49 Concerning and against the Ammonites: Thus says the Lord: Has Israel no sons [to return after their captivity and claim the territory of Gad east of the Jordan which the Ammonites have taken over]? Has [Israel’s Gad] no heir? Why then has Milcom [the god the Ammonites call their king] dispossessed and inherited Gad, and [why do] his people dwell in Gad’s cities?

² Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it [the high ground on which it stands] will become a desolate heap, and its daughter [villages] will be burned with fire. Then will Israel dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord.^(A)

³ Wail, O Heshbon [in Moab, just south of Ammon], for Ai [in Ammon] is laid waste! Cry out, you daughter [villages] of Rabbah! Gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro inside the [sheepfold] enclosures; for Milcom [the god-king] shall go into exile, together with his priests and his princes.

⁴ Why do you boast of your valleys? Your valley flows away, O [Ammon] rebellious and faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, who said, Who can come against me?

⁵ Behold, I will bring terror upon you, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, from all who are round about you; and you will be driven out, each man fleeing straight before him [without thought of his neighbor], and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives.

⁶ And ^[a]afterward I will reverse the captivity of the children of Ammon and restore their fortunes, says the Lord.

⁷ Concerning and against Edom: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Is there no longer wisdom in Teman [a district in Edom]? Has counsel vanished from the intelligent and prudent? Is their wisdom all poured out and used up?^(B)

⁸ Flee, turn back, dwell deep [in the deserts to escape the Chaldeans], O inhabitants of Dedan [neighbor of Edom]! For I will bring the calamity and destruction of Esau upon him [Edom] when I inspect and punish him.

⁹ If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some ungleaned grapes? If thieves came by night, would they not destroy only what is enough [for them]?

¹⁰ But I have stripped Esau (Edom) bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he cannot hide himself. His offspring will be destroyed, with his brethren and his neighbors; and he will be no more.

¹¹ Leave your fatherless children; I will [do what is necessary to] preserve them alive. And let [those who have been made] your widows trust and confide in Me.

¹² For thus says the Lord: Behold, they [Israel] whose rule was not to drink the cup [of wrath] shall assuredly drink—and are you to remain unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink.^(C)

¹³ For I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah [in Edom, between Petra and the Dead Sea] shall become a horror, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be ^[b]perpetual wastes.

¹⁴ I have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger is sent to the nations, saying, Gather together and come against her! And rise up for the battle.

¹⁵ For, behold, I will make you [Edom] small among the nations and despised among men.^(D)

¹⁶ Your [object of] horror (your idol) has deceived you, and the pride of your heart [has deceived you], O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock [Sela or ^[c]Petra], who hold and occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle’s, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord.

¹⁷ And Edom shall be an astonishment and a horror; everyone who goes by it shall be astonished and shall hiss with horror at all its plagues and disasters.

¹⁸ As [it was] in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man live in it temporarily.

¹⁹ See, there comes up one [Nebuchadnezzar] like a lion from [lurking in] the jungles (the pride) of the Jordan against the strong habitation [of Edom] and into the permanent pastures; for in a twinkling I will drive him [Edom] from there. And I will appoint over him the one whom I choose. For who is like Me? And who will appoint for Me the time and prosecute Me for this proceeding? And what [earthly, national] shepherd can stand before Me and defy Me?

²⁰ Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has made against Edom, and His purposes which He has formed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall be dragged away [by Nebuchadnezzar], even the little ones of the flock; surely He shall make their habitation desolate because of them and their fold shocked at their fate.

²¹ At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; at their crying the sound shall be heard at the Red Sea.

²² Behold, one will come up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against [the Edomite city of] Bozrah; and in that day the hearts of the mighty warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in her pangs [in childbirth].^(E)

²³ Concerning and against Damascus [in Syria]: Hamath and Arpad are confounded and put to shame, for they have heard bad news; they are fainthearted and wasting away; there is trouble and anxiety [like] on a [storm-tossed] sea which cannot rest.

²⁴ Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee, and terror and panic have seized her; anguish and sorrow have taken hold of her, like a woman in childbirth.

²⁵ How [remarkable that] the renowned city is not deserted, the city of my joy! [exclaims one from Damascus].

²⁶ Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day, says the Lord of hosts.^(F)

²⁷ And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad [title of several kings of Syria].

²⁸ Concerning Kedar [a tribe of nomad Arabs] and concerning the kingdoms of ^[d]Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite: Thus says the Lord [to him]: Arise, go up against Kedar and destroy the sons of the east.

²⁹ Their tents and their flocks shall they [the Chaldeans] take—their tent hangings and all their utensils and their camels. And men shall cry to them, Terror on every side!^(G)

³⁰ Flee, wander far off, dwell deep [in the deserts], O you inhabitants of Hazor [in the Arabian Desert] says the Lord, for ^[e]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has planned a course against you and has conceived a purpose against you.

