Jeremiah 50:1-Jeremiah 51:58 - A Message Concerning Babylon
1 The word that Jehovah spake against Babel, against the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet
2 Announce ye in the nations, and cause to be heard, and lift up a signal; cause to be heard, ye shall not hide: say, Babel was taken, Bel was ashamed, Merodach was broken; her images were ashamed, her blocks were broken. 3 For a nation came up from the north against her; it shall set her land for a desolation, and none shall be dwelling in her: from man and even to beast they moved, and they went 4 In those days and in that time, says Jehovah, the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together, going, and they wept: they shall go and shall seek Jehovah their God. 5 To Zion shall they ask the way, thither their faces: Come ye, and we will join ourselves to Jehovah an eternal covenant; it shall not be forgotten.
6 My people were lost sheep: their shepherds caused them to wander, they turned them away in the mountains: they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their place to lie down. 7 All finding them consumed them: and their adversaries said, We shall not transgress, for they sinned against Jehovah the habitation of justice, and the hope of their fathers, Jehovah.
8 Move from the midst of Babel, and from the land of the Chaldeans; come forth and be ye as the he goats before the flock. 9 For behold I raise up and bring up against Babel a convocation of great nations from the land of the north: and they arranged against her; from thence she shall be taken: his arrow as of a strong destroyer shall not turn back in vain. 10 And Chaldea was for a spoil: all spoiling her shall be satisfied, says Jehovah. 11 Because thou wilt be glad, because thou wilt exult, ye plundering mine inheritance, because thou wilt show off proudly as a heifer at grass, and thou wilt neigh as the strong ones; 12 Your mother was greatly ashamed; she bearing you was put to shame: behold the last of the nations a desert, dryness and a sterile region. 13 From the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, and it was wholly a desolation: every one passing over Babel shall be astonished and shall hiss at all her blows. 14 Arrange yourselves against Babel round about: all ye bending the bow, cast at her, ye shall not spare to the arrow, for she sinned against Jehovah. 15 Shout against her round about: she gave her hand: her supports fell, her walls were pulled down: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah: avenge ye upon her; as she did, do ye to her. 16 Cut off him sowing from Babel, and him holding the sickle in time of harvest: from the face of the Grecian sword they shall turn a man to his people, and they shall flee a man to his land.
17 Israel a scattered sheep; the lions thrust away: first the king of Assur consumed him; and the last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel bound him fast
18 For this, thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel, Behold me reviewing for the king of Babel, and for his land, as I reviewed to the king of Assur.
19 And I turned back Israel to his habitation, and he fed in Carmel and Bashan; and upon mount Ephraim and Gilead shall his soul be satisfied. 20 In those days and in that time, says Jehovah, he will seek the iniquity of Israel, and not any; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I shall forgive to whom I shall leave.
21 Go up against the land of double rebellion, against her, and against the inhabitants of Pekod, laying waste and destroying after them, says Jehovah; and do according to all which I commanded thee. 22 The voice of war in the land, and a great breaking. 23 How was the hammer of all the earth cut off, and it will be broken! How was Babel for a desolation among the nations! 24 I laid snares for thee and also thou wert taken, O Babel, and thou knewest not: thou wert found and thou wert also taken, for thou didst contend against Jehovah. 25 Jehovah opened his treasure, and he will bring forth the vessels of his anger: for this the work to the Lord Jehovah of armies in the land of the Chaldeans 26 Come ye against her from the extremity; open her store-houses: cast her up as heaps and exterminate her: there shall be no remnant to her. 27 Lay waste all her bullocks; come down to the slaughter: wo to them! for their day came, the time of their reviewing.
28 The voice of those fleeing and escaping out of the land of Babel, to announce in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of his temple. 29 Cause ye many to be heard against Babel: all ye bending the bow encamp against her round about; there shall be no escaping: requite her according to her work; according to all she did, do to her: for she acted proudly against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel. 30 For this her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of her war shall be destroyed in that day, says Jehovah. 31 Behold me against thee, O pride, says the Lord Jehovah of armies: for thy day came, the time I reviewed thee. 32 And pride stumbled and fell, and none lifting up to it: and I kindled a fire in his cities and it shall consume all round about him.
