Parallel Bible results for "Jeremiah 50"

Jeremiah 50

The Message Bible MSG

1 The Message of God through the prophet Jeremiah on Babylon, land of the Chaldeans:

2 "Get the word out to the nations! Preach it! Go public with this, broadcast it far and wide: Babylon taken, god-Bel hanging his head in shame, god-Marduk exposed as a fraud. All her god-idols shuffling in shame, all her play-gods exposed as cheap frauds.

3 For a nation will come out of the north to attack her, reduce her cities to rubble. Empty of life - no animals, no people - not a sound, not a movement, not a breath.

4 "In those days, at that time" - God's Decree - "the people of Israel will come, And the people of Judah with them. Walking and weeping, they'll seek me, their God.

5 They'll ask directions to Zion and set their faces toward Zion. They'll come and hold tight to God, bound in a covenant eternal they'll never forget.

6 "My people were lost sheep. Their shepherds led them astray. They abandoned them in the mountains where they wandered aimless through the hills. They lost track of home, couldn't remember where they came from.

7 Everyone who met them took advantage of them. Their enemies had no qualms: 'Fair game' they said. 'They walked out on God. They abandoned the True Pasture, the hope of their parents.'

8 "But now, get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Be rid of that Babylonian country. On your way. Good sheepdogs lead, but don't you be led. Lead the way home!

9 Do you see what I'm doing? I'm rallying a host of nations against Babylon. They'll come out of the north, attack and take her. Oh, they know how to fight, these armies. They never come home empty-handed.

10 Babylon is ripe for picking! All her plunderers will fill their bellies!" God's Decree.

11 "You Babylonians had a good time while it lasted, didn't you? You lived it up, exploiting and using my people, Frisky calves romping in lush pastures, wild stallions out having a good time!

12 Well, your mother would hardly be proud of you. The woman who bore you wouldn't be pleased. Look at what's come of you! A nothing nation! Rubble and garbage and weeds!

13 Emptied of life by my holy anger, a desert of death and emptiness. Travelers who pass by Babylon will gasp, appalled, shaking their heads at such a comedown.

14 Gang up on Babylon! Pin her down! Throw everything you have against her. Hold nothing back. Knock her flat. She's sinned - oh, how she's sinned, against me!

15 Shout battle cries from every direction. All the fight has gone out of her. Her defenses have been flattened, her walls smashed. 'Operation God's Vengeance.' Pile on the vengeance! Do to her as she has done. Give her a good dose of her own medicine!

16 Destroy her farms and farmers, ravage her fields, empty her barns. And you captives, while the destruction rages, get out while the getting's good, get out fast and run for home.

17 "Israel is a scattered flock, hunted down by lions. The king of Assyria started the carnage. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, Has completed the job, gnawing the bones clean."

18 And now this is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, has to say: "Just watch! I'm bringing doom on the king of Babylon and his land, the same doom I brought on the king of Assyria.

19 But Israel I'll bring home to good pastures. He'll graze on the hills of Carmel and Bashan, On the slopes of Ephraim and Gilead. He will eat to his heart's content.

20 In those days and at that time" - God's Decree - "they'll look high and low for a sign of Israel's guilt - nothing; Search nook and cranny for a trace of Judah's sin - nothing. These people that I've saved will start out with a clean slate.

21 "Attack Merathaim, land of rebels! Go after Pekod, country of doom! Hunt them down. Make a clean sweep." God's Decree. "These are my orders. Do what I tell you.

22 "The thunderclap of battle shakes the foundations!

23 The Hammer has been hammered, smashed and splintered, Babylon pummeled beyond recognition.

24 I set out a trap and you were caught in it. O Babylon, you never knew what hit you, Caught and held in the steel grip of that trap! That's what you get for taking on God.

25 "I, God, opened my arsenal. I brought out my weapons of wrath. The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, has a job to do in Babylon.

26 Come at her from all sides! Break into her granaries! Shovel her into piles and burn her up. Leave nothing! Leave no one!

27 Kill all her young turks. Send them to their doom! Doom to them! Yes, Doomsday! The clock has finally run out on them.

28 And here's a surprise: Runaways and escapees from Babylon Show up in Zion reporting the news of God's vengeance, taking vengeance for my own Temple.

29 "Call in the troops against Babylon, anyone who can shoot straight! Tighten the noose! Leave no loopholes! Give her back as good as she gave, a dose of her own medicine! Her brazen insolence is an outrage against God, The Holy of Israel.

