has come, 

the time for them to be punished. 

²⁸Listen! Fugitives and refugees from Babylon 

are coming to Zion to tell about 

the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for his temple. 

²⁹“Call together the archers, the soldiers with bows, against Babylon. 

Set up blockades around it. Don’t let anyone escape. 

Pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done. 

Do to them what they did to others. 

They have disobeyed the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 

³⁰That is why their young men will die in the streets, 

and all their soldiers will be silenced that day,” 

declares the Lord. 

³¹“I’m against you, you arrogant city,” 

declares the Almighty Lord of Armies. 

“Your day has come, the time when I will punish you. 

³²Those arrogant people will stumble and fall, 

and there will be no one to help them get up. 

I will light a fire in their cities 

that will burn up everything around them.” 

³³This is what the Lord of Armies says: 

All the people of Israel and Judah are oppressed. 

All their enemies have captured them. 

They refuse to let them go. 

³⁴Their defender is strong. 

His name is the Lord of Armies. 

He will certainly take up their cause 

in order to bring rest to the land of Israel 

and unrest to the people who live in Babylon. 

³⁵“A sword will kill the Babylonians and everyone who lives in Babylon,” 

declares the Lord. 

“A sword will kill their officials and their wise men. 

³⁶A sword will kill the false prophets. 

They will become fools. 

A sword will kill their soldiers and defeat them. 

³⁷A sword will kill their horses, their chariots, 

and all the foreigners within their ranks. 

They will become women. 

A sword will destroy their treasures, and they will be looted. 

³⁸A drought will diminish their water supply, and it will dry up. 

Babylon is a land of idols, statues that will go crazy with fear. 

³⁹That is why desert animals will live with hyenas. 

Desert owls will also live there. 

It will no longer be inhabited or lived in for generations. 

⁴⁰Babylon will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighboring cities 

when I, God, destroyed them. 

No one will live there. 

No human will stay there,” declares the Lord. 

⁴¹“People are going to come from the north. 

A great nation and many kings will rise from the ends of the earth. 

⁴²They will take hold of bows and spears. 

They will be cruel and have no compassion. 

They will sound like the sea when it roars. 

They will ride horses. 

They are ready for war, ready to attack you, people of Babylon. 

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and he loses courage. 

Anguish will grip him as pain grips a woman in labor. 

⁴⁴I will suddenly chase them from their places 

like a lion coming out of the jungle 

along the Jordan River into pastureland. 

I will appoint over Babylon whomever I choose. 

Who is like me? Who can challenge me? 

Is there any leader who can stand up to me? 

⁴⁵Listen to the plans that the Lord is making against Babylon 

and the things he intends to do to the land of the Babylonians. 

He will surely drag away the little ones of the flock. 

He will surely destroy the pasture because of the Babylonians. 

⁴⁶The earth will quake at the news that Babylon has been captured. 

Its cry will be heard among the nations.” 

51ST CHAPTER

¹This is what the Lord says: 

I will stir up a destructive wind against Babylon 

and against the people who live in Leb Kamai. 

²I will send people to winnow^aBabylon, 

to winnow it and strip its land bare. 

They will attack it from every direction on the day of trouble. 

³Have the archers bend their bows. 

Have them put on their armor. 

Don’t spare Babylon’s young men. 

Completely destroy its whole army. 

⁴Babylon’s soldiers will fall down badly wounded in their streets. 

They will lie dead in their own land. 

⁵Israel and Judah haven’t been abandoned by their God, the Lord of Armies, although their land is guilty of abandoning the Holy One of Israel. 

⁶Run away from Babylon! 

Run for your lives! 

You shouldn’t die because of Babylon’s crimes. 

This is the time for the vengeance of the Lord. 

He will pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done. 

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand. 

It made the whole world drunk. 

The nations drank its wine. 

That is why the nations have gone insane. 

⁸Babylon will suddenly fall and be shattered. 

Cry for it. 

Bring medicine for its pain. 

Maybe it can be healed. 

⁹We wanted to heal Babylon, but it couldn’t be healed. 

Let’s abandon it and go to our own land. 

God has judged Babylon. 

Its judgment is complete. 

¹⁰The Lord has brought about our victory. 

Let’s announce in Zion what the Lord our God has done. 

¹¹Sharpen the arrows; fill the quivers. 

The Lord will stir up the spirit of the kings of the Medes 

because his plan is to destroy Babylon. 

The Lord will avenge his temple. 

¹²Raise your battle flag in front of the walls of Babylon. 

Strengthen the guards. 

Station watchmen. 

Prepare ambushes. 

The Lord will carry out his plans 

against the people who live in Babylon. 

¹³Babylon, you live beside many rivers and are rich with treasures, 

but your end has come. 

The thread of your life has been cut off. 

¹⁴The Lord of Armies has taken an oath on himself: 

“I will certainly fill you with many enemy armies. 

They will swarm like locusts. 

People will shout their victory over you.” 

¹⁵The Lord made the earth by his power. 

He set up the world by his wisdom. 

He stretched out heaven by his understanding. 

¹⁶When he thunders, the water in the sky roars. 

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. 

He sends lightning with the rain. 

He brings wind out of his storehouses. 

¹⁷Everyone…