Come down and sit in the dust you virgin daughter of Babylon.

Sit on the ground without a throne you daughter of the Chaldeans,[ref]

because people won’t call you tender and delicate any more.

2 Turn those millstones and grind flour.

Remove your veil and strip off your skirt.

Uncover your legs to wade through rivers.

3 Your nakedness will be exposed.

≈ Yes, your shame will be visible.

I’ll take vengeance and won’t spare anyone.

4 Commander-in-chief Yahweh is the name of the one who bought our freedom—

Yisrael’s holy one.

5 Sit in silence and go in darkness you daughter of the Chaldeans,

because you’ll no longer be called ‘the queen of kingdoms’.

6 I was angry with my people—

I defiled my inheritance and handed them over to you.

You showed them no compassion—

even the old had a heavy burden placed on them.

7 You said that you’d be queen forever,

but you didn’t give it enough thought—

you didn’t consider its outcome.

8 Now listen to this you over-indulged woman who lives in security,

saying in her heart, ‘No one else is important except me.[ref]

I’ll never be a widow or lose my children.’

9 But both of these things will suddenly happen to you:

Bereavement and childless will hit in one day.

They’ll come on you with completeness despite your plentiful sorceries

and the power of your multiple spells.

10 You trusted in your wickedness and thought no one would notice you.

Your wisdom and knowledge has led you astray

and you told yourself that no one else was important except you.

11 Calamity will hit you and you won’t be able to charm it away.

≈ Disaster will fall on you and you won’t be able to avoid it—

≈ disaster like you’ve never known before will come on you suddenly.

12 Keep trusting your spells and your plentiful sorceries

that you’ve worked hard at since your youth.

Perhaps you’ll be successful—maybe scaring disaster away.

13 You’ve become tired of listening to so much advice.

Please let them stand up and save you—

those ones who chart the skies and divine from moons

to discover what’s going to happen to you.

14 Look, they’ve become like straw that get burnt in a fire.

They can’t rescue themselves from the flames.

There’ll be no coals to warm them—no fire to sit by.

15 That’s what those you worked with have become—those traders from your youth.

Everyone has wandered in their own direction—there’s no rescuer.

 Yahweh gave the prophet Yirmeyah (Jeremiah) this message concerning Babylon, the country of the Chaldeans:[ref]

2 Make a report to the nations and get them to listen to it.

Raise a signal flag and cause them to listen—don’t conceal it.

Tell them that Babylon will be captured and their ‘god’ Marduk (also called ‘Bel’) will be humiliated.

Marduk will be completely disgraced—

its replicas will be humiliated as its idols will be shattered.

3 A nation from the north will come against it, and make their land into ruins.

No one will live in it—people and animals will all flee away.

4 Yahweh declares that at a future time, the people of Yisrael and the people of Yehudah,

will join together to go to their god Yahweh with weeping and a desire to worship him. 5 They’ll ask the way to Tsiyyon (Zion) and will set off toward it

to join themselves to Yahweh with a permanent commitment that will never be forgotten.

6 My people have been a lost flock.

Their shepherds have led them astray in the mountains.

They’ve gone from hill to hill.

They went—they’d forgotten the place where they’d lived.

7 Everyone who found them devoured them

and their enemies told themselves that they weren’t guilty

because the people they attacked had sinned against Yahweh who was their true home—

Yahweh, who their ancestors had placed their hope in.

8 You Judeans, leave Babylon.

≈ Get out from the land of the Chaldeans.

Be like male goats that leave ahead of the rest of the flock,[ref]

9 because listen, I’m about to set in motion and raise up a group of powerful nations from the north against Babylon.

They’ll line up against her—Babylon will be captured from there.

Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior who always returns and never empty-handed.

10 Babylon (Heb. Chaldea) will become plunder.

All those who plunder it will take everything they want.

That is Yahweh’s declaration

11 because you’re so happy Babylon—your people celebrate the plundering of my inheritance.

You skip around like a calf stamping in its pasture.

≈ You neigh like a powerful horse.

12 Your mother will be terribly ashamed—

≈ the one who bore you will be embarrassed.

Listen, she’ll become the least of nations—

a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Due to Yahweh’s severe anger, Babylon won’t remain inhabited, but will become a complete ruin.

Everyone who passes by will be appalled, and will hiss because of all its wounds.

14 You armies,, line yourselves up all around Babylon—

everyone who uses a bow and arrows must shoot at it.

