Jeremiah 50:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 50
A Prophecy against Babylon.[a] 1 This is the word which the Lord spoke against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2 Declare this among the nations and proclaim it;
lift up a banner and proclaim it;
keep nothing back, but announce,
“Babylon will be captured;
Bel[b] will be put to shame;
Marduk will be dismayed.
Her images are disgraced;
her idols are shattered.”
3 A nation from the north is marching against her
that will turn her land into a desolate waste,
so that no one will be able to live there anymore;
both men and beasts have fled and are gone.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 50:1 In Jeremiah’s eyes, Babylon was only an instrument in God’s hands, and he knew that sooner or later its control of the East would be taken from it. The prophet had predicted that Israel would be reprieved. Made confident by these reflections of Jeremiah, his disciples here proclaim the judgment of the Lord against the Chaldeans, at a time when, toward the middle of the sixth century B.C., their power was beginning to decline and the deportees were hoping for deliverance. We are in the atmosphere that reigned before 538 B.C. and which we know from Second Isaiah.
- Jeremiah 50:2 Bel was an ancient Sumerian deity; his name was then taken over by the Babylonian national god, Marduk.
Jeremiah 50:1-3
King James Version
50 The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Read full chapter