The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 50 Prophecy against Babylon

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 50

Prophecy against Babylon

1 The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare among the nations, and proclaim, and set up a standard; proclaim, do not conceal; say: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is trampled down, her idols are confounded, her gods are fallen.

3 For a nation has come up against him from the north, which will make his land a desolation, and no one will dwell in it; both man and beast have fled and gone away.

4 In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will come weeping as they go, and they will seek the Lord their God.

5 By the way to Zion they shall ask, and thither they shall turn their faces: they shall come, and join themselves unto the Lord in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, they caused them to wander on the mountains; they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting place.

7 All that found them devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty: for they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of righteousness; even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

8 Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out from the land of the Chaldeans; and be as rams before the flock.

9 For, lo, I will raise up and cause to come against Babylon a congregation of great nations from the land of the north; and they shall prepare themselves against her; from thence shall she be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty man; none shall return in vain.

10 And Chaldea will become prey; all who plunder her will be satisfied, says the Lord.

11 For you rejoiced and leaped for joy, you plunderers of my inheritance; you swelled like a fat heifer and neighed like mighty horses.

12 Your mother will be greatly confounded, she who bore you will be ashamed; behold, she will be the last of the nations, a desert, a dry land, and a desolation.

13 Because of the Lord’s wrath, she will not be inhabited, but will become a complete desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon will be astonished and will hiss at all her plagues.

14 Prepare yourselves to surround Babylon, all you who draw the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord.

15 Shout against her all around; she has already submitted; Her foundations have fallen, her walls are broken down; for this is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done.

16 Remove from Babylon the sower, and him who wields the sickle at harvest time; because of the sword of torment, each one will turn to his own people, and each one will flee to his own land.

17 Israel is a scattered lamb; the lions have driven him away; the first to devour him was the king of Assyria; and lastly, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, broke his bones.

18 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.

19 And I will bring Israel back to its dwelling place, and it shall graze on Carmel and Bashan; And their soul will be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and in Gilead.

20 In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but it will not be found; and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will forgive those whom I leave remnant.

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, go up against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod; utterly destroy everything behind them, declares the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

22 There is a sound of battle in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut down and broken! How Babylon has become an astonishment among the nations!

24 I have laid snares for you, and you have also been taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and also captured; because you have contended with the Lord.

25 The Lord has opened his treasury and brought out the instruments of his wrath; for the Lord, the Lord of hosts, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the ends of the earth, open her granaries, thresh her like a sledge, and utterly destroy her; leave nothing of her.

27 Kill all her bulls with the sword; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.

28 This is the voice of those who have fled and escaped from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29 Summon against Babylon the archers, all who draw the bow; encamp against her all around, let no one escape from her; repay her according to her deeds, according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore, their young men will fall in their streets; all their fighting men will be uprooted on that day, declares the Lord.

31 Behold, I am against you, O proud one, declares the Lord God of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will visit you.

32 Then the proud will stumble and fall, with no one to lift them up; I will set fire to their cities, which will consume all their surroundings.

33 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The Israelites and the people of Judah have been oppressed together; all who took them captive have held them captive and will not let them go.

34 But their Redeemer is strong—the Lord Almighty is his name. He will surely plead their cause and give rest to the land and disturb the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 “The sword will come against the Chaldeans,” declares the Lord, “and against the inhabitants of Babylon, against its princes and its wise men.

36 The sword will come against the liars, and the sword will make fools of them; the sword will come against their mighty men, and they will faint.”

37 The sword will come upon their horses and upon their chariots, and upon all the mixed people who are in the midst of it; and they will be like women; the sword will come upon your treasures, and they will be plundered.

38 Drought will fall upon its waters, and they will dry up; for it is a land of carved images, and they are enraged by their idols.

39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert will dwell there, with the wild animals of the islands; the ostriches will also dwell there; and it will never again be inhabited, nor will it be lived in from generation to generation.

40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord; so no one will dwell there, nor will any son of man live in it.

41 Behold, a people comes from the north, and a great nation, and mighty kings will arise from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42 They will take up the ark and the spear; they are cruel, and they know no compassion; Their voice will roar like the sea, and they will ride on horses, like a man prepared for battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon heard of their fame, and his hands went limp; anguish seized him, pains like those of a woman in labor.

44 Behold, one like a lion will come up from the flood of the Jordan against the stronghold, but in a moment I will make him flee from there; and I will set the chosen one against it: For who is like me? And who would summon me? And who is the shepherd who could stand before me?

45 Therefore hear the counsel that the Lord has decreed against Babylon, and his plans that he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will drag them away; surely their dwelling place will be laid waste.

46 At the sound of the taking of Babylon the earth trembled; and the cry was heard among the nations.