Beginning
51 The Eternal has this to say regarding Babylon:
Eternal One: Watch as I stir up a destroying wind
against Babylon and the people of Chaldea.[a]
2 I will send outsiders to sift through this nation,
separating the wheat from the chaff, laying waste this land.
They will fight her from every side
on that fateful day of Babylon’s reckoning.
3 Do not let the archers draw back their bows.
Do not let them put on their armor!
Do not spare the life of one young soldier.
Destroy her army completely.
4 They will all fall dead in the land of the Chaldeans;
her streets will be full of the dead and dying.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
by their God, the Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies,
Even though their land is awash with the guilt of their sins
against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Get out of Babylon! Escape with your lives!
Do not be caught up in Babylon’s punishment,
For this is the time for the Eternal to avenge His people.
He will pay Babylon what she deserves.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the Eternal’s hand,
intoxicating the whole earth.
Yes, the nations drank her wine,
which is why they went mad.
8 But now Babylon—cup of God’s wrath—has fallen and shattered.
Weep for her, if you can!
Give her something for her pain;
perhaps she may still be healed.
9 Exiles: We would like to have healed Babylon,
but she was beyond our help.
It is time to leave her and go home before it is too late,
before we get caught in her coming judgment.
Look, even now it fills the skies, rising up to the clouds.
10 The Eternal has vindicated us;
come, we must tell those in Jerusalem
What the Eternal our God has done!
11 Enemies of Babylon, sharpen your arrows
and fill your quivers. Get ready to attack!
For the Eternal has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes
to accomplish His purpose against Babylon.
He will exact His vengeance for what the Chaldeans did to His temple.
12 Raise up the battle flags around the walls of Babylon!
Reinforce the guard. Station watchmen along the way.
Prepare to make a surprise attack, for the Eternal will see His plan carried through
against the people of Babylon.
13 You who live by the great river
with the comforts of your abundant treasure,
The end has come, and you will lose it all.
Your time has run out.
14 The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has sworn by Himself.
Eternal One: I will cover your land with enemy troops
the way a swarm of locusts covers a field.
And they will shout victory over you.
15 God alone is powerful enough to create the earth.
He alone is wise enough to put the world together.
He alone understands enough to stretch out the heavens.
16 His voice thunders through the heavens, and the waters gush from the sky.
He summons the clouds to build up over the earth.
As the rain falls, the lightning flashes at His command;
the wind rushes in from where He alone can store it.
17 All of humanity is stupid and bankrupt of knowledge.
Those who make idols are shamed by their creations.
What they fashion out of gold are imposters—breathless, lifeless frauds.
18 Their idols are worthless, the work of their hands an embarrassing mockery.
They are doomed to perish under God’s judgment.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like any of these.
He was not fashioned by human hands.
Instead, it was He who made all things and appointed Israel to inherit it all.
His name is the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.
20 Eternal One: You are My war club—My weapon for battle;
with you I shatter nations;
with you I destroy kingdoms;
21 With you I shatter the horse and its rider;
with you I shatter the chariot and its driver;
22 With you I shatter men and women;
with you I shatter both young and old;
with you I shatter the young man and the maiden;
23 With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock;
with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen;
with you I shatter governors and leaders.
24 But now, before your very eyes, I will repay Babylon and the people of Chaldea for all the harm they have done in Zion.
25 I have turned against you, O mountain of destruction, you destroyer of the earth.
So now I will raise My hand against you;
I will roll you down from the lofty rocks where you offered sacrifices
and turn you into a mountain of ashes.
26 When I am finished with you,
there will be no stones to salvage—
No cornerstones, no foundation stones;
you will be desolate forever.
27 Lift up a battle flag; let it wave in the land!
Sound the trumpet—call the nations together!
Prepare the forces for battle against her;
summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Assign a commander to lead the troops against her.
