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word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2 “Declare among the nations;
proclaim and lift up a banner;
proclaim and do not hide it, but say:
‘Babylon is captured;
Bel is put to shame;
Marduk is dismayed.
Her idols are put to shame,
her images are broken in pieces’.
3 For out of the north a nation will come against her;
it will make her land desolate.
No one will live in it;
both man and beast will flee away.
4 “In those days and at that time,”
declares the Lord,
“the people of Israel will come,
they, and the people of Judah together;
they will come weeping continually,
and seek the Lord their God.
5 They will ask the way to Zion,
with their faces turned toward it.
They will come and join themselves to the Lord,
in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
6 “My people have been lost sheep;
their shepherds have led them astray,
they have turned them away on the mountains.
From mountain to hill they have wandered;
they have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them devoured them;
their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty,
for they have sinned against the Lord,
their rightful pasture, the Lord,
the hope of their fathers’.
8 “Flee from Babylon;
go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
be like the rams that lead the flocks.
9 For behold, I will stir up and lead against Babylon
an alliance of great nations from the north country.
They will array themselves against her;
and from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior;
who does not return empty-handed.
10 The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all who plunder her will be satisfied,”
declares the Lord.
11 “Because you are glad, because you rejoice,
O destroyers of My inheritance,
because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain,
and neigh like stallions,
12 your mother will be utterly ashamed;
she who bore you will be disgraced!
Behold, she will be least of the nations—
a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord,
she will not be inhabited;
but she will be completely desolate.
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified,
and scoff because of all her wounds.
14 “Take up your positions around Babylon,
all you that bend the bow;
shoot at her; spare no arrows!
For she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Shout against her on every side!
She throws up her hands in surrender;
her towers have fallen, her walls are thrown down.
Since this is the vengeance of the Lord,
take vengeance on her;
as she has done, so do to her.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
and the reaper who wields the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword,
each one will return to his own people,
and each one will flee to his own land.
17 “Israel is a scattered flock,
that has been chased away by lions.
First the king of Assyria devoured him;
this last who crushed his bones
was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
18 Therefore this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:
“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
as I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 But I will bring Israel back to his own pasture,
and he shall graze on Carmel and Bashan,
and eat his fill
in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days and at that time,”
declares the Lord,
“iniquity in Israel will be searched for,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found;
for I will forgive the remnant whom I spare.
21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim, go up against it;
and against the people of Pekod;
kill and completely destroy them,”
declares the Lord,
“do all that I have commanded you.
22 The noise of battle is in the land,
and of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
24 I have laid a snare for you, O Babylon,
and you were caught, but you did not know it.
You were found and captured,
because you opposed the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened His armoury,
and brought out the weapons of His wrath,
for the Lord God of Hosts has a task to perform
in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the afar;
open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain,
and completely destroy her;
let nothing be left of her.
27 Kill all her young bulls,
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
the time of their punishment.
28 The voice of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon
declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
vengeance for His temple.
29 “Summon archers against Babylon,
all of you who bend the bow;
encamp all around her;
let no one escape.
Repay her for her deeds;
according to all she has done, do to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men will fall in the streets;
all her soldiers will be cut off on that day,”
declares the Lord.
31 “Behold, I am against you,
O arrogant one!”
says the Lord God of Hosts,
“for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall,
and no one will pick him up;
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour everything around him.”
33 This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
“The people of Israel are oppressed;
so too are the people of Judah also.
All their captors hold them fast;
they refuse to release them.
34 Their Redeemer is strong;
the Lord of Hosts is His name.
He will fervently plead their case,
that He may give rest to the earth,
but turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 “A sword against the Chaldeans!”
declares the Lord,
“against the inhabitants of Babylon,
and against her officials, and against her sages!
36 A sword against the soothsayers,
and they will become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
and they will be terrified!
37 A sword against their horses,
against their chariots,
and against all the foreignors among her ranks,
for they will become like women!
A sword against her treasures,
and they will be plundered!
38 A drought against her waters,
and they will dry up!
For it is a land of carved idols,
and they are maddened by terror.
39 “Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there,
and ostriches will dwell there.
It will never again be inhabited,
or lived in from generation to generation.
40 Just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gommorah,
along with their neighbouring towns,”
declares the Lord,
“so no man will live there,
nor will any son of man dwell in it.
41 “Behold, a people comes from the north!
A great nation and many kings
are being raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 They hold the bow and the spear;
they are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea;
they ride on horses, set in array,
like men charging into battle,
against you, O daughter of Babylon!
43 The king of Babylon has heard reports of them,
and his hands wax feeble.
Anguish takes hold of him,
pain like that of a woman in labour.
44 “Behold, it will be like a lion coming up
from the thickets of the Jordan to a perennial pastureland;
so I will chase the inhabitants out of Babylon
in an instant!
Who is the chosen man
that I will appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who can summon Me?
Who is the shepherd that can stand against Me?”
45 Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned against Babylon,
and the purposes that He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans:
The young of the flock will certainly be dragged away;
He will certainly make their pastures desolate because of them.
46 At the sound of the conquest of Babylon the earth will tremble;
the cry will be heard among the nations.