A Prophecy against Babylon
The word that the LORD spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.
Declare among the nations and make it heard, and lift a signal; make it heard, do not conceal it. Say: Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame, Merodach is shattered; her images are put to shame, her idols are shattered.
For a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land a horror, and there will be no inhabitant in her. From man to beast they have wandered, they have gone.
Hope for Israel and Judah
In those days and at that time — the utterance of the LORD — the sons of Israel will come, they and the sons of Judah together; going and weeping they will go, and the LORD their God they will seek.
To Zion they will ask the way, their faces set here: Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
Lost sheep have my people been; their shepherds led them astray, on the mountains they turned them away. From mountain to hill they went; they forgot their resting place.
All who found them devoured them; and their adversaries said: We bear no guilt, because they sinned against the LORD, the pasture of righteousness and the hope of their fathers, the LORD.
Wander out from the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans go out; and be like he-goats before the flock.
For see, I am rousing and bringing up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north; and they will array against her — from there she will be captured. Their arrows are like a mighty man with insight; none returns empty.
And Chaldea will become spoil; all who spoil her will be satisfied — the utterance of the LORD.
Babylon’s Fall Is Certain
For you were glad, for you exulted, plunderers of my inheritance; for you grew fat like a heifer treading grain, and you neighed like stallions.
Your mother is utterly ashamed; she who bore you is abashed. See, the last of the nations — a wilderness, a drought and a desert plain.
From the rage of the LORD she will not be inhabited, and she will become a desolation, all of her. Everyone passing by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss at all her blows.
Array against Babylon all around, all who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrow, for against the LORD she has sinned.
Shout against her all around! She has given her hand; her foundations have fallen, her walls are demolished. For it is the vengeance of the LORD; take vengeance on her. As she did, do to her.
Cut off the sower from Babylon and the one handling the sickle at the time of harvest. Before the ravaging sword, each will turn to his own people and each will flee to his own land.
Redemption for God’s People
A scattered sheep is Israel; lions have driven him away. The first devoured him, the king of Assyria; and this last one has gnawed his bones — Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See, I am attending to the king of Babylon and to his land, as I attended to the king of Assyria.
And I will bring Israel back to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; and on the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead his soul will be satisfied.
In those days and at that time — the utterance of the LORD — the iniquity of Israel will be sought and there will be none, and the sins of Judah, and they will not be found; for I will forgive those whom I leave as a remainder.
The Destruction of Babylon
Against the land of Merathaim — go up against her, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Slay and devote to destruction after them — the utterance of the LORD — and do according to all that I have commanded you.
A sound of war is in the land, and a great breaking.
How the hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
I laid a snare for you, and you were also captured, Babylon, and you did not know. You were found and also seized, for against the LORD you contended.
The LORD has opened his storehouse and brought out the weapons of his indignation; for it is a work for the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
Come against her from the farthest end; open her granaries; heap her up like piles and devote her to destruction; let her have no remnant.
Slay all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their attending!
The voice of those fleeing and escaping from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.
Make it heard against Babylon — the many, all who bend the bow. Camp against her all around; let her have no escape. Repay her according to her work; according to all that she did, do to her. For against the LORD she was insolent, against the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore her young men will fall in her squares, and all her men of war will be silenced in that day — the utterance of the LORD.
See, I am against you, Insolence — the utterance of the Lord GOD of hosts — for your day has come, the time I attend to you.
And Insolence will stumble and fall, with none to raise him; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all around him.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Oppressed are the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah together; and all their captors have held them fast, they have refused to send them away.
Their Redeemer is strong — the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely contend their case, so as to give rest to the earth and to disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
A sword against the Chaldeans — the utterance of the LORD — and against the inhabitants of Babylon and against her princes and against her wise men!
A sword against the empty talkers, and they will be shown fools! A sword against her mighty men, and they will be shattered!
A sword against his horses and against his chariot and against all the mixed people who are in her midst, and they will become women! A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!
A drought against her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of carved images, and by terrors they go mad.
Therefore desert creatures with jackals will dwell there, and the daughters of the ostrich will dwell in her; and she will not be inhabited again forever, and she will not be settled from generation to generation.
As at God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and her neighbors — the utterance of the LORD — no man will dwell there and no son of man will sojourn in her.
See, a people is coming from the north, and a great nation and many kings are roused from the far parts of the earth.
Bow and javelin they grasp; cruel they are, and they have no compassion. Their voice roars like the sea, and on horses they ride, arrayed like a man for war against you, daughter of Babylon.
The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands have gone slack. Distress has seized him, writhing like a woman giving birth.
See, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to a lasting pasture. But in a moment I will make them run from her; and who is the chosen one I will appoint over her? For who is like me, and who will summon me, and who is this shepherd who will stand before my face?
Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, which he counseled against Babylon, and his thoughts, which he thought against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will drag them away; surely he will make their pasture a desolation over them.
At the sound of Babylon being seized, the earth quakes, and an outcry is heard among the nations.