Jeremiah 50

A Message about Babylon

50The Lord gave Jeremiah the prophet this message concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians

.H1697H3068H1696H894H776H3778H3027H3414H50302This 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

will be shattered. Her gods Bel and Marduk will be utterly disgraced.H5046H1471H8085H5375H5251H8085H3582H559H894H3920H1078H3001H4781H2865H6091H3001H1544H28653For 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.H6828H5927H1471H7896H776H8047H3427H5110H1980H120H929

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.H3117H6256H5002H3068H1121H3478H935H1121H3063H3162H1980H1058H3212H1245H3068H4305They will ask the way to Jerusalem

and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.H7592H1870H6726H6440H2008H935H3867H3068H5769H1285H79116“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.H5971H6H6629H7462H8582H7725H7726H2022H1980H2022H1389H7911H72587All 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.’H4672H398H6862H559H816H2398H3068H5116H6664H3068H4723H18“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.H5110H8432H894H3318H3318H776H3778H6260H6440H66299For 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!H5782H5927H894H6951H1419H1471H6828H776H6186H3920H2671H1368H7919H7921H7725H738710Babylonia

will be looted until the attackers are glutted with loot. I, the Lord, have spoken!H3778H7998H7997H7646H5002H3068

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.H8055H5937H8154H5159H6335H5697H1877H1758H6670H4712But your homeland

will be overwhelmed with shame and disgrace. You will become the least of nations—a wilderness, a dry and desolate land.H517H3966H954H3205H2659H319H1471H4057H6723H616013Because 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.H7110H3068H3427H8077H5674H894H8074H8319H434714“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.H6186H894H5439H1869H7198H3034H2550H2671H2398H306815Shout 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!H7321H5439H5414H3027H803H5307H2346H2040H5360H3068H5358H6213H621316Take 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.H3772H2232H894H8610H4038H6256H7105H6440H3238H2719H6437H376H5971H5127H376H776

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

of Babylon cracked their bones.”H3478H6340H7716H738H5080H7223H4428H804H398H314H5019H4428H894H610518Therefore, 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.H559H3068H6635H430H3478H6485H4428H894H776H6485H4428H80419And 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.H7725H3478H7725H5116H7462H3760H1316H5315H7646H2022H669H156820In those days,” says the Lord, “no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.H3117H6256H5002H3068H5771H3478H1245H2403H3063H4672H5545H7604

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

them, as I have commanded you,” says the Lord.H5927H776H4850H3427H6489H2717H2763H310H5002H3068H6213H668022“Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction.H6963H4421H776H1419H766723Babylon, the mightiest hammer in all the earth, lies broken and shattered. Babylon is desolate among the nations!H6360H776H1438H7665H894H8047H147124Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you. You are caught, for you have fought against the Lord.H3369H3920H894H3045H4672H8610H1624H306825The 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.H3068H6605H214H3318H3627H2195H4399H136H3069H6635H776H377826Yes, 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!H935H7093H6605H3965H5549H6194H2763H761127Destroy even her young bulls—it will be terrible for them, too! Slaughter them all! For Babylon’s day of reckoning has come.H2717H6499H3381H2874H1945H3117H935H6256H648628Listen 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.H6963H5127H6405H776H894H5046H6726H5360H3068H430H5360H196429“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.H8085H7228H894H1869H7198H2583H5439H6413H7999H6467H6213H6213H2102H3068H6918H347830Her young men will fall in the streets and die. Her soldiers will all be killed,” says the Lord.H970H5307H7339H582H4421H1826H3117H5002H306831“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.H2087H5002H136H3069H6635H3117H935H6256H648532O 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.”H2087H3782H5307H6965H3341H784H5892H398H543933This 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.H559H3068H6635H1121H3478H1121H3063H6231H3162H7617H2388H3985H797134But 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!H1350H2389H3068H6635H8034H7378H7378H7379H7280H776H7264H3427H89435“The sword of destruction will strike the Babylonians,” says the Lord. “It will strike the people of Babylon—her officials and wise men, too.H2719H3778H5002H3068H3427H894H8269H245036The sword will strike her wise counselors, and they will become fools. The sword will strike her mightiest warriors, and panic will seize them.H2719H907H2973H2719H1368H286537The 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.H2719H5483H7393H6153H8432H802H2719H214H96238The sword will even 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.H2721H4325H3001H776H6456H1984H36739“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.H6728H338H3427H1323H3284H3427H3427H5331H7931H1755H175540I will destroy it as I

destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns,” says the Lord. “No one will live there; no one will inhabit it.H430H4114H5467H6017H7934H5002H3068H376H3427H1121H120H148141“Look! A great army is coming from the north. A great nation and many kings are rising against you from far-off lands.H5971H935H6828H1419H1471H7227H4428H5782H3411H77642They 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.H2388H7198H3591H394H7355H6963H1993H3220H7392H5483H6186H376H4421H1323H89443The 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.H4428H894H8085H8088H3027H7503H6869H2388H2427H320544“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?”H5927H738H1347H3383H5116H386H7323H7280H7323H7323H977H6485H3259H7462H5975H644045Listen 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.H8085H6098H3068H3289H894H4284H2803H776H3778H6810H6629H5498H5116H807446The earth will shake with the shout, “Babylon has been taken!” and its cry of despair will be heard around the world.H6963H8610H894H776H7493H2201H8085H1471