³¹ Arise [Nebuchadrezzar], get up into a nation which is at ease, which dwells without care, says the Lord, [a nation] which has neither gates nor bars, which dwells apart and alone.

³² And their camels will be booty, and their herds of cattle a spoil; and I will scatter to all [the four] winds those who [as evidence of their idolatry] clip off the corners of their hair, and I will bring their calamity from every side, says the Lord.^(H)

³³ And Hazor shall become a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever; no man shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man live in it temporarily.

³⁴ The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning and against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

³⁵ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief [weapon and part] of their strength.

³⁶ And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four corners of heaven; and I will scatter them toward all those winds, and there will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam will not come.

³⁷ And I will cause ^[f]Elam to be dismayed and terrified before their enemies and before those who seek and demand their lives; and I will bring evil and disaster upon them, even My fierce anger, says the Lord. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

³⁸ And I will set My throne [of judgment] in Elam [whose capital city was Shushan, from which God wrought wonders through Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel]; and I will destroy from their king and princes, says the Lord.^(I)

³⁹ But it shall be ^[g]in the latter days (the end of days) that I will reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Elam, says the Lord.

50 The word that the Lord spoke concerning and against Babylon and concerning and against the land of the Chaldeans through Jeremiah the prophet:^(A)

² Declare it among the nations and publish it and set up a signal [to spread the news]—publish and conceal it not; say, Babylon has been taken; Bel [the patron god] is put to shame, Merodach (Bel) is dismayed and broken down. [Babylon’s] images are put to shame, her [senseless] idols are thrown down!

³ For out of the north there has come up a nation [Media] against her which will make her land desolate, and none will dwell there. They will have fled, they will be gone—from man even to beast.

⁴ In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall come up weeping as they come and seek the Lord their God [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him, both by right of necessity and of the promises of God’s Word].

⁵ They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces in that direction, saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

⁶ My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray [to favorite places of idolatry] on mountains [that seduce]. They have gone from [one sin to another] mountain to hill; they have forgotten their [own] resting-place.^(B)

⁷ All who found them devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord [and are no longer holy to Him], their true habitation of righteousness and justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

⁸ Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be as the he-goats [who serve as examples and as leaders in the flight] before the flocks.^(C)

⁹ For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will equip and set themselves against her; from there she will be taken. Their arrows will be like [both] an expert, mighty warrior and like his arrows—none [of them] will return in vain.

¹⁰ And Chaldea shall become plunder; all who plunder her shall be satisfied, says the Lord.

¹¹ Though you are glad, though you rejoice, O you who plunder My heritage, though you are wanton and skip about like a heifer at grass and neigh like strong stallions,

¹² Your mother [Babylon] shall be put to great shame; she who bore you shall blush and be disgraced. Behold, she shall be at the rear of the nations [least of the nations]—a wilderness, waste, and desert.

¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited but shall be wholly desolate; everyone who goes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss and mock at all her wounds and plagues.

¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you archers. Shoot at her! Spare not the arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵ Raise the battle cry against her round about! She gives her hand [in agreement] and surrenders; her supports and battlements fall, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her; as she has done [to others], do to her.

¹⁶ Exterminate the sower from Babylon, and the one who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the sword of the oppressor everyone shall return to his people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷ Israel is a hunted and scattered sheep [driven hither and thither and preyed upon by savage beasts]; the lions have chased him. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last ^[a]Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken and gnawed his bones.

¹⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will visit and punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I visited and punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ And I will bring Israel [home] again to his fold and pasturage, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan [in the most fertile districts both west and east], and his soul will be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

²⁰ In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none, and the sins of Judah [will be sought], but none will be found, for I will pardon those whom I cause to remain as a remnant (the preserved ones who come forth after a long tribulation).^(D)

²¹ Go up against [Babylon] the land of Merathaim [two rebellions, double or intense defiance], even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod [visitation and punishment]. Slay and utterly destroy them, says the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

²² The cry and noise of battle is in the land, and [the noise] of great destruction.

²³ How the hammer of the whole earth is crushed and broken! How Babylon has become a horror of desolation among the nations!

²⁴ I set a trap for you, and you also were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and also caught because you have struggled and contended against the Lord.

²⁵ The Lord has opened His armory and has brought forth [the nations who unknowingly are] the weapons of His indignation and wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ Come against her from every quarter and from the utmost border. Open her granaries and storehouses; pile up [their contents] like heaps of rubbish. Burn and destroy her utterly; let nothing be left of her.

²⁷ Slay all her bullocks (her choice youths, the strength of her army); let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to [the Chaldeans]! For their day has come, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).