33 Thus said Jehovah of armies: the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah being oppressed together: and all taking them captive held upon them; they refused to send them away. 34 He redeeming them is strong; Jehovah of armies, his name: pleading, he will plead their cause, so that he caused the land to rest, and caused disquiet to the inhabitants of Babel. 35 A sword upon the Chaldeans, says Jehovah, and to the inhabitants of Babel and to her chiefs, and to her wise. 36 A sword against the liars; and they were foolish: a sword against her strong ones, and they were broken. 37 A sword against his horses and against his chariots, and against all the mixture which is in her midst; and they were for women: a sword against her treasures, and they were plundered. 38 A sword upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: for it is a land of carved images, and in their terrors they will be foolish.
39 For this the inhabitans of the deserts shall dwell with the islands, and the daughters of the ostrich shall dwell in her: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; and she shall not be dwelt in even to generation and generation. 40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and her neighbors, says Jehovah; a man shall not dwell there, and the son of man shall not sojourn in her.
41 Behold, a people coming from the north and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the thighs of the earth. 42 They shall hold. the bow and the javelin: they are fierce, and they will not pity: their voice shall sound as the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, being arranged as a man for war, against thee, O daughter of Babel. 43 The king of Babel heard their report, and his hands were relaxed: anguish seized him as the pain of her bringing forth.
44 Behold, as a lion he will come up from the excellency of Jordan to the habitation of strength: for I will wink; I will cause them to run away from her: and who the chosen I shall appoint to her? for who like me? and who shall arraign me? and who that shepherd who shall stand before me?
45 For this, hear ye the counsel of Jehovah which he counseled against Babel; and his purposes which he purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: if the last of the flock shall not drag them out: if he shall not lay waste the habitation upon them. 46 From the voice of the taking of Babel the earth was shaken, and the cry was heard among the nations.
1 Thus said Jehovah: Behold me raising up against Babel and against those dwelling in the heart of those rising up, a destroying spirit 2 And I sent forth to Babel those scattering, and they scattered her, and they shall empty her land: for they were against her round about in the day of evil. 3 Against him bending shall he bending, bend the bow, and against him going up in his coat of mail: and ye shall not spare to her young men; exterminate all her army. 4 And the wounded fell in the land of the Chaldeans, and those being thrust through in her streets 5 For Israel not in widowhood, and Judah from his God, from Jehovah of armies; if their land was filled with guilt because of the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from the midst of Babel and save ye each his soul: ye shall not be destroyed in her iniquity: for it is the time of vengeance to Jehovah; he will do to her a recompense. 7 Babel a cup of gold in the hand of Jehovah, making all the earth drunk: the nations drank from her wine; for this the nations will be foolish. 8 Babylon fell suddenly, and she will be broken: wail ye for her; take balsam for her pain, perhaps she will be healed.
9 We healed Babel, and she was not healed: forsake ye her and we will go each to his land: for her judgment reached to the heavens, and was lifted up even to the clouds.
10 Jehovah brought forth our justice: come ye, and we will recount in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
11 Polish the arrows; fill the quivers: Jehovah roused up the spirit of the kings of the Males: for his purpose is against Babel, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple. 12 Lift ye up a signal against the walls of Babel, strengthen the watch, set up the watchers, prepare the ambushes: for Jehovah also purposed and also did what he spake to the inhabitants of Babel. 13 Dwelling upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end came, the measure of thy plunder.
14 Jehovah of armies sware by his soul: That if I filled thee with men as with locusts, and they struck up a shout against thee.
15 He made the earth by his power, he prepared the habitable globe by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched forth the heavens. 16 For a voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he will bring up the clouds, from the extremity of the earth, making lightnings to the rain, and he will bring forth the wind from his treasures.
17 Every man was brutish from knowledge; every founder was ashamed from his carved image: for his founding is a falsehood, and no spirit in them. 18 They are vanity, the work of delusions: in the time of reviewing they shall perish. 19 Not as these the portions of Jacob; for he the former of all: and the rod of his inheritance: Jehovah of armies his name.
