Jeremiah 50
English Standard Version
Judgment on Babylon
50 The word that the Lord spoke concerning (A)Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, (B)by Jeremiah the prophet:
2 “Declare among the nations and proclaim,
set up a banner and proclaim,
conceal it not, and say:
(C)‘Babylon is taken,
(D)Bel is put to shame,
Merodach is dismayed.
(E)Her images are put to shame,
her idols are dismayed.’
3 “For (F)out of the north a nation has come up against her, (G)which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; (H)both man and beast shall flee away.
4 (I)“In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, (J)the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, (K)weeping as they come, and they (L)shall seek the Lord their God. 5 (M)They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, (N)saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an (O)everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’
6 (P)“My people have been lost sheep. (Q)Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold. 7 All who found them have devoured them, (R)and their enemies have said, ‘We are not guilty, for (S)they have sinned against the Lord, (T)their habitation of righteousness, the Lord, (U)the hope of their fathers.’
8 (V)“Flee from the midst of Babylon, (W)and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as male goats before the flock. 9 For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon (X)a gathering of great nations, from the north country. And they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed. 10 (Y)Chaldea shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be sated, declares the Lord.
11 (Z)“Though you rejoice, though you exult,
O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frolic like a heifer in the pasture,
and neigh like stallions,
12 your mother shall be utterly shamed,
and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
Behold, she shall be the last of the nations,
(AA)a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13 (AB)Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited
but shall be an utter desolation;
(AC)everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled,
(AD)and hiss because of all her wounds.
14 (AE)Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
(AF)all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her, spare no arrows,
(AG)for she has sinned against the Lord.
15 (AH)Raise a shout against her all around;
she has surrendered;
her bulwarks have fallen;
(AI)her walls are thrown down.
For (AJ)this is the vengeance of the Lord:
take vengeance on her;
(AK)do to her as she has done.
16 Cut off from Babylon the sower,
and the one who handles the sickle in time of harvest;
(AL)because of the sword of the oppressor,
(AM)every one shall turn to his own people,
and every one shall flee to his own land.
17 (AN)“Israel is a hunted sheep (AO)driven away by lions. (AP)First the king of Assyria (AQ)devoured him, and now at last (AR)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon (AS)has gnawed his bones. 18 Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, (AT)I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, (AU)as I punished the king of Assyria. 19 (AV)I will restore Israel to his pasture, and (AW)he shall feed on (AX)Carmel and in (AY)Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in (AZ)Gilead. 20 In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, (BA)iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for (BB)I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim,[a]
and against the inhabitants of Pekod.[b]
Kill, (BC)and devote them to destruction,[c]
declares the Lord,
and do all that I have commanded you.
22 (BD)The noise of battle is in the land,
and great destruction!
23 (BE)How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and broken!
(BF)How Babylon (BG)has become
a horror among the nations!
24 (BH)I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon,
and (BI)you did not know it;
you were found and caught,
because you opposed the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened his armory
and brought out (BJ)the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do
in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from every quarter;
open her granaries;
(BK)pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction;
let nothing be left of her.
27 Kill all (BL)her bulls;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
(BM)the time of their punishment.
28 “A voice! They (BN)flee and escape from the land of Babylon, (BO)to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, vengeance for (BP)his temple.
29 (BQ)“Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. (BR)Encamp around her; let no one escape. (BS)Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has (BT)proudly defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. 30 (BU)Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, declares the Lord.
31 “Behold, I am against you, O (BV)proud one,
declares the Lord God of hosts,
(BW)for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32 (BX)The proud one shall stumble and fall,
with none to raise him up,
(BY)and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour all that is around him.
33 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: (BZ)The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. All who took them captive have held them fast; (CA)they refuse to let them go. 34 (CB)Their Redeemer is strong; (CC)the Lord of hosts is his name. (CD)He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 “A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord,
and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
and against (CE)her officials and her (CF)wise men!
36 A sword against the diviners,
that they may become fools!
A sword against her (CG)warriors,
that they may be destroyed!
37 A sword against her horses and against her chariots,
and against all (CH)the foreign troops in her midst,
that (CI)they may become women!
(CJ)A sword against all her treasures,
that they may be plundered!
38 (CK)A drought against her waters,
that they may be dried up!
(CL)For it is a land of images,
and they are mad over idols.
39 (CM)“Therefore wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon,[d] and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations. 40 (CN)As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord, (CO)so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.
41 (CP)“Behold, a people comes from the north;
a mighty nation and many kings
are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
42 They lay hold of bow and spear;
they are cruel and have no mercy.
The sound of them is like the roaring of the sea;
they ride on horses,
arrayed as a man for battle
against you, O daughter of Babylon!
43 “The king of Babylon heard the report of them,
and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
pain as of a woman in labor.
44 (CQ)“Behold, like a lion coming up from the thicket of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make them run away from her, and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd (CR)can stand before me? 45 Therefore hear (CS)the plan that the Lord has made against Babylon, (CT)and the purposes that he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: (CU)Surely the little ones of their flock shall be dragged away; surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate. 46 (CV)At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 50:21 Merathaim means double rebellion
- Jeremiah 50:21 Pekod means punishment
- Jeremiah 50:21 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
- Jeremiah 50:39 Hebrew lacks in Babylon
Jeremiah 50
New Living Translation
A Message about Babylon
50 The Lord gave Jeremiah the prophet this message concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians.[a] 2 This is what the Lord says:
“Tell the whole world,
and keep nothing back.