Send in the war horses, seething like bristly locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for battle against her—the kings of the Medes,
their governors and leaders, and the lands they rule.
29 As the battle rages, the land trembles and writhes,
for the Eternal is accomplishing His purposes against Babylon.
He will lay waste her land
and leave it completely empty.
30 Babylon’s mighty warriors have stopped fighting;
they stay inside their fortresses, afraid.
Their strength is gone; they have become as weak as women.
The houses of Babylon are burning, the bars of her city gates broken.
31 The news travels fast—a runner races to meet another;
the word goes from messenger to messenger
Until it reaches the king of Babylon:
His entire city has been captured.
32 The river crossings have been taken,
the marshlands have been set ablaze,
and the soldiers are terrified.
33 This, then, is what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies and God of Israel, says:
Eternal One: The people of Babylon are like wheat ready to be threshed,
spread out on the floor waiting to be trampled.
A little while longer and the time for her harvest will come.
34 Citizens of Jerusalem (crying out to God): Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has devoured us.
He has squeezed the life out of us and left us an empty jar.
Like a monster from the sea, he swallowed us
and gorged himself on the richness of Israel
Only to cough us up and throw us out.
35 “May the violence done to our people be repaid to Babylon,”
we the people of Zion pray.
“May our blood be upon those who live in Chaldea,”
so Jerusalem prays.
36 Eternal One: Watch now as I defend your case
and avenge what was done to you.
I will expose this monster and dry up her sea.
I will deplete her wellsprings.
37 Babylon will be reduced to a heap of rubble,
the haunt of jackals,
An object of horror and hissing scorn,
a place where no one lives.
38 O how this nation roars! Like a pack of young lions,
like lion cubs, they growl.
39 And once they are stirred up,
I will lay out a feast and make them all drunk
until they laugh and feel happy.
But when they fall asleep, they will sleep forever.
This is what I, the Eternal One, promise you.
40 I will bring these proud lions down like lambs going to their own slaughter.
Like rams and goats they will be humbled.
Prophets see things not as they are but as they will be. Babylon is still powerful, but her end is coming. Jeremiah sees her fall as an accomplished fact.
41 How Babylon[b] has been captured!
Babylon, the pride of all the earth, has fallen!
How mighty Babylon has become an object of horror
among all the nations that once feared and admired her.
42 The rising tide of the sea has flooded Babylon.
She disappears beneath its raging waves.
43 Her cities have become an object of horror.
Her fruitful land has been left parched, like a desert,
a wilderness where no one lives, where no wants to go.
44 I will punish Bel, the false god of Babylon;
I will make him cough up all he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer make their way to worship him
because even the great walls of Babylon have fallen.
45 Get out of Babylon, My people, before it is too late!
Run! Save yourselves!
Run! Do not get caught up in the destruction
caused by My fierce anger.
46 Do not lose heart or give in to fear and panic
when the rumors start to fly in the land.
Year after year, the rumors will come—rumors of violence
and reports of one ruler warring against another.
47 So, look! the days are coming
when I will punish Babylon’s idols.
Her whole land will suffer humiliation,
and her dead will lie unburied within her borders.
48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is within them
will shout for joy over the disaster that comes upon Babylon,
For the destroying armies will march against Babylon from out of the north.
49 As the slain of Israel fell, so must Babylon fall.
As the slain of all the earth fell, so must Babylon fall.
50 You who escape the blade of the sword
must get out now. Don’t delay!
Remember Me in that distant land;
remember the Eternal, and think fondly of Jerusalem.
51 In that bittersweet moment,
the remnant of My people will say,
“We are ashamed—we have been insulted by invaders,
and disgrace covers our faces
When we think of foreigners entering the holy places of the Eternal’s temple
and defiling it by their presence.”
52 But I, the Eternal One, declare that the day will come
when I will punish Babylon’s images and idols;
and the groans of her dying will echo through the land.
53 No matter how high she reaches or how strong her defenses,
I will send enemies to destroy her.
