Prophecy against Babylon

¹This is what the LORD said concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians through the prophet Jeremiah:

²Tell the nations;

proclaim it far and wide!

Set up a flag;

proclaim it far and wide!

Hold nothing back;

just shout it:

“Babylon is captured;

Bel is shamed;

Marduk is panic-stricken.

Her images are shamed;

³A nation from the north

has risen up against her.

It will decimate her land,

and no one will live in it.

⁴In those days and at that time,

the people of Israel and Judah

with weeping they will leave

⁵They will search for Zion,

turning their faces toward it.

They will come and

unite with the LORD ,

in an everlasting covenant

⁶My people were lost sheep;

they deserted them on the mountains,

⁷All who found them devoured them;

“It’s not our fault,

⁸Now wander far from Babylon.

Like rams of the flock,

⁹I’m stirring up against Babylon

a coalition of mighty nations.

It will mobilize in the north,

and from there she will be captured.

Their arrows are like those of an expert archer

who does not return empty-handed.

¹⁰Babylon will be defeated;

its attackers will carry off all that they want,

¹¹Sure, you gloat and rejoice,

Sure, you dance around like a calf

and neigh like a stallion.

¹²But Mother Babylon will be humiliated;[#50.12 Or your mother]

the one who bore you will be disgraced.

She will become the least of the nations:

a wilderness, a desert, and parched land.

¹³Because of the LORD ’s anger,

no one will live there;

All who pass by Babylon will be shocked;

they will gasp at all her injuries.

¹⁴Take up your positions around Babylon,

now shoot at her;

¹⁵Raise a victory shout against her on every side!

She’s surrendered;

This is the LORD ’s retribution;

now pay her back:

¹⁶Cut Babylon off from those who plant

and those who harvest the crops,

Now return, all of you, to your people;

flee to your homeland!

¹⁷Israelites are scattered sheep,

driven away by lions.

First the king of Assyria devoured them,

and now Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar has ravaged them.

¹⁸Therefore, the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims:

I’m going to punish the king of Babylon and his land,

just as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹But I will restore Israel to their pasture;

they will graze on Carmel and Bashan;

they will eat their fill

²⁰In those days and at that time,

if one searches for the sin of Israel,

if one seeks out the wrongdoing of Judah,

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim;[#50.21 Or Double rebellion]

Ruin and destroy them,

do all I have commanded you.

²²There’s the sound of war in the land

and enormous devastation.

²³How the hammer of the whole earth

has been broken and shattered into pieces!

How Babylon has become a wasteland

among the nations!

²⁴You set a trap for others, Babylon,[#50.24 Or I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were]

but you yourself were caught in it unaware;

²⁵The LORD has opened his arsenal

and brought out his brutal weapons.

The LORD God of heavenly forces

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

²⁶Come against her from every side;

throw open her granaries;

pile her up like stalks of grain;

totally destroy her;

leave nothing intact.

²⁷Destroy all her bulls;

prepare them for slaughter.

How terrible for them!

Their time has come,

²⁸A voice of fugitives and refugees,

declaring in Zion

²⁹Send the archers against Babylon,

all who draw the bow!

Surround her

and let no one escape.

Pay her back for her deeds;

do to her what she’s done to others.

She has acted arrogantly toward the LORD ,

the holy one of Israel!

³⁰Therefore, her soldiers will fall in the streets;

all her warriors will be silenced on that day,

³¹I’m against you, you arrogant one!

declares the LORD God of heavenly forces.

Your day has come,

your time of reckoning.

³²The arrogant one will stumble and fall,

and no one will help her up.

I’ll set your cities on fire,

and it will consume all that’s around her.

³³The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims:

The people of Israel were oppressed,

together with the people of Judah.

Their captors held them

and refused to let them go.

³⁴Yet their redeemer is strong;

the LORD of heavenly forces is his name.

He will surely defend their cause

and give them rest in the land.

But he will unsettle the people of Babylon.

³⁵A sword against Babylon and its people,

declares the LORD ,

³⁶A sword against its diviners

so that they become fools.

A sword against its warriors

so that they are terrified.

³⁷A sword against its horses and chariots,

and the mercenaries in its midst

A sword against its treasures

so that they are looted.

³⁸A sword against the water supplies[#50.38 Or A drought]

so that they dry up.

It is truly the land of idols,

idols about which they have gone utterly mad!

³⁹Therefore, Babylon will become a ghost town,

a place for desert animals,

No one will live there again;

no one will make it their home.

⁴⁰Just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,

so no one will live in Babylon

⁴¹Look! An army is on the move

from the northern regions.

A powerful nation and many kings are coming

from the ends of the earth.

⁴²Equipped with bow and spear,

they are cruel and show no mercy.

Their horsemen sound like the roaring sea,

arrayed in battle formation against you,

Daughter Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard reports of them

and is panic-stricken;

distress overwhelms him,

⁴⁴Like a lion coming up from

to a well-watered meadow,

Who is like me?

Who can direct me?

What shepherd can withstand me?

⁴⁵Therefore, listen to the counsel

that the LORD has for Babylon

and the plans he’s devised

The little ones of the flock

⁴⁶The earth quakes

at the sound of Babylon’s capture;