The Judgment on Babylon
1 The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.
2 “Declare this among the nations and pronounce it,
set up a banner flag,
announce it, and do not conceal it.
Say, ‘Babylon has been captured.
Bel is put to shame.
Merodach is disgraced!
Her images have been put to shame.
Her idols are disgraced.’
3 For a nation has come up out of the north against her,
which will make her land desolate,
and no one will dwell in it.
They have fled.
They are gone,
both man and animal.
Hope for Israel and Judah
4 The Lord says:
“In those days, and in that time
the Israelites will come,
together with the descendants of Judah,
they will go on their way weeping,
and will seek the Lord their God.
5 They will inquire of Zion
with their faces turned toward it.
They will come and join themselves to the Lord
in an everlasting covenant
that will not be forgotten.’
6 My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have caused them to go astray.
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill.
They have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them have devoured them.
Their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty,
because they have sinned against the Lord,
the resting place of justice,
the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.’
8 “Flee from the midst of Babylon!
Get out of the land of the Chaldeans,
and be like the male goats before the flocks.
9 For I will stir up
and incite against Babylon,
an army of great nations from the north country,
and they will set themselves in array against her.
She will be taken from there.
Their arrows will be as of an expert marksman.
None will return void.
10 Chaldea will be prey.
All who prey on her will be satisfied,” says the Lord.
Babylon’s Fall is Certain
11 “Because you are glad,
because you rejoice,
O you who plunder my heritage,
because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain,
and neigh like strong horses;
12 your mother will be utterly put to shame.
She who bore you will be humiliated.
She will be the least among the nations,
a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13 Because of the Lord’s wrath
she will not be inhabited,
but she will be completely desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished,
and scoff at all her wounds.
14 Set yourselves in formation against Babylon
and surround her.
All you who bend the bow,
shoot at her. Spare no arrows,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Raise a cry against her from every side,
She has submitted herself.
Her bulwarks have fallen.
Her walls have been thrown down,
for it is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, do to her.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest.
For fear of the oppressing sword,
they will each return to their own people,
and they will each flee to their own land.
Redemption for God’s People
17 “Israel is a hunted sheep.
The lions have driven him away.
First, the king of Assyria devoured him,
and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
has broken his bones.”
18 Therefore the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:
“I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
as I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 I will bring Israel back to his pasture,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan.
His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
20 In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“the iniquity of Israel will be sought for,
and there will be none,
also the sins of Judah,
and they will not be found,
for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.
The Destruction of Babylon
21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim,
against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Kill and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord,
“and do everything that I have commanded you.
22 A sound of battle is in the land,
the sound of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a ruin among the nations!
24 I have laid a snare for you,
and you are also taken, Babylon,
while you were unaware.
You are found and also caught,
because you have fought against the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened his armory,
and has brought out the weapons of his indignation;
for the Lord, the God of Hosts, has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the farthest border.
Open her storehouses.
Cast her up as heaps.
Destroy her utterly.
Let nothing of her be left.
27 Kill all her bulls.
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them! For their day has come,
the time of their punishment.
28 Listen to those who flee and escape
from the land of Babylon,
to declare in Zion
the vengeance of the Lord our God,
the vengeance of his temple.
29 “Call together the archers against Babylon,
all those who bend the bow.
Encamp against her on every side.
Let none escape.
Pay her back according to her work.
According to all that she has done, do to her,
for she has arrogantly defied the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men will fall in her streets.
All her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says the Lord.
31 “I am against you, you arrogant one,”
says the Lord, God of Hosts,
“for your day has come,
the time that I will punish you.
32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall,
and no one will raise him up.
I will start a fire in his cities,
and it will devour all who are around him.”
33 The Lord of Hosts says:
“The Israelites and the descendants of Judah
are oppressed together.
All who took them captive hold them fast.
They refuse to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong.
The Lord of Hosts is his name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
that he may give rest to the earth,
and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 The Lord says,
“A sword is on the Chaldeans
and on the inhabitants of Babylon,
on her leaders,
and on her wise men.
36 A sword is on the false prophets,
and they will become fools.
A sword is on her warriors,
and they will be put to shame.
37 A sword is on their horses,
on their chariots,
and on all the foreigners who are in the midst of her,
and they will become like women.
A sword is on her treasures,
and they will be robbed.
38 A drought is on her waters,
and they will be dried up,
for it is a land of engraved images,
and they are obsessed with their idols.
39 Therefore the wild animals of the desert
with the wolves will dwell there.
The ostriches will dwell within it,
and it will never again be inhabited.
From generation to generation no one will live there.
40 As when the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
and its neighboring cities,” says the Lord,
“so no man will dwell there,
no son of man will live within it.
41 A people come from the north,
and a great nation and many kings will be incited
from the uttermost parts of the earth.
42 They take up bow and spear.
They are cruel, without mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea.
They ride on horses,
everyone arrayed, like men for battle,
against you, daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard the news of them,
and his hands have grown weak.
Anguish has taken hold of him,
pains like a woman in labor.
44 The enemy will come up like a lion
from the pride of the Jordan against the robust settlement,
for I will suddenly make them run away from it.
Whoever is chosen,
I will appoint him over it,
for who is like me?
Who can appoint my time?
Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?”
45 Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord,
that he has taken against Babylon,
and his purposes that he has planned
against the land of the Chaldeans.
Surely they will drag them away,
the little ones of the flock.
Surely he will make their settlements
a ruin all around them.
46 At the sound of the taking of Babylon
the earth trembles,
and the cry is heard among the nations.