So says the Eternal.
54 Listen! Hear the cry that comes from Babylon.
It is the sound of great destruction in the land of Chaldea.
55 For the Eternal is destroying Babylon;
He will drown out the piercing sound of her cries
As wave after wave of her enemies roars in,
crashing against her, with the deafening sound of battle in the air.
56 A destroyer is coming to attack Babylon; her mighty warriors will be captured.
Their weapons will be broken.
For the Eternal is a just God who pays accordingly,
and He will repay Babylon in full.
57 Eternal One: I will make her leaders and wise men drunk
as well as her governors, leaders, and mighty warriors.
And when they fall asleep, they will sleep forever,
So says the King, whose name is the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.
58 Eternal One: The wide and sturdy walls of Babylon will be toppled,
and her massive city gates will be set on fire.
The people toiled to build those walls,
but it was all in vain.
Prisoners from other lands exhausted themselves to build this city,
but their work went up in flames.
This strongly worded message about Babylon is the last of the oracles against the nations. Such is the message that the prophet Jeremiah is called to give—even while Babylon’s power is at its height. And so in 594 b.c., before the final fall of Jerusalem, the prophet to the nations delivers this prophecy to the exiles already in Babylon and—if they choose to listen—to the Babylonians themselves. Jeremiah instructs an assistant to the king of Judah to take this oracle to Babylon and read it aloud. As if that is not enough, he then instructs the man to perform a symbolic act—the sort of thing Jeremiah himself would do if he were there. His willing accomplice will dramatize the ultimate sinking of the Babylonian Empire by fulfilling the prophet’s strange request.
59 Jeremiah the prophet gave the following order to Seraiah (son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah), when Seraiah was accompanying Zedekiah (king of Judah) to Babylon in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah worked in the king’s administration. 60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll all of the terrible things that would one day happen to Babylon (those things which you have just read). Once this important message had been recorded, 61 he said to Seraiah,
Jeremiah: When you get to Babylon, find a public place and read aloud every single word written on this scroll. 62 Then say loud enough for others to hear, “O Eternal One, You have promised that You will destroy this place so that neither man nor beast will live here. Babylon will then be a wasteland forever.” 63 When you have finished reading the scroll and saying these things, tie it to a heavy stone and throw it into the Euphrates River. 64 Then say loud enough for others to hear, “Just as this stone and scroll sink, so will Babylon and her people sink, never to rise again, for they shall be tired after the disaster I, the Lord, am bringing to her.”
The messages of Jeremiah end here.
Jeremiah’s words are often not “his” words. Early in life, his mouth is touched by God, and from then on the prophet is God’s mouthpiece to the world. Jeremiah thinks with God’s mind and speaks with God’s voice when the world around him is crumbling (1:9–10). In many ways, he sees the world as God sees it and then shares those visions, no matter the cost. His ministry spans five kings of Judah, few of whom bother to listen to him. He survives public ridicule, loneliness, and attempts on his life. He witnesses his beloved Jerusalem fall just as he predicts. But he knows the faithfulness of God. The Eternal has promised to sustain him through a difficult life, and so He does.
