LEB JER Chapter 50

A Message Concerning Babylon

50 The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet:

• 2 and lift up a banner.
• Proclaim, you must not conceal it.
• Say, ‘Babylon is captured,
  • Bel is ashamed,
  • Merodach is filled with terror,
• her idols are ashamed,
  • her idols are filled with terror.
• 3 the north. It will make her land as a horror,
  • and an inhabitant will not be in her.
• From humans[fn] to animals[fn] they all will wander off.
  • They will go away.
  • 4 [fn] Yahweh, “the people[fn] of Israel will come,
  • they and the people[fn] of Judah together.
• [fn] they will go,
  • and Yahweh their God they will seek.
  • 5 the way to Zion, turning their faces there.
• They will come and join themselves to Yahweh
  • by[fn] that will not be forgotten.
  • 6  their shepherds have caused them to go astray.
• They led them away to the mountains.
• From mountain to hill they have gone,
  • they have forgotten their resting place.
  • 7 those who found them have devoured them. And their foes have said, ‘We are not guilty,
• [fn] they have sinned against Yahweh, the[fn]
  • even Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.’[fn]
  • 8  and from the land of the Chaldeans.
• Go out and be like he-goats
  • [fn] the flock.
  • 9 am going to stir up, and I am going to bring against Babylon
• a contingent of great nations
  • from the land of the north.
• And they will draw up a battle formation against her,
  • from there she will be captured.
• Their arrows are like a warrior who has achieved success,
  • he does not return without success.
  • 10  all those who plunder her will be satisfied,”[fn] Yahweh.
  • 11  O plunderers of my inheritance,
• though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass,
  • and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
  • 12  She who gave birth to you will be humiliated.[fn]
• Look, she will be the least of the nations,
  • a desert,[fn] dry land, and wilderness.[fn]
  • 13  but she will be a wasteland, all of her.
• Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled
  • and will hiss because of all her wounds.
  • 14  all those who bend the bow, shoot at her.
• You must not spare arrows,[fn]
  • for she has sinned against Yahweh.
  • 15 [fn]
• Her towers have fallen,
  • her walls are ruined.
• For this is the vengeance of Yahweh.
  • Take revenge on her.
• As she has done to others,
  • so do to her.
  • 16 the sower from Babylon, and the one who uses the sickle in the time of harvest.
• [fn] the sword of the oppressor
  • each one will turn to their people,
  • and each one will flee to their land.
  • 17 is a sheep scattered, lions drove them away.
• The first who devoured it was the king of Assyria,
  • and now at the end Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, gnawed its bones.”
• 18 Therefore[fn] thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel,“Look, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land
  • just as I punished the king of Assyria.
  • 19  and it will feed on Carmel, and in Bashan,
• and on the hills[fn] of Ephraim, and in Gilead
  • its hunger will be satisfied.
  • 20 [fn] Yahweh, “the guilt of Israel will be sought, but there is none,
• and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found,
  • for I will forgive those I left behind.
  • 21  go up against her,
• and against the inhabitants of Pekod,
  • massacre and destroy them,”[fn] Yahweh,
• “and do according to all that I have commanded you.
  • 22 The sound of battle is in the land, and great destruction.
  • 23  How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!
  • 24 O Babylon. But you yourself did not know.
• You were discovered and seized,
  • because with Yahweh you measured yourself.
  • 25  and he has brought out the weapons of his wrath,
• for it is a word for my Lord Yahweh of hosts
  • in the land of the Chaldeans.
  • 26 the end, open her granaries.
• Pile her up like heaps and destroy her.
  • Let there be no remnant for her.
  • 27  let them go down to the slaughtering.
• Woe to them, for their day has come,
  • the time of their punishment.
  • 28 There is the sound of fugitives and survivors from the land of Babylon,
• to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God,
  • the vengeance for his temple.
  • 29  all those who bend the bow.
• Encamp all around her,
  • there must not be for her an escape.
• Take revenge on her according to her deeds.
  • According to all that she has done, so do to her.
• For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently,
  • against the Holy One of Israel.
  • 30 [fn] her young men will fall in her public squares, and all[fn] will perish on that day,”[fn] Yahweh.
  • 31 am against you, O arrogant one,”[fn] Lord Yahweh of hosts,
• “for your day has come,
  • the time when I will punish you.
  • 32 the arrogant one will stumble and fall, and there is no one who raises him up.
• And I will kindle a fire in his cities,
  • and it will devour everything around him.”
• 33 Thus says Yahweh of hosts:“The people[fn] of Israelare oppressed,
  • and the people[fn] of Judah likewise,
• [fn] all their captors have seized them,
  • they refuse to let them go free.
  • 34 is strong, his name is Yahweh of hosts.
• Surely he will plead their case,
  • in order to make peace for the earth,
• but to cause unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
  • 35 the Chaldeans,”[fn] Yahweh, “and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
• and against her officials,
  • and against her wise men.
  • 36  and they will become foolish.
• A sword against her warriors,
  • and they will be filled with terror.
  • 37  and against his chariots,[fn]
• and against all the foreign troops who are in the midst of her,
  • so that they may become as women.
• A sword against her treasures,
  • so that they may be plundered.
  • 38 will come against her waters, and they will dry up,
• for it is a land of images,
  • and because of the frightful objects, they act like madmen.
  • 39 [fn] desert creatures will live there[fn] with jackals,and daughters of ostriches[fn] will inhabit her.
• And she will not be inhabited again[fn]
  • and she will not be dwelt in[fn]
  • 40 when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,”[fn] Yahweh,
• “no one will live there,
  • and the son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.
  • 41 is about to come from the north,
• and a great nation and many kings are woken up
  • from the remotest part of the earth.
  • 42  They are cruel and they have no mercy.
• Their sound is like the sea, it roars,
  • and upon horses they ride.
• Drawn up for battle as a man for the battle,
  • against you, O daughter of Babylon.
  • 43  and his hands grew slack.
• Anxiety has seized him,
  • fear and pain like the woman who gives birth.
  • 44 [fn] of the Jordan against[fn]
• so[fn] from her,
  • and I will appoint whoever is chosen over her.
• For who is like me, and who can summon me,
  • and who is this shepherd who can stand[fn]
  • 45 [fn] hear the plan of Yahweh that he has planned against Babylon,
• and his plans
  • that he has planned against the land of the Chaldeans.
• [fn] they will drag them away,
  • the little ones of the flock.
• [fn] he will cause their grazing place
  • to be desolate over them.
  • 46 the sound, ‘Babylon has been captured,’ the earth will quake,
• and a cry for help among the nations
  • will be heard.”