Jeremiah 50
New American Standard Bible
Prophecy against Babylon
50 The word which the Lord spoke concerning (A)Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2 “(B)Declare and proclaim among the nations.
Proclaim it and (C)lift up a flag,
Do not conceal it. Say,
‘(D)Babylon has been captured,
(E)Bel has been put to shame, [a]Marduk has been [b]shattered;
Her (F)idols have been put to shame, her images have been shattered.’
3 For a nation has come up against her from the (G)north; it will make her land (H)an object of horror, and there will be (I)no inhabitant in it. Whether people or animals, they have wandered off, they have gone!
4 “In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the sons of Israel will come, they and the sons of Judah (J)as well; they will go along (K)weeping as they go, and it will be (L)the Lord their God whom they will seek. 5 They will (M)ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces [c]in its direction; [d]they [e]will come so that they may join themselves to the Lord in an (N)everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
6 “My people have become (O)lost sheep;
(P)Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have made them turn aside on the (Q)mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill,
They have forgotten their (R)resting place.
7 All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries have said, ‘(S)We are not guilty,
Since they have sinned against the Lord who is the (T)habitation of righteousness,
The Lord, the (U)hope of their fathers.’
8 “Wander away from the (V)midst of Babylon
And [f]go out from the land of the Chaldeans;
Be like male goats [g]at the head of the flock.
9 For behold, I am going to (W)rouse and bring up against Babylon
A contingent of great nations from the land of the north,
And they will draw up their battle lines against her;
From there she will be taken captive.
Their arrows will be like [h]an expert warrior
Who does not return empty-handed.
10 [i](X)Chaldea will become plunder;
All who plunder her will have enough,” declares the Lord.
11 “Because you are glad, because you are jubilant,
You who (Y)pillage My heritage,
Because you skip about [j]like a threshing (Z)heifer
And neigh like [k]stallions,
12 Your (AA)mother [l]will be greatly ashamed,
She who gave you birth [m]will be humiliated.
Behold, she will be the least of the nations,
A (AB)wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord she will (AC)not be inhabited,
But she will be (AD)completely desolate;
Everyone who passes by Babylon (AE)will be horrified
And will hiss because of all her wounds.
14 Draw up your battle lines against Babylon on every side,
All of you who [n]bend the bow;
Shoot at her, do not spare your arrows,
For she has (AF)sinned against the Lord.
15 Raise your battle cry against her on every side!
She has (AG)given [o]herself up, her towers have fallen,
Her (AH)walls have been torn down.
For this is the (AI)vengeance of the Lord:
Take vengeance on her;
(AJ)As she has done to others, so do to her.
16 Eliminate the (AK)sower from Babylon
And the one who wields the sickle at the time of harvest;
From [p]the (AL)sword of the oppressor
(AM)Each of them will turn back to his own people
And each of them will flee to his own land.
17 “Israel is a (AN)scattered [q]flock, the (AO)lions have driven them away. The first one who devoured him was the (AP)king of Assyria, and this last one who has gnawed his bones is (AQ)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 18 Therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I (AR)punished the king of Assyria. 19 And I will (AS)bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his [r]desire will be satisfied in the (AT)hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. 20 In those days and at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the wrongdoing of Israel, but (AU)there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will forgive those (AV)whom I leave as a remnant.’
21 “Against the land of [s]Merathaim, go up against it,
And against the inhabitants of [t](AW)Pekod.
Kill and [u]completely destroy them,” declares the Lord,
“And do according to everything that I have commanded you.
22 The (AX)noise of battle is in the land,
And great destruction.
23 How the (AY)hammer of the whole earth
Has been cut off and broken!
How Babylon has become
An object of horror among the nations!
24 I (AZ)set a trap for you and you were also (BA)caught, Babylon,
While you yourself were not aware;
You have been found and also seized
Because you have engaged in (BB)conflict with the Lord.”
25 The Lord has opened His armory
And has brought out the (BC)weapons of His indignation,
For it is a (BD)work of the Lord [v]God of armies
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come to her from the [w]farthest border;
(BE)Open up her barns,
Pile her up like heaps of grain
And [x](BF)completely destroy her,
Let nothing be left to her.
27 (BG)Put all her bulls to the sword;
Let them (BH)go down to the slaughter!
Woe be upon them, for their (BI)day has come,
The time of their punishment.
28 There is a (BJ)sound of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon,
To declare in Zion the (BK)vengeance of the Lord our God,
Vengeance for His (BL)temple.
29 “Summon [y]many against Babylon,
All those who [z]bend the bow:
Encamp against her on every side,
Let there be no escape[aa].