Raise a signal flag
to tell everyone that Babylon will fall!
Her images and idols[b] will be shattered.
Her gods Bel and Marduk will be utterly disgraced.
3 For a nation will attack her from the north
and bring such destruction that no one will live there again.
Everything will be gone;
both people and animals will flee.
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.
5 They will ask the way to Jerusalem[c]
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.
7 All 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.
9 For 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!
10 Babylonia[d] will be looted
until the attackers are glutted with loot.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
Babylon’s Sure Fall
11 “You rejoice and are glad,
you who plundered my chosen people.
You frisk about like a calf in a meadow
and neigh like a stallion.
12 But your homeland[e] will be overwhelmed
with shame and disgrace.
You will become the least of nations—
a wilderness, a dry and desolate land.
13 Because of the Lord’s anger,
Babylon will become a deserted wasteland.
All who pass by will be horrified
and will gasp at the destruction they see there.
14 “Yes, prepare to attack Babylon,
all you surrounding nations.
Let your archers shoot at her; spare no arrows.
For she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Shout war cries against her from every side.
Look! She surrenders!
Her walls have fallen.
It is the Lord’s vengeance,
so take vengeance on her.
Do to her as she has done to others!
16 Take from Babylon all those who plant crops;
send all the harvesters away.
Because of the sword of the enemy,
everyone will run away and rush back to their own lands.
Hope for God’s People
17 “The Israelites are like sheep
that have been scattered by lions.
First the king of Assyria ate them up.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar[f] of Babylon cracked their bones.”
18 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the God of Israel, says:
“Now I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 And I will bring Israel home again to its own land,
to feed in the fields of Carmel and Bashan,
and to be satisfied once more
in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days,” says the Lord,
“no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah,
for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
The Lord’s Judgment on Babylon
21 “Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim
and against the people of Pekod.
Pursue, kill, and completely destroy[g] them,
as I have commanded you,” says the Lord.
22 “Let the battle cry be heard in the land,
a shout of great destruction.
23 Babylon, the mightiest hammer in all the earth,
lies broken and shattered.
Babylon is desolate among the nations!
24 Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you.
You are caught, for you have fought against the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened his armory
and brought out weapons to vent his fury.
The terror that falls upon the Babylonians
will be the work of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
26 Yes, come against her from distant lands.
Break open her granaries.
Crush her walls and houses into heaps of rubble.
Destroy her completely, and leave nothing!
27 Destroy even her young bulls—
it will be terrible for them, too!
Slaughter them all!
For Babylon’s day of reckoning has come.
28 Listen to the people who have escaped from Babylon,
as they tell in Jerusalem
how the Lord our God has taken vengeance
against those who destroyed his Temple.
29 “Send out a call for archers to come to Babylon.
Surround the city so none can escape.
Do to her as she has done to others,
for she has defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
30 Her young men will fall in the streets and die.
Her soldiers will all be killed,”
says the Lord.
31 “See, I am your enemy, you arrogant people,”
says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“Your day of reckoning has arrived—
the day when I will punish you.
32 O land of arrogance, you will stumble and fall,
and no one will raise you up.
For I will light a fire in the cities of Babylon
that will burn up everything around them.”
33 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:
“The people of Israel and Judah have been wronged.
Their captors hold them and refuse to let them go.
34 But the one who redeems them is strong.
His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
He will defend them
and give them rest again in Israel.
But for the people of Babylon
there will be no rest!
35 “The sword of destruction will strike the Babylonians,”
says the Lord.
“It will strike the people of Babylon—
her officials and wise men, too.
36 The sword will strike her wise counselors,
and they will become fools.
The sword will strike her mightiest warriors,
and panic will seize them.
37 The sword will strike her horses and chariots
and her allies from other lands,
and they will all become like women.
The sword will strike her treasures,
and they all will be plundered.
38 A drought[h] will strike her water supply,
causing it to dry up.
And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols,
and the people are madly in love with them.
39 “Soon Babylon will be inhabited by desert animals and hyenas.
It will be a home for owls.
Never again will people live there;
it will lie desolate forever.
40 I will destroy it as I[i] destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring towns,” says the Lord.
“No one will live there;
no one will inhabit it.
41 “Look! A great army is coming from the north.
A great nation and many kings
are rising against you from far-off lands.
42 They are armed with bows and spears.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
As they ride forward on horses,
they sound like a roaring sea.
They are coming in battle formation,
planning to destroy you, Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard reports about the enemy,
and he is weak with fright.
Pangs of anguish have gripped him,
like those of a woman in labor.
44 “I will come like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan,
leaping on the sheep in the pasture.
I will chase Babylon from its land,
and I will appoint the leader of my choice.
For who is like me, and who can challenge me?
What ruler can oppose my will?”
45 Listen to the Lord’s plans against Babylon
and the land of the Babylonians.
Even the little children will be dragged off like sheep,
and their homes will be destroyed.
46 The earth will shake with the shout, “Babylon has been taken!”
and its cry of despair will be heard around the world.
Footnotes
- 50:1 Or Chaldeans; also in 50:8, 25, 35, 45.
- 50:2 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung.
- 50:5 Hebrew Zion; also in 50:28.
- 50:10 Or Chaldea.
- 50:12 Hebrew your mother.
- 50:17 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.
- 50:21 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
- 50:38 Or sword; the Hebrew words for drought and sword are very similar.
- 50:40 Hebrew as God.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
