Jeremiah 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 “Declare among the nations and proclaim,
- 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 For a nation will come up against her from 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 In those days and in that time,’ ” declares[fn] Yahweh,
- “the people[fn] of Israel will come,
- they and the people[fn] of Judah together.
Weeping as they go ,[fn] they will go,
- and Yahweh their God they will seek.
5 They will ask the way to Zion,
- turning their faces there.
They will come and join themselves to Yahweh
- by an everlasting covenant[fn] that will not be forgotten.
6 My people have become lost sheep,
- 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 All those who found them have devoured them.
- And their foes have said, ‘We are not guilty,
because[fn] they have sinned against Yahweh, the true pasture ,[fn]
- even Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.’[fn]
8 Flee from the midst of Babylon,
- and from the land of the Chaldeans.
Go out and be like he-goats
- before[fn] the flock.
9 For look, I 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 And Chaldea will be as booty,
- all those who plunder her will be satisfied,” declares[fn] Yahweh.
11 “Though you rejoice, though you exult,
- O plunderers of my inheritance,
though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass,
- and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
12 your mother will be very ashamed.
- 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 Because of the anger of Yahweh she will not be inhabited,
- 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 Draw up a battle formation at Babylon all around,
- all those who bend the bow, shoot at her.
You must not spare arrows,[fn]
- for she has sinned against Yahweh.
15 Raise a war cry against her on all sides.
- She has surrendered .[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 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
- and the one who uses the sickle in the time of harvest.
Because of[fn] the sword of the oppressor
- each one will turn to their people,
- and each one will flee to their land.
17 Israel 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 I will restore Israel to its pasture,
- 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 In those days and at that time,” declares[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 To the land of Merathaim,
- go up against her,
and against the inhabitants of Pekod,
- massacre and destroy them,” declares[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 the blacksmith’s hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken!
- How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!
24 I laid a bird snare for you, and you were caught, O Babylon.
- But you yourself did not know.
You were discovered and seized,
- because with Yahweh you measured yourself.
25 Yahweh has opened his armory,
- 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 Come against her from the end,
- open her granaries.
Pile her up like heaps and destroy her.
- Let there be no remnant for her.
27 Massacre all her bulls,
- 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 Summon archers against Babylon,
- 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 Therefore[fn] her young men will fall in her public squares,
- and all her soldiers[fn] will perish on that day,” declares[fn] Yahweh.
31 “Look, I am against you, O arrogant one,”
- declares[fn] Lord Yahweh of hosts,
“for your day has come,
- the time when I will punish you.
32 And 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 Israel are oppressed,
- and the people[fn] of Judah likewise,
for[fn] all their captors have seized them,
- they refuse to let them go free.
34 Their redeemer 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 A sword against the Chaldeans,” declares[fn] Yahweh,
- “and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
and against her officials,
- and against her wise men.
36 A sword against the oracle priests,
- and they will become foolish.
A sword against her warriors,
- and they will be filled with terror.
37 A sword against his horses,
- 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 A drought 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 Therefore[fn] desert creatures will live there[fn] with jackals,
- and daughters of ostriches[fn] will inhabit her.
And she will not be inhabited again forever ,[fn]
- and she will not be dwelt in for all generations .[fn]
40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
- and their neighbors,” declares[fn] Yahweh,
“no one will live there,
- and the son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.
41 Look, a people 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 keep hold of bow and short sword.
- 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 The king of Babylon heard their report
- and his hands grew slack.
Anxiety has seized him,
- fear and pain like the woman who gives birth.
44 Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets[fn] of the Jordan
- against a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream ,[fn]
so I will chase them away quickly[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 before me ?[fn]
45 Therefore[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.
Surely[fn] they will drag them away,
- the little ones of the flock.
Surely[fn] he will cause their grazing place
- to be desolate over them.
46 At the sound, ‘Babylon has been captured,’
- the earth will quake,
and a cry for help among the nations
- will be heard.”

50:1 Hebrew “human”

50:1 Hebrew “animal”

50:1 Literally “a declaration of”

50:1 Or “sons/children”

50:1 Literally “They shall go and weeping”

50:1 Literally “a covenant of eternity”

50:1 Literally “under that”

50:1 Literally “settlement of righteousness”

50:1 Or “fathers”

50:1 Literally “to the face of”

50:1 Literally “a declaration of”

50:1 Or “ashamed”

50:1 Or “wilderness”

50:1 Or “Arabah”

50:1 Hebrew “arrow”

50:1 Literally “She has given her hand”

50:1 Literally “From the face of”

50:18 Literally “To thus”

50:18 Hebrew “hill”

50:18 Literally “a declaration of”

50:18 Literally “To thus”

50:18 Literally “her the men of war”

50:18 Literally “a declaration of”

50:33 Or “sons/children”

50:33 Literally “and”

50:33 Literally “a declaration of”

50:33 Hebrew “chariot”

50:33 Literally “To thus”

50:33 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation

50:33 Hebrew “ostrich”

50:33 Literally “to eternity”

50:33 Literally “until generation and generation”

50:33 Literally “a declaration of”

50:33 Hebrew “thicket”

50:33 Literally “a pasture of ever-flowing”

50:33 Literally “I will do in an instant I will cause them to run”

50:33 Literally “to the face of me”

50:33 Literally “To thus”

50:33 Literally “If not”

LEB JER Chapter 50