35 “A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord,
    and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
    and against (A)her officials and her (B)wise men!
36 A sword against the diviners,
    that they may become fools!
A sword against her (C)warriors,
    that they may be destroyed!
37 A sword against her horses and against her chariots,
    and against all (D)the foreign troops in her midst,
    that (E)they may become women!
(F)A sword against all her treasures,
    that they may be plundered!
38 (G)A drought against her waters,
    that they may be dried up!
(H)For it is a land of images,
    and they are mad over idols.

39 (I)“Therefore wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon,[a] and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations. 40 (J)As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord, (K)so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 50:39 Hebrew lacks in Babylon

35 A sword against the Chaldeans,”
    declares the Lord,
“and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
    against her officials and her wise men.
36 A sword against the diviners.[a]
    They’ll be made fools.
A sword against her warriors.
    They’ll be shattered.
37 A sword against her horses, against her chariots,[b]
    and against all the foreign troops[c] in her midst.
They’ll become women.
    A sword against her treasures.
    They’ll be plundered.
38 A drought against her waters.
    They’ll dry up.
For it’s a land of idols,
    and they go mad over their terrifying images.
39 Therefore the desert creatures
    along with hyenas will live there.
They’ll live in it with ostriches,
    but people won’t live in it again.
        They won’t inhabit it from generation to generation.
40 Just as when God overthrew Sodom,
    Gomorrah, and their neighbors,”
        declares the Lord,
“so also no one will live there.
    No human being will reside in it.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 50:36 Lit. empty talkers; a pun on the Babylonian word for these priests
  2. Jeremiah 50:37 Lit. against his horses, against his chariots
  3. Jeremiah 50:37 Lit. mixed peoples