Jeremiah 50-52

New King James Version

² “Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and ^[a]set up a standard;
Proclaim—do not conceal it—
Say, ‘Babylon is ^(B)taken, ^(C)Bel is shamed.
^[b]Merodach is broken in pieces;
^(D)Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.’
^3 (E)For out of the north ^(F)a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall ^[c]move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.

⁴ “In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“The children of Israel shall come,
^(G)They and the children of Judah together;
^(H)With continual weeping they shall come,
^(I)And seek the Lord their God.
⁵ They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord
In ^(J)a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.’

⁶ “My people have been ^(K)lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them ^(L)astray;
They have turned them away on ^(M)the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
⁷ All who found them have ^(N)devoured them;
And ^(O)their adversaries said, ^(P)‘We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the Lord, ^(Q)the habitation of justice,
The Lord, ^(R)the hope of their fathers.’

⁸ “Move^(S) from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the ^[d]rams before the flocks.
^9 (T)For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of ^[e]an expert warrior;
^(U)None shall return in vain.
¹⁰ And Chaldea shall become plunder;
^(V)All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the Lord.

¹¹ “Because^(W) you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat ^(X)like a heifer threshing grain,
And you ^[f]bellow like bulls,
¹² Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a ^(Y)wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.
¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord
She shall not be inhabited,
^(Z)But she shall be wholly desolate.
^(AA)Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴ “Put^(AB) yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ Shout against her all around;
She has ^(AC)given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
^(AD)Her walls are thrown down;
For ^(AE)it 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 him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
^(AF)Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷ “Israel is like ^(AG)scattered sheep;
^(AH)The lions have driven him away.
First ^(AI)the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this ^(AJ)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of ^(AK)Assyria.
^19 (AL)But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
²⁰ In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
^(AM)“The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those ^(AN)whom I preserve.

²¹ “Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of ^(AO)Pekod.
^[g]Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord,
“And do ^(AP)according to all that I have commanded you.
^22 (AQ)A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
²³ How ^(AR)the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
²⁴ I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been ^(AS)trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have ^(AT)contended against the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened His armory,
And has brought out ^(AU)the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
²⁷ Slay all her ^(AV)bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of ^(AW)their punishment.
²⁸ The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
^(AX)Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance of His temple.

²⁹ “Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them ^[h]escape.
^(AY)Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
^(AZ)For she has been proud against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
^30 (BA)Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord.
³¹ “Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts;
“For your day has come,
^[i]The time that I will punish you.
³² The most ^(BB)proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
^(BC)I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him.”

“The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
^34 (BD)Their Redeemer is strong;
^(BE)The Lord of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their ^(BF)case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵ “A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord,
“Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And ^(BG)against her princes and ^(BH)her wise men.
³⁶ A sword is ^(BI)against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
³⁷ A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all ^(BJ)the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And ^(BK)they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
^38 (BL)A ^[j]drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.

³⁹ “Therefore^(BM) the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
^(BN)It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
^40 (BO)As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the Lord,
“So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man ^(BP)dwell in it.

⁴¹ “Behold,^(BQ) a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
^42 (BR)They shall hold the bow and the lance;
^(BS)They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
^(BT)Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³ “The king of Babylon has ^(BU)heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in ^(BV)childbirth.

⁴⁴ “Behold,^(BW) he shall come up like a lion from the ^[k]floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And ^(BX)who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”

⁴⁵ Therefore hear ^(BY)the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon,
And His ^(BZ)purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
^(CA)Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
^46 (CB)At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.

“Behold, I will raise up against ^(CC)Babylon,
Against those who dwell in ^[l]Leb Kamai,
^(CD)A destroying wind.
² And I will send ^(CE)winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
^(CF)For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
³ Against her ^(CG)let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
^(CH)Utterly destroy all her army.
⁴ Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
^(CI)And those thrust through in her streets.
⁵ For Israel is ^(CJ)not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

^6 (CK)Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For ^(CL)this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
^(CM)He shall recompense her.
^7 (CN)Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
^(CO)The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations ^(CP)are deranged.
⁸ Babylon has suddenly ^(CQ)fallen and been destroyed.
^(CR)Wail for her!
^(CS)Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹ We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and ^(CT)let us go everyone to his own country;
^(CU)For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
¹⁰ The Lord has ^(CV)revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us ^(CW)declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

^11 (CX)Make^[m] the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
^(CY)The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
^(CZ)For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is ^(DA)the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
^12 (DB)Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
^13 (DC)O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
^14 (DD)The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, ^(DE)as with locusts,
And they shall lift ^(DF)up a shout against you.”

^15 (DG)He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And ^(DH)stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
¹⁶ When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
^(DI)“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

^17 (DJ)Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
^(DK)For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
¹⁸ They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁹ The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.

²⁰ “You^(DL) are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
²¹ With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
²² With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces ^(DM)old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
²³ With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

²⁴ “And^(DN) I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord.

²⁵ “Behold, I am against you, ^(DO)O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
^(DP)And make you a burnt mountain.
²⁶ They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
^(DQ)But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.

^27 (DR)Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
^(DS)Prepare the nations against her,
Call ^(DT)the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
²⁸ Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
²⁹ And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every ^(DU)purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
^(DV)To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
³⁰ The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
^(DW)They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
^(DX)The bars of her gate are broken.
^31 (DY)One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
^32 (DZ)The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

“The daughter of Babylon is ^(EA)like a threshing floor
When ^(EB)it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
^(EC)And the time of her harvest will come.”

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has ^(ED)devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an ^(EE)empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
³⁵ Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.

“Behold, ^(EF)I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
^(EG)I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
^37 (EH)Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
^(EI)An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
³⁸ They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹ In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
^(EJ)I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
⁴⁰ “I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

⁴¹ “Oh, how ^(EK)Sheshach^[n] is taken!
Oh, how ^(EL)the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
^42 (EM)The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
^43 (EN)Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where ^(EO)no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴ I will punish ^(EP)Bel^[o] in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, ^(EQ)the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵ “My^(ER) people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver ^[p]himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
⁴⁶ And lest your heart faint,
And you fear ^(ES)for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
⁴⁷ Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
⁴⁸ Then ^(ET)the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
^(EU)For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

⁴⁹ As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
^50 (EV)You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
^(EW)Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

^51 (EX)We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers ^(EY)have come into the ^[q]sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.

⁵² “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
^53 (EZ)Though Babylon were to ^[r]mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.

^54 (FA)The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
⁵⁵ Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
⁵⁶ Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
^(FB)For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.

⁵⁷ “And I will make drunk
Her princes and ^(FC)wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says ^(FD)the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly ^(FE)broken,^[s]
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
^(FF)The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”