Don’t hold back any of your arrows, because it has disobeyed Yahweh.

15 Shout together all of you who are around the city.

It has surrendered—its towers have been taken over.

Its walls are torn down, because that is Yahweh’s vengeance.

Avenge yourselves on Babylon—

do to it just like what it’s done to others.

16 Destroy both the Babylonian farmer who sows seed

and the one who uses a sickle at harvest time.

Instead of the oppressor’s sword, let each person return to their own people—

let everyone flee back to their own region.

17 Israel is like sheep that were scattered and driven away by lions.

Firstly, the Assyrian king devoured its meat,

then after that, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar chomped on its bones.

18 Therefore Yisrael’s god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh, says this:

Listen, I’m about to punish the Babylonian king and his country,

just as I punished the Assyrian king.

19 Then I’ll restore Yisrael to its homeland—

it will graze on Mt. Carmel and in the Bashan region.

≈ then it will be satisfied in the hill country of Efrayim and Gilead.

20 Yahweh says that at that time,

Yisrael’s disobedience won’t exist

≈ and no wickedness will be found in Yehudah

because I’ll forgive those that I leave as a remnant.

21 Go up against the Meratayim region in Babylon

as well as Pekod’s inhabitants.

Attack them and ensure that they’re eliminated.

That is Yahweh’s declaration—make sure to do everything that I’m commanding you to do.

22 There’s a sound of battle and terrible destruction across the land.

23 How the ‘hammer’ of all the lands has itself been cut apart and destroyed.

How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations.

24 I set a trap for you and you were caught, Babylon, and you didn’t even know it.

You were found and captured, because you went against Yahweh.

25 Yahweh has opened his armoury and is bringing out the weapons for carrying out his anger.

There’s work for the master, Commander-in-chief Yahweh, in Babylon—the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come to it from far away.

Open its store-houses full of grain.

Pile everything up in heaps.

Completely destroy everything—don’t leave anyone alive.

27 Kill all its young bulls—send them off for slaughter.

They won’t end well because their moment has come—the time for their punishment.

28 There’s the sound of those fleeing—escaping from Babylon

to anounce in Tsiyyon (Zion) that our god Yahweh is taking vengeance—

vengeance for what was done to his temple.

29 Summon the archers against Babylon—all those who use bows and arrows.

Surround it completely and don’t let anyone escape.

Repay it for what it’s done.

Do to it what it did to others

because it had defied Yahweh, Yisrael’s holy one,[ref]

30 so their young men will fall in the city squares,

and all their fighting men will be killed on that day.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

31 Listen, Commander-in-chief Yahweh declares:

I’m against you, you proud nation

because your time is up, you proud one—

the time has come for me to punish you.

32 So the proud one will stumble and fall,

and no one will be there to help it up.

I’ll light a fire in its cities and it will devour everything around it.

33 Commander-in-chief Yahweh says this:

The Yisrael’s people are oppressed,

as are the people from Yehudah.

All those who captured them have kept hold of them—

they’ve refused to let them go.

34 The one who paid the price to free them is strong.

His name is Commander-in-chief Yahweh.

He’ll successfully plead their case,

in order to bring peace and stability to the land,

and to cause turmoil for Babylon’s inhabitants.

35 Yahweh declares that war is coming to the Babylonians (Heb. Chaldeans)

including its inhabitants, leaders, and wise men.

36 War is coming for empty talkers and they’ll become fools.

Battles are coming against its warriors, and they’ll be terrified.

37 Attacks are coming against their horses,

their chariots and all of Babylon’s foreign mercenaries,

so they’ll become like women.

Armed raids are coming against its storerooms,

→ and they’ll all be looted.

38 A drought is coming on its water supplies so they’ll dry up,

because it’s a land full of idols,

and the people do mad things trying to appease them.

39 So jackals and other desert animals will live there,

along with ostriches that will breed there.

People will never live there again—

future generations won’t live there.[ref]

40 Just like the overthrow of Sodom and Amorah (Gomorrah) and its neighbours,[ref]

Yahweh declares that no one will live there—no human would want to stay there.

41 Listen, a people group is coming from the north—

a powerful nation and many kings are being stirred up from the farthest parts of the world.

42 They’ll be carrying bows and spears.

They’re cruel and will show no mercy.

The sound of them coming will be like the roar of the sea

They’ll be riding horses in formation,

organised for battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

43 The Babylonian king will hear their report

and his hands will fall limp in distress—

he’ll be in anguish like a woman giving birth.

