Jeremiah 50

¹ The word that Yahweh spoke against Babylon, against the country of the Chaldaeans, through the prophet Jeremiah.

² Publish it among the nations, proclaim it; make no secret of it, say: ‘Babylon is captured, Bel disgraced, Merodach shattered.[*a] (Her idols are disgraced, her Obscenities shattered.)’

³ For a nation is marching on her from the North, to turn her country into a desert: no one will live there any more; man and beast have fled and gone.

⁴ In those days and at that time the sons of Israel will return: they will come weeping in search of Yahweh their God.

⁵ They will ask the way to Zion, their faces will turn in that direction: ‘Come,’ they say ‘let us bind ourselves to Yahweh by an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten!’

⁶ Lost sheep, such were my people; their shepherds led them astray, left them wandering in the mountains; from mountain to hill they went, forgetful of their fold.

⁷ Whoever came across them devoured them, their enemies said, ‘No blame to us; it is because they have sinned against Yahweh their true fold and the hope of their fathers’.

⁸ Escape out of Babylon, from the country of the Chaldaeans. Go! Act like the he-goats, be leaders of the flock.

⁹ See, I am raising a league of mighty nations against Babylon. They will come from the land of the North, will draw up the battle line against her: there she will be captured; their arrows are like a victorious warrior, never returning empty-handed.

¹⁰ Chaldaea will be plundered, all who plunder her will have their fill.

¹¹ Rejoice, if you like! Have your triumph, you plunderers of my heritage! Be playful like calves let out to grass! Neigh like stallions!

¹² But your mother is covered with shame, disgraced is the woman who bore you; she is the least of nations now; a wilderness, a parched land, a desert.

¹³ The fury of Yahweh will leave her uninhabited, she will become an empty solitude. All who pass by Babylon will be appalled at it, and whistle in amazement at such calamity.

¹⁴ Draw yourself up against Babylon, surround her, all you who bend the bow. Shoot! Do not spare your arrows.

¹⁵ Raise the war cry against her from all sides. She surrenders! Her bastions fall! Her walls collapse! This is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. Treat her as she has treated others.

¹⁶ Deprive Babylon of the man who sows, of the man who wields the sickle at harvest. Escape from the destroying sword, let everyone return to his own people, let everyone escape to his own country!

¹⁷ Israel was a straying sheep hunted by lions. First, the king of Assyria devoured him; next, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon crunched his bones.

¹⁸ Therefore – Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this: Now I will punish the king of Babylon and his country as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ I will bring Israel back to his pastures to browse on Carmel and in Bashan, and on the highlands of Ephraim and in Gilead to eat his fill.

²⁰ In those days and at that time you may look for Israel’s iniquity, it will not be there, for Judah’s sins, you will not find them. For I will pardon the remnant that I leave.

²¹ March up to the land of Merathaim; march against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod; follow them; brandish the sword, let their destruction be complete, it is Yahweh who speaks. Do everything I have ordered![*b]

²² The din of battle fills the country, immense destruction.

²³ What! Broken to pieces that hammer of the whole world? What! Babylon become a thing of horror, throughout the nations?

²⁴ A snare was set for you, and you were caught before you knew it. You have been found out and overpowered, because you defied Yahweh.

²⁵ Yahweh has opened his armoury and taken out the weapons of his fury. For the Lord Yahweh has work to do in the country of the Chaldaeans.

²⁶ Fall on her, one and all, break her granaries open, pile the plunder up like heaps of grain, put her under the ban until nothing is left of her.

²⁷ Slaughter all her bulls, down to the slaughter-house with them! Woe to them, their day has come, their time of reckoning.

²⁸ Listen! Fugitives and runaways come from the land of Babylon to proclaim in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God.

²⁹ Call up the archers against Babylon! All you who bend the bow, encamp round her: leave her no way of escape. Repay her as her deeds deserve; treat her as she has treated others, to repay her arrogance against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰ And so in her squares her young men will fall, and all her fighting men will perish, that day. It is Yahweh who speaks.

³¹ My quarrel is with you, ‘Arrogance’! It is the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks: your day has come, the time when I must punish you.

³² ‘Arrogance’ will stumble, she will fall, no one will lift her up: I will light a fire inside her towns; it shall devour all her surroundings.

³³ Yahweh Sabaoth says this: The sons of Israel are oppressed, all those who have taken them captive hold them fast, they will not let them go.

³⁴ But their redeemer is strong: Yahweh Sabaoth is his name. He has taken up their cause: he will bring peacefulness to the world but trembling to the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵ A sword for the Chaldaeans, for the inhabitants of Babylon, for her leaders and her sages!

³⁶ A sword for her diviners: may they lose their wits! A sword for her men of war: may they be discomfited!

³⁷ A sword for the whole crowd of foreigners within her: may they be like women! A sword for her treasures: may they be plundered!

³⁸ A sword for her waters: may they dry up! For it is a country of idols: they are mad, they and their bogies.

³⁹ Hence wild cats and jackals will live there, and ostriches make their home there. She will never be inhabited again, but remain uninhabited age after age.

⁴⁰ As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, with their neighbouring towns – it is Yahweh who speaks – no one will live there any more, no man will make his home there ever again.

⁴¹ Now a people is coming from the North, a mighty nation; from the far ends of the earth great kings are stirring:

⁴² they fight with bow and spear, they are cruel and pitiless; their noise is like the roaring of the sea; they ride horses, each man equipped for war on you, daughter of Babylon.

⁴³ But the king of Babylon has heard the news of them, his hands fall limp, anguish has seized him, pain like that of a woman in labour.

⁴⁴ See how the lion climbs from the thickets of the Jordan to a perennial pasture! So shall I chase them suddenly away, and place there whom I please. For who is there like me? Who can hale me into court? Name me the shepherd who can stand up to me.

⁴⁵ So now hear the plan that Yahweh has made for Babylon, the schemes he has in mind for the country of the Chaldaeans: yes, even the weakest of the flock will be dragged away. At such a sight their pastures will shudder with dread.

⁴⁶ Earth trembles at the sound of the capture of Babylon, the dirge for her is heard throughout the nations.