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:
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"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.
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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].
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.'
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Flee from the midst of Babylon, and from the land of [the] Chaldeans. Go out and be like he-goats {before} [the] flock.
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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.
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And Chaldea will be as booty, all [those who] plunder her will be satisfied," {declares} Yahweh.
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"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,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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{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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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[The] sound of battle [is] in the land, and great destruction.
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How the blacksmith's hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!
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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.
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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.
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Come against her from [the] end, open her granaries. Pile her up like heaps and destroy her. Let there be no remnant for her.
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Massacre all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughtering. Woe to them, for [their] day has come, the time of their punishment.
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[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.
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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.
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{Therefore} her young men will fall in her public squares, and all {her soldiers} will perish on that day," {declares} Yahweh.
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"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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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A sword against [the] Chaldeans," {declares} Yahweh, "and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials, and against her wise men.
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A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become foolish. A sword against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.
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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.
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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.
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{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}.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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}?
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{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.
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At [the] sound, 'Babylon has been captured,' the earth will quake, and a cry for help among the nations will be heard."