Jeremiah 50:4-10

New Living Translation

Hope for Israel and Judah

⁴“In those coming days,”
    says the Lord,
“the people of Israel will return home
    together with the people of Judah.
They will come weeping
    and seeking the Lord their God.
⁵They will ask the way to Jerusalem^[a]
    and will start back home again.
They will bind themselves to the Lord
    with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.

⁶“My people have been lost sheep.
    Their shepherds have led them astray
    and turned them loose in the mountains.
They have lost their way
    and can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.
⁷All who found them devoured them.
    Their enemies said,
‘We did nothing wrong in attacking them,
    for they sinned against the Lord,
their true place of rest,
    and the hope of their ancestors.’

⁸“But now, flee from Babylon!
    Leave the land of the Babylonians.
Like male goats at the head of the flock,
    lead my people home again.
⁹For I am raising up an army
    of great nations from the north.
They will join forces to attack Babylon,
    and she will be captured.
The enemies’ arrows will go straight to the mark;
    they will not miss!
¹⁰Babylonia^[b] will be looted
    until the attackers are glutted with loot.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!