52 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king. His reign in Jerusalem lasted for a total of 11 years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (not the prophet of Anathoth). 2 Zedekiah committed evil in the eyes of the Eternal, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 All that then happened to Jerusalem and Judah took place because of the Eternal’s anger. He finally forced them out of the land and away from His presence. It was then that Zedekiah foolishly rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought his entire army to surround Jerusalem. On the 10th day of the 10th month, during the 9th year of Zedekiah’s reign, the mighty army of Babylon was camped outside the city and built siege mounds around it. 5 This siege lasted 18 months, well into the 11th year of Zedekiah’s reign. 6 By the 9th day of the 4th month of that year, the famine had become so severe inside the city that no one had anything to eat. Panic was setting in as people feared starvation. 7 When a section of the city wall was breached, all the warriors of Jerusalem escaped through a gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. Even though the Chaldeans had the city surrounded, these warriors escaped the city under the cover of night and fled east toward the Jordan Valley. 8 But the Chaldean army discovered this and chased after Zedekiah, catching him on the plains of Jericho. All of his soldiers had scattered, and he was alone 9 when they captured him. They took him to the king of Babylon, who had set up his command post at Riblah in the land of Hamath. It was here that the king pronounced judgment on Zedekiah. 10 Zedekiah was forced to watch as his own sons and the nobles of Judah were butchered in front of him in Riblah. 11 This was the very last thing he saw, because after this Nebuchadnezzar blinded Zedekiah’s eyes. He was then placed in bronze shackles and carried off to Babylon, where he remained in prison until his death.
12 About a month later, on the 10th day of the 5th month, Nebuzaradan (the captain of the imperial guard and trusted advisor of the king) arrived in Jerusalem. This was during the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon. 13 He systematically destroyed the important structures of the city. He set fire to the Eternal’s temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. 14 All of the Chaldean troops that had accompanied the captain then tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. The capital was now in ruins. 15-16 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the imperial guard, gathered together those still living in the city, including some of the poor and those artisans who had not been deported earlier. He put them with the deserters who had fled to Nebuchadnezzar and forced them all into exile, far away from their homeland. But he left the remaining poor people behind to care for Judah’s vineyards and fields.
17 Before the Babylonian army burned the temple, they proceeded to take everything of value. They took the bronze pillars at the entrance of the temple and the stands and bronze sea that were inside the Eternal’s temple. After breaking them in pieces, the Chaldeans took the bronze back to Babylon. 18 They also took the pans, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the dishes, and every bronze utensil that was used during the temple rituals. 19 The captain of the guard also took the various sacrificial bowls, firepans, pots, lampstands, dishes, and anything else made of gold or silver. 20 The weight of bronze from the two pillars, the sea, the 12 bronze bulls under the sea, and the stands was so great that it could not be accurately measured. These items were very old, for they had been crafted for the temple of the Eternal in the days of King Solomon. 21 The bronze pillars were 27 feet high and had a circumference of 18 feet; they were hollow, but the bronze walls of the pillars were about 3 inches thick. 22-23 The bronze capital atop each pillar was 7½ feet high and covered with latticework and pomegranates—all made of bronze—circling the entire capital. There were 96 pomegranates on all sides of the capital, 100 total in the latticework around the top.
24 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the imperial guard, took Seraiah (the high priest) and Zephaniah (next in line to be high priest), along with 3 officers in charge of the gates. 25 Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the army and 7 of the king’s advisors. He also took the army commander’s secretary, who was in charge of enlisting people into the army, and 60 other men. 26-27 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the imperial guard, took this entire group to the king of Babylon, whose command post was in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Nebuchadnezzar had them all beaten and killed. This is how Judah was taken from her land and sent into exile.
28 This, then, is the number of people Nebuchadnezzar took captive during 3 deportations: In the 7th year of his reign: 3,023 Judeans; 29 in the 18th year of his reign: 832 citizens of Jerusalem; 30 and in the 23rd year of his reign: 745 people were taken into exile by Nebuzaradan, captain of the imperial guard. In all 4,600 people were taken captive.
Years later, during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Evil-merodach (562–560 b.c.), hope emerges. The exiled king Jehoiachin is shown kindness; it seems God has not forgotten them.
31 On the 25th day of the 12th month during the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, ascended to the throne and showed mercy to Jehoiachin and released him from prison. 32 Babylon’s new king was good to Jehoiachin and gave him a place of honor higher than the other nations’ exiled kings in Babylon. 33 And so it was that Jehoiachin exchanged his prison clothes for new clothes, and for the rest of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table. 34 The king of Babylon even gave him a daily allowance on which he lived until the day of his death.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.