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A Message for the Exiles

45 “Come out, my people, flee from Babylon.
    Save yourselves! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger.
46 But do not panic; don’t be afraid
    when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces.
    For rumors will keep coming year by year.
Violence will erupt in the land
    as the leaders fight against each other.
47 For the time is surely coming
    when I will punish this great city and all her idols.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
    and her dead will lie in the streets.
48 Then the heavens and earth will rejoice,
    for out of the north will come destroying armies
    against Babylon,” says the Lord.
49 “Just as Babylon killed the people of Israel
    and others throughout the world,
    so must her people be killed.
50 Get out, all you who have escaped the sword!
    Do not stand and watch—flee while you can!
Remember the Lord, though you are in a far-off land,
    and think about your home in Jerusalem.”

51 “We are ashamed,” the people say.
    “We are insulted and disgraced
because the Lord’s Temple
    has been defiled by foreigners.”

52 “Yes,” says the Lord, “but the time is coming
    when I will destroy Babylon’s idols.
The groans of her wounded people
    will be heard throughout the land.
53 Though Babylon reaches as high as the heavens
    and makes her fortifications incredibly strong,
I will still send enemies to plunder her.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!

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