²⁸ Listen! The voice of those [Jews] who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon proclaiming in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance [of the Lord upon the Chaldeans] for [the plundering and destruction of] His temple.

²⁹ Call together [many] archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her round about; let none from there escape. Recompense her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her. For against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel, has she been proudly defiant and presumptuous.

³⁰ Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets and squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord.

³¹ Behold, I am against you, O Babylon [you who are pride and presumption personified], says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will visit and punish you.

³² And Pride (the arrogant one) shall stumble (totter) and fall, and none shall raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are round about him.

³³ Thus says the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; all who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go.

³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He will surely and thoroughly plead their case and defend their cause, that He may give rest to [the land of Israel and to the Babylonian-enslaved nations of] the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵ A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the Lord—upon the inhabitants of Babylon and upon her princes (rulers in civic matters) and upon her wise men (the astrologers and rulers in religious affairs)!

³⁶ A sword upon the babbling liars (the diviners), that they may become fools! A sword upon her mighty warriors, that they may be dismayed and destroyed!

³⁷ A sword upon their horses and upon their chariots and upon all the mixed foreign troops that are in the midst of her, that they may become [as weak and defenseless as] women! A sword upon her treasures, that they may be plundered!

³⁸ A sword and a drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols (objects of terror in which they foolishly trust).

³⁹ Therefore ^[b]wild beasts of the desert shall dwell [in Babylon] with the jackals, and ostriches shall dwell there. And it shall never again be inhabited with people, even from generation to generation.^(E)

⁴⁰ As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says the Lord, so no man shall dwell there; neither shall any son of man live there temporarily.^(F)

⁴¹ Behold, a people is coming from the north; and a great nation and many kings are stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.

⁴² They lay hold of bow, lance, and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy or compassion. They sound like the roaring of the sea; they ride upon horses, every man equipped like a man [ready] for the battle against you, O Daughter of Babylon!

⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands fall feeble and helpless; anguish has seized him, and pangs like that of a woman in childbirth.

⁴⁴ See, there comes up one like a lion from the jungles (the pride) of the Jordan against the strong habitation [of Babylon] and into the permanent pasturage and sheepfold; for in a twinkling I will drive him [Babylon] from there. And I will appoint over him the one whom I choose. For who is like Me? And who will challenge Me and prosecute Me for this proceeding? And what [earthly, national] shepherd can stand before Me and defy Me?^(G)

⁴⁵ Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has made against Babylon, and His purposes which He has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall be dragged away, even the little ones of the flock; surely He shall make their habitation desolate because of them and their fold amazed and appalled at their fate.

⁴⁶ At the cry, Babylon has been taken! the earth shall tremble, and the cry shall be heard among the nations.

17 When Jesus had spoken these things, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify and exalt and honor and magnify Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify and extol and honor and magnify You.

² [Just as] You have granted Him power and authority over all flesh (all humankind), [now glorify Him] so that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.

³ And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.

⁴ I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do.

⁵ And now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed.

⁶ I have manifested Your Name [I have revealed Your very Self, Your real Self] to the people whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have obeyed and kept Your word.

⁷ Now [at last] they know and understand that all You have given Me belongs to You [is really and truly Yours].

⁸ For the [uttered] words that You gave Me I have given them; and they have received and accepted [them] and have come to know positively and in reality [to believe with absolute assurance] that I came forth from Your presence, and they have believed and are convinced that You did send Me.

⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying (requesting) for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they belong to You.

¹⁰ All [things that are] Mine are Yours, and all [things that are] Yours belong to Me; and I am glorified in (through) them. [They have done Me honor; in them My glory is achieved.]

¹¹ And [now] I am no more in the world, but these are [still] in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep in Your Name [^[a]in the knowledge of Yourself] those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We [are one].

¹² While I was with them, I kept and preserved them in Your Name [^[b]in the knowledge and worship of You]. Those You have given Me I guarded and protected, and not one of them has perished or is lost except the son of perdition [Judas Iscariot—the one who is now doomed to destruction, destined to be lost], that the Scripture might be fulfilled.^(A)

¹³ And now I am coming to You; I say these things while I am still in the world, so that My joy may be made full and complete and perfect in them [that they may experience My delight fulfilled in them, that My enjoyment may be perfected in their own souls, that they may have My gladness within them, filling their hearts].

¹⁴ I have given and delivered to them Your word (message) and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world [do not belong to the world], just as I am not of the world.

¹⁵ I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one.

¹⁶ They are not of the world (worldly, belonging to the world), [just] as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.

¹⁸ Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

¹⁹ And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) Myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth.

²⁰ Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching,

²¹ That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.

²² I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:

²³ I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.

²⁴ Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me] may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me]; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually]; and these men understand and know that You have sent Me.

²⁶ I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very ^[c]Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them.