44 Listen, there’ll be one who comes like a lion

from the thickets along the Yarden (Jordan), up to the watered pastureland

because I’ll act quickly to cause them to run away from there,

and I’ll appoint someone specially chosen for it,

because who is like me, and who can summon me to come?

What shepherd is able to resist me?

45 So listen to the plans that Yahweh has decided against Babylon—

the plans that he has planned against the land of the Chaldeans.

They’ll definitely be dragged away—even the smallest flock.

Their pasturelands will be ruined.

46 The sound of Babylon being conquered Babylon will make the earth quake,

and their cry of distress will be heard right across the continent.

51 Yahweh says this:

Listen, I’m about to stir up a destructive wind against Babylon

and against the Babylonian people.

2 ≈ I’ll send foreigners into Babylon, and they’ll shake it down and devastate its land,

because they’ll come against it from all sides on that disastrous day.

3 Don’t let the archers shoot their arrows

≈ Don’t let their soldiers put on their armour.

Don’t spare their young men—

≈ Destroy their army completely.

4 Their wounded will fall in the land of the Chaldeans.

≈ Those who’re stabbed will fall in its streets,

5 because Yisrael and Yehudah haven’t been abandoned by their god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh,

even though their[fn] own land is filled with offenses committed against Yisrael’s holy one.

6 Escape quickly from out of Babylon—each person must save themself.

Don’t die there because of their wickedness

because now is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance.

He’ll repay Babylon for everything they’ve done.

7 Babylon was like a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand that made all the world drunk—

nations drank its wine and went mad.[ref]

8 Suddenly Babylon will fall and be destroyed.

Wail for it—give it medicine for its pain—perhaps it can be healed?

9 We tried to heal Babylon, but it never recovered,

so leave it and let everyone go back to their own region,

because its guilt has reached up to the heavens—

it’s piled up to the clouds.[ref]

10 Yahweh has now decided that we’ve served our time.

Let’s go and tell everyone in Tsiyyon (Zion) what our god Yahweh has done.

11 Sharpen your arrows and strap on your shields.

Yahweh is stirring up the spirit of the kings of the Medes in his plan to destroy Babylon

because of Yahweh’s vengeance—revenge for their destruction of his temple.

12 Lift up your banner over Babylon’s walls.

Reinforce the guards. Assign watchmen.

Prepare your ambushes because Yahweh will do what he has said concerning Babylon’s inhabitants.

13 You people who live by many water supplies and who are rich with treasures, your end has come.

The thread of your life is now cut short.[ref] 14 Commander-in-chief Yahweh has made an oath by his own life:

‘I’ll fill you with men, like a swarm of locusts,

and they’ll shout out against you.’

15 He has made the earth by his power.

≈ He set the world in place by his wisdom.

≈ By his understanding he stretched out the skies.

16 When hemakes thunder, there’s the roar of waters in the skies,

≈ because he brings the mist up from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning to go with the rain

≈ and sends out wind from his storehouses.

17 All people have become ignorant—without knowledge.

Every metalworker is put to shame by his idols.

→ because his cast images are lifeless frauds.

18 They are the worthless work of mockers

who’ll perish at the time of their punishment.

19 Yisrael’s god is not like those,

because he’s the one who formed everything.

Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.

Commander-in-chief Yahweh is his name.

20 You are my sledge-hammer—my weapon for battle—

→ With you I’ll smash nations and destroy kingdoms.

21 With you I’ll smash horses and their riders.

≈ With you I’ll smash chariots and their drivers.

22 With you I’ll smash men and women.

≈ With you I’ll smash the old and the young.

≈ With you I’ll smash the young men and young women.

23 With you I’ll smash the shepherds and their flocks.

With you I will smash the plowmen and their teams of cattle.

With you I’ll smash the governors and officials.

24 I’ll repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans

for all the evil they did in Tsiyyon (Zion) as you watched.[fn]

That is Yahweh’s declaration. 25 ◙ 26 ◙

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29 [ref]“But immediately after the troubles of that time, the sun will go dark and the moon won’t give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

24 [ref]“After those very difficult times, the sun will go dark and the moon won’t shine at night. 25 [ref]The stars will fall down out of the sky and the powers in the heavens will be shaken up.

25 [ref]“There’ll be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and anguish in countries around the world as they’re puzzled by the noise of the sea and surf.