Jérémie 50

Babylon’s fall

¹This is the word that the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:^{a 2}Announce it among the nations and proclaim it; raise a signal flag. \q Proclaim it and hide nothing. \q Say, “Babylon is taken; Bel is disgraced, Marduk is shattered. \q Her images are disgraced, her idols are shattered.” ³For a nation from the north has come up against her. \q It will turn her land into a waste, and no one will live in it. \q People and animals alike have fled and are gone. ⁴In those days, at that time, declares the LORD, \q the Israelites and the people of Judah will come together. \q They will walk on, weeping as they go, \q and they will seek the LORD their God. ⁵They will ask the way to Zion and set their faces toward it. \q “Come!” they will say, and they will bind themselves to the LORD \q in a covenant that lasts forever and will never be forgotten.^b

⁶My people have been lost sheep. \q Their shepherds have led them astray \q and let them roam on the mountains. \q They have wandered from mountain to hill \q and forgotten their resting place.^{c 7}All who came upon them devoured them, \q and their enemies said, “We are not to blame, \q for they sinned against the LORD, the pasture where they rightly belonged, \q the LORD, in whom their ancestors hoped.”

⁸Flee from Babylon! \q Get out of the land of the Chaldeans! \q Be like the male goats that lead the flock. ⁹For I am about to stir up and bring against Babylon \q a horde of great nations from the north country. \q They will take up positions against her, and from there she will be taken. \q Their arrows are like a warrior who leaves families childless; \q they never come back empty.^{d 10}Chaldea will be looted; \q all who loot her will have their fill, declares the LORD. ¹¹Because you rejoice and gloat, \q you who plunder my inheritance, \q because you frisk like a heifer at the threshing \q and neigh like stallions, ¹²your mother will be deeply ashamed; \q she who gave you birth will be disgraced. \q See, she will be the least of the nations, \q a wilderness, a parched land, a desert. ¹³Because of the anger of the LORD no one will live in her; \q she will be wholly desolate. \q Everyone who passes by Babylon \q will be appalled and will hiss in scorn at all her wounds. ¹⁴Take up your positions around Babylon, \q all you archers. \q Shoot at her; do not hold back a single arrow, \q for she has sinned against the LORD. ¹⁵Shout the battle cry against her on every side! She has surrendered; \q her towers have fallen, \q her walls are torn down. \q This is the vengeance of the LORD. Take vengeance on her; \q do to her as she has done.^{e 16}Cut off from Babylon the one who sows \q and the one who swings the sickle at harvest. \q Before the oppressor’s sword \q everyone will turn back to their own people; \q everyone will flee to their own land.

Israel brought home

¹⁷Israel is a stray sheep chased off by lions. \q First the king of Assyria devoured him; \q now, last of all, he has had his bones gnawed \q by Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.

¹⁸Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says this: \q I will bring punishment on the king of Babylon and on his land, \q as I did to the king of Assyria. ¹⁹I will bring Israel back to his own pasture, \q and he will graze on Carmel and in Bashan; \q in the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead he will eat his fill. ²⁰In those days, at that time, declares the LORD, the guilt of Israel will be searched for, but there will be none; \q the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; \q for I will forgive those I leave alive. ²¹Go up against the land of Merathaim, \q and against those who live in Pekod. \q Kill them and devote them to destruction to the very last, declares the LORD; \q do everything I have commanded you.^f

²²The noise of battle is in the land, \q and great destruction! ²³How the hammer of the whole earth \q is cut down and shattered! \q How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! ²⁴I laid a trap for you, Babylon, and it caught you \q before you were aware of it. \q You were found out and seized, \q because you fought against the LORD. ²⁵The LORD has opened his armory \q and brought out the weapons of his wrath, \q for the Lord GOD of Armies has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶Come against her from the farthest places; break open her storehouses; \q pile her up like heaps of grain and devote her to destruction. \q Leave nothing of her. ²⁷Kill all her young bulls; \q let them go down to be slaughtered. \q Woe to them, \q for their day has arrived, the time for them to be punished.

²⁸Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon \q to tell in Zion of the vengeance of the LORD our God, \q vengeance for his temple. ²⁹Call up archers against Babylon, all who draw the bow. Camp all around her; let no one escape. \q Pay her back for what she has done; \q do to her just as she has done, \q for she has defied the LORD in her pride, the Holy One of Israel.^{g 30}So her young men will fall in her streets, \q and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day, declares the LORD.

³¹I am against you, Arrogant One, \q declares the Lord GOD of Armies, \q for your day has arrived, the time for me to punish you. ³²The Arrogant One will stumble and fall, \q and no one will lift him up. \q I will set fire to his towns, \q and it will consume everything around him.

The strong Redeemer

³³The LORD of Armies says this: \q The Israelites are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. \q All their captors hold them tight \q and refuse to let them go. ³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Armies is his name. \q He will take up their case and win it, \q so that he may bring rest to the earth \q and turmoil to those who live in Babylon. ³⁵A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, \q against the people of Babylon, \q against her officials and her wise men! ³⁶A sword against the babblers, so that they become fools! \q A sword against her warriors, so that they are shattered!^{h 37}A sword against her horses and her chariots and against all the mixed peoples in her midst, so that they become like women! \q A sword against her treasures, so that they are looted! ³⁸A drought on her waters, so that they dry up! \q For it is a land of idols, \q and they are crazed by their dreadful images.^{i 39}So desert creatures will live there with hyenas, \q and ostriches will make their home in her. \q She will never be lived in again, \q nor settled through all generations.^{j 40}As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns near them, declares the LORD, \q no one will live there; \q no human being will settle in it. ⁴¹See, an army is coming from the north; \q a mighty nation and many kings \q are being roused from the ends of the earth. ⁴²They take hold of bow and spear; \q they are cruel and show no mercy. \q The noise of them roars like the sea \q as they ride on horses, \q lined up like a warrior for battle against you, Daughter Babylon. ⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the news of them; his hands hang limp; \q distress has gripped him, \q pain like a woman in labor. ⁴⁴Look, an enemy will come up like a lion from the thick brush along the Jordan \q against the pastures that never run dry. \q In an instant I will chase Babylon’s people from their land, \q and I will set over it the one I choose. \q For who is like me? Who can call me to account? \q What shepherd can stand against me?^{k 45}So hear the plan the LORD has made against Babylon, \q the purposes he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: \q even the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; \q their pasture will be appalled at their fate.^{l 46}At the shout, “Babylon is taken!” \q the earth will shake, \q and a cry will be heard among the nations.