30 And now she pays: her young strewn dead in the streets, her soldiers dead, silent forever." God's Decree.

31 "Do you get it, Mister Pride? I'm your enemy!" Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies. "Time's run out on you: That's right: It's Doomsday.

32 Mister Pride will fall flat on his face. No one will offer him a hand. I'll set his towns on fire. The fire will spread wild through the country."

33 And here's more from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: "The people of Israel are beaten down, the people of Judah along with them. Their oppressors have them in a grip of steel. They won't let go.

34 But the Rescuer is strong: God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Yes, I will take their side, I'll come to their rescue. I'll soothe their land, but rough up the people of Babylon.

35 "It's all-out war in Babylon" - God's Decree - "total war against people, leaders, and the wise!

36 War to the death on her boasting pretenders, fools one and all! War to the death on her soldiers, cowards to a man!

37 War to the death on her hired killers, gutless wonders! War to the death on her banks - looted!

38 War to the death on her water supply - drained dry! A land of make-believe gods gone crazy - hobgoblins!

39 The place will be haunted with jackals and scorpions, night-owls and vampire bats. No one will ever live there again. The land will reek with the stench of death.

40 It will join Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, the cities I did away with." God's Decree. "No one will live there again. No one will again draw breath in that land, ever.

41 "And now, watch this! People pouring out of the north, hordes of people, A mob of kings stirred up from far-off places.

42 Flourishing deadly weapons, barbarians they are, cruel and pitiless. Roaring and relentless, like ocean breakers, they come riding fierce stallions, In battle formation, ready to fight you, Daughter Babylon!

43 Babylon's king hears them coming. He goes white as a ghost, limp as a dishrag. Terror-stricken, he doubles up in pain, helpless to fight, like a woman giving birth to a baby.

44 "And now watch this: Like a lion coming up from the thick jungle of the Jordan, Looking for prey in the mountain pastures, I'll take over and pounce. I'll take my pick of the flock - and who's to stop me? All the so-called shepherds are helpless before me."

45 So, listen to this plan that God has worked out against Babylon, the blueprint of what he's prepared for dealing with Chaldea: Believe it or not, the young, the vulnerable - mere lambs and kids - will be dragged off. Believe it or not, the flock in shock, helpless to help, watches it happen.

46 When the shout goes up, "Babylon's down!" the very earth will shudder at the sound. The news will be heard all over the world.

New International Version NIV

1 This is the word the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians :

2 “Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’

3 A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both people and animals will flee away.

4 “In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the LORD their God.

5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORDin an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

6 “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.

7 Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their verdant pasture, the LORD, the hope of their ancestors.’

8 “Flee out of Babylon; leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock.

9 For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.

10 So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD.

11 “Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions,

12 your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. She will be the least of the nations— a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.

13 Because of the LORD’s anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate. All who pass Babylon will be appalled; they will scoff because of all her wounds.

14 “Take up your positions around Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her! Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.

15 Shout against her on every side! She surrenders, her towers fall, her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD, take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done to others.

16 Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the reaper with his sickle at harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor let everyone return to their own people, let everyone flee to their own land.

17 “Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria; the last to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

18 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.

19 But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture, and they will graze on Carmel and Bashan; their appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

20 In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.

21 “Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Pursue, kill and completely destroy them,” declares the LORD. “Do everything I have commanded you.

22 The noise of battle is in the land, the noise of great destruction!

23 How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations!

24 I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed the LORD.

25 The LORD has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.

26 Come against her from afar. Break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Completely destroy her and leave her no remnant.

27 Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished.

28 Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how the LORD our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

29 “Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets; all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD.

31 “See, I am against you, you arrogant one,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty, “for your day has come, the time for you to be punished.

32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help her up; I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her.”

33 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go.

34 Yet their Redeemer is strong; the LORD Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

35 “A sword against the Babylonians!” declares the LORD— “against those who live in Babylon and against her officials and wise men!

36 A sword against her false prophets! They will become fools. A sword against her warriors! They will be filled with terror.

37 A sword against her horses and chariots and all the foreigners in her ranks! They will become weaklings. A sword against her treasures! They will be plundered.

38 A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror.

39 “So desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

40 As I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighboring towns,” declares the LORD, “so no one will live there; no people will dwell in it.

41 “Look! An army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth.

42 They are armed with bows and spears; they are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, Daughter Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.

44 Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets to a rich pastureland, I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And what shepherd can stand against me?”

45 Therefore, hear what the LORD has planned against Babylon, what he has purposed against the land of the Babylonians: The young of the flock will be dragged away; their pasture will be appalled at their fate.

46 At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will tremble; its cry will resound among the nations.