Jeremiah 50

A Message Concerning Babylon

1 The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of [the] Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet:
2 "Declare among the nations and proclaim, and lift up a banner. Proclaim, you must not conceal [it]. Say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is filled with terror, her idols are ashamed, her idols are filled with terror.
3 For a nation will come up against her from [the] north. It will make her land as a horror, and an inhabitant will not be in her. From humans to animals they [all] will wander [off]. They will go [away].
4 In those days and in that time,'" {declares} Yahweh, "the people of Israel will come, they and the people of Judah together. {Weeping as they go}, they will go, and Yahweh their God they will seek.
5 They will ask [the] way [to] Zion, [turning] their faces there. They will come and join themselves to Yahweh [by] {an everlasting covenant} [that] will not be forgotten.
6 My people have become lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They led them away [to the] mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their resting place.
7 All [those who] found them have devoured them. And their foes have said, 'We are not guilty, {because} they have sinned against Yahweh, the {true pasture}, even Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.'
8 Flee from the midst of Babylon, and from the land of [the] Chaldeans. Go out and be like he-goats {before} [the] flock.
9 For look, I [am] going to stir up, and I [am] going to bring against Babylon a contingent of great nations from [the] land of [the] north. And they will draw up a battle formation against her, from there she will be captured. Their arrows [are] like a warrior [who has] achieved success, he does not return without success.
10 And Chaldea will be as booty, all [those who] plunder her will be satisfied," {declares} Yahweh.
11 "Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
12 your mother will be very ashamed. [She who] gave birth [to] you will be humiliated. Look, [she will be the] least of [the] nations, a desert, dry land, and wilderness.
13 Because of the anger of Yahweh she will not be inhabited, but she will be a wasteland, all of her. Everyone [who] passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss because of all her wounds.
14 Draw up a battle formation at Babylon all around, all those who bend [the] bow, shoot at her. You must not spare arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh.
15 Raise a war cry against her on all sides. {She has surrendered}. Her towers have fallen, her walls are ruined. For this [is] the vengeance of Yahweh. Take revenge on her. As she has done [to others], [so] do to her.
16 Cut off [the] sower from Babylon, and [the] one who uses [the] sickle in [the] time of harvest. {Because of} the sword of the oppressor each one will turn to their people, and each one will flee to their land.
17 Israel [is] a sheep scattered, lions drove [them] away. [The] first who devoured it [was] the king of Assyria, and now [at] the end Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, gnawed its bones."
18 {Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] going to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 And I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it will feed [on] Carmel, and [in] Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim, and [in] Gilead its hunger will be satisfied.
20 In those days and at that time," {declares} Yahweh, "the guilt of Israel will be sought, but there [is] none, and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I left behind.
21 To the land of Merathaim, go up against her, and against the inhabitants of Pekod, massacre and destroy them," {declares} Yahweh, "and do according to all that I have commanded you.
22 [The] sound of battle [is] in the land, and great destruction.
23 How the blacksmith's hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!
24 I laid a bird snare for you, and you were caught, [O] Babylon. But you yourself [did] not know. You were discovered and seized, because with Yahweh you measured yourself.
25 Yahweh has opened his armory, and he has brought out the weapons of his wrath, for it [is] a word for my Lord Yahweh of hosts in the land of [the] Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from [the] end, open her granaries. Pile her up like heaps and destroy her. Let there be no remnant for her.
27 Massacre all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughtering. Woe to them, for [their] day has come, the time of their punishment.
28 [There is the] sound of fugitives and survivors from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance for his temple.
29 Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend [the] bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, [so] do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.
30 {Therefore} her young men will fall in her public squares, and all {her soldiers} will perish on that day," {declares} Yahweh.
31 "Look, I [am] against you, [O] arrogant [one]," {declares} Lord Yahweh of hosts, "for your day has come, [the] time [when] I will punish you.
32 And [the] arrogant [one] will stumble and fall, and there is no [one who] raises [him] up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour everything around him."
33 Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "The people of Israel [are] oppressed, and the people of Judah likewise, {for} all their captors have seized them, they refuse to let them go free.
34 Their redeemer [is] strong, his name [is] Yahweh of hosts. Surely he will plead their case, in order to make peace [for] the earth, but to cause unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 A sword against [the] Chaldeans," {declares} Yahweh, "and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials, and against her wise men.
36 A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become foolish. A sword against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.
37 A sword against his horses, and against his chariots, and against all the foreign troops who [are] in the midst of her, so that they may become as women. A sword against her treasures, so that they may be plundered.
38 A drought [will come] against her waters, and they will dry up, for it [is] a land of images, and because of the frightful [objects], they act like madmen.
39 {Therefore} desert creatures will live [there] with jackals, and daughters of ostriches will inhabit her. And she will not be inhabited again {forever}, and she will not be dwelt in {for all generations}.
40 As [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors," {declares} Yahweh, "no one will live there, and [the] son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.
41 Look, a people [is] about to come from [the] north, and a great nation and many kings are woken up from [the] remotest part of [the] earth.
42 They keep hold of bow and short sword. They [are] cruel and they have no mercy. Their sound [is] like the sea, it roars, and upon horses they ride. Drawn up for battle as a man for the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon heard their report and his hands grew slack. Anxiety has seized him, fear and pain like the [woman who] gives birth.
44 Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}, so {I will chase them away quickly} from her, and I will appoint whoever [is] chosen over her. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me, and who [is] this shepherd who can stand {before me}?
45 {Therefore} hear the plan of Yahweh that he has planned against Babylon, and his plans 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 cause [their] grazing place to be desolate over them.
46 At [the] sound, 'Babylon has been captured,' the earth will quake, and a cry for help among the nations will be heard."

Footnotes 41

Jeremiah 50 Commentaries

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.