20 Thou a mallet to me, a weapon of war: and I broke the nations in pieces with thee, and I destroyed kingdoms with thee; 21 And I broke in pieces with thee the horse and his rider; and I broke in pieces with thee the chariot and its charioteer; 22 And I broke in pieces with thee man and woman; and I broke in pieces with thee the old man and the boy; and I broke in pieces with thee the young man and the virgin; 23 And I broke in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and I broke in pieces with thee the husbandman and his yoke; and I broke in pieces with thee the prefects and the rulers.
24 And I recompensed to Babel and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil which they did in Zion before your eyes, says Jehovah.
25 Behold me against thee, thou destroying mountain, says Jehovah, destroying all the earth: and I stretched out my hand upon thee, and I rolled thee from the rocks, and I gave thee for a burnt mountain. 26 And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, and a stone for foundations; for thou shalt be desolations forever, says Jehovah.
27 Lift up a signal in the earth, strike ye the trumpet in the nations, consecrate the nations against her, cause ye to be heard against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint over her a satrap; bring up the horse as the bristling locust 28 Consecrate against her the nations, with the kings of the Medes, her prefects and all her rulers, and all the land of his dominion. 29 And the earth shall shake and be wearied; for the purpose of Jehovah was set up against Babel, to set the land of Babel for a desolation from not being inhabited. 30 The strong ones of Babel ceased to fight; they dwelt in fastnesses; their strength failed; they were for women: they burned her dwellings; her bars were broken. 31 A runner shall run to meet a runner, and he announcing, to meet him announcing, to announce to the king of Babel that his city was taken from the extremity. 32 And the passages were taken, and they burnt the ropes in fire, and the men of war trembled.
33 For thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel: the daughter of Babel is as a threshing-floor, the time of her treading; yet a little while and the time of harvest coming to her.
34 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel consumed us, he destroyed us, he set us an empty vessel, he swallowed us down as a dragon, he filled his belly with my delicacies, he thrust us away. 35 My violence and my remainder upon Babel, shall she dwelling in Zion say; and my blood to the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36 For this, thus said Jehovah: Behold me pleading thy cause, and I took vengeance with thy vengeance; and I dried up her sea, and made her fountains dry. 37 And Babel was for heaps, a habitation of jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, from none inhabiting. 38 Together as lions shall they roar: they shook themselves as the lion's whelps. 39 In their heat I will set their drinkings, and I made them drunken so that they shall exult, and sleep an eternal sleep, and they shall not rouse up, says Jehovah. 40 I will bring them down as lambs for the slaughter, as rams with he goats.
41 How was Sheshach taken and the praise of all the earth will be seized; how was Babel for a desolation among the nations! 42 The sea came up against Babel: with the multitude of rolling waves was she covered. 43 Her cities were for a desolation, a land of dryness and a sterile region, a land not a man dwells in them, and not the son of man shall pass through them. 44 And I reviewed over Bel in Babel, and brought forth his swallowing from his mouth: and the nations shall no more flow to him: also the wall of Babel fell.
45 Go ye out from her midst, my people, and save ye each his soul from the burning of the anger of Jehovah. 46 And lest your heart shall be faint and ye be afraid for the report being heard in the land; and a report came in a year, and after it in a year a report, and violence in the land, dominion against dominion. 47 For this, behold, the days coming and I reviewed upon the carved images of Babel: and all her land shall be ashamed, and all her wounded shall fall in her midst 48 And the heavens and the earth shouted against Babel, and all which is in them: for those laying waste shall come against her from the north, says Jehovah.
49 Also Babel for the falling of the wounded of Israel, also for Babel fell the wounded of all the earth. 50 Being saved from the sword, go: ye shall not stand: remember from far off Jehovah, and Jerusalem shall come up upon your heart
51 We were ashamed for we heard reproach: shame covered our faces, for strangers came to the holy places of the house of Jehovah.
52 For this, behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and I reviewed upon her carved images: and in all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 If Babel shall go up to the heavens, and if she shall fortify the height of her strength, from me shall they laying waste come to her, says Jehovah.
54 The voice of a cry from Babel, and a great breaking from the land of the Chaldeans: 55 For Jehovah laid Babel waste, and he destroyed from her the great voice: and the billows roared as many waters, and a noise of their voice was given.