Repay her according to her work;
(BM)According to all that she has done, so do to her;
For she has become (BN)arrogant against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her (BO)young men will fall in her streets,
And all her men of war will (BP)perish on that day,” declares the Lord.
31 “Behold, (BQ)I am against you, [ab]arrogant one,”
Declares the Lord [ac]God of armies,
“For your day has come,
The time [ad]when I will punish you.
32 The [ae](BR)arrogant one will stumble and fall
With no one to raise him up;
And I will (BS)set fire to his cities,
And it will devour all his surroundings.”
33 This is what the Lord of armies says:
“The sons of Israel are oppressed,
And the sons of Judah as well;
And (BT)all who took them captive have held them firmly,
They have refused to let them go.
34 Their (BU)Redeemer is strong, (BV)the Lord of armies is His name;
He will vigorously (BW)plead their case
So that He may (BX)bring rest to their land,
But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 A (BY)sword against the Chaldeans,” declares the Lord,
“And against the inhabitants of Babylon
And against her (BZ)leaders and her (CA)wise men!
36 A sword against the (CB)oracle priests, and they will become fools!
A sword against her (CC)warriors, and they will be [af](CD)shattered!
37 A sword against [ag]their (CE)horses, against [ah]their chariots,
And against all the [ai](CF)foreigners who are in the midst of her,
And they will become (CG)women!
A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!
38 A [aj](CH)drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!
For it is a land of (CI)idols,
And they go insane at frightful images.
39 “Therefore the (CJ)desert creatures will live there with the jackals;
The ostriches also will live in it.
It will (CK)never again be inhabited
Nor lived in from generation to generation.
40 As when God overthrew (CL)Sodom
And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord,
“No one will live there,
Nor will [ak]anyone of mankind reside in it.
41 “Behold, a people is coming (CM)from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Will be roused from the remote parts of the earth.
42 They (CN)seize their bow and javelin;
They are (CO)cruel and have no mercy.
Their (CP)voice roars like the sea;
And they ride on (CQ)horses,
(CR)Drawn up like a man for the battle
Against you, daughter of Babylon.
43 The (CS)king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands hang limp;
(CT)Distress has gripped him,
Agony like a woman in childbirth.
44 “(CU)Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will chase them away from it, and I will appoint over it whoever is (CV)chosen. For who is (CW)like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can (CX)stand against Me?” 45 Therefore hear the (CY)plan of the Lord which He has planned against Babylon, and His purposes which He has in mind against the land of the Chaldeans: (CZ)they will certainly drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; He will certainly make their pasture desolate because of them. 46 At the [al]shout, “Babylon has been conquered!” the (DA)earth quakes, and an (DB)outcry is heard among the nations.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 50:2 Heb Merodach
- Jeremiah 50:2 Or dismayed
- Jeremiah 50:5 Lit toward here
- Jeremiah 50:5 MT come, that
- Jeremiah 50:5 Or will have come
- Jeremiah 50:8 Another reading is let them go out
- Jeremiah 50:8 Or in front of
- Jeremiah 50:9 As in some mss and ancient versions; MT a warrior who makes childless
- Jeremiah 50:10 Or the Chaldeans
- Jeremiah 50:11 Another reading is in the grass
- Jeremiah 50:11 Lit mighty ones
- Jeremiah 50:12 Or has become
- Jeremiah 50:12 Or has become
- Jeremiah 50:14 Lit step on (in order to string)
- Jeremiah 50:15 Lit her hand
- Jeremiah 50:16 Or the oppressing sword
- Jeremiah 50:17 Lit sheep
- Jeremiah 50:19 Lit soul
- Jeremiah 50:21 Or double rebellion
- Jeremiah 50:21 I.e., punishment (uncertain)
- Jeremiah 50:21 Lit put under the ban
- Jeremiah 50:25 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Jeremiah 50:26 Lit end
- Jeremiah 50:26 Lit put under the ban
- Jeremiah 50:29 Another reading is archers
- Jeremiah 50:29 Lit step on (in order to string)
- Jeremiah 50:29 Some mss add to her
- Jeremiah 50:31 Lit arrogance
- Jeremiah 50:31 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Jeremiah 50:31 Another reading is of your punishment
- Jeremiah 50:32 Lit arrogance
- Jeremiah 50:36 Or filled with terror
- Jeremiah 50:37 Lit his
- Jeremiah 50:37 Lit his
- Jeremiah 50:37 Lit mixed multitude
- Jeremiah 50:38 Another reading is sword
- Jeremiah 50:40 Lit a son of man
- Jeremiah 50:46 Lit voice
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.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
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.
