Jeremiah 50
Punishment for Babylon
Do not try to hide anything. Say this:
“Enemies will take Babylon.
Bel will become ashamed.
Yes, Marduk will be afraid.
All Babylon's
They will destroy the whole land.
People and animals will all run away,
so that nobody lives there.’
the people of Israel and Judah will return to their land.
They will weep because of their
They will want to
They will travel in that direction.
They will promise to
They will make a
Nobody will ever forget that covenant.
Their leaders should have taken care of them like
Instead, they have let my people become lost,
like sheep that have gone into the mountains.
They go from one hill to another hill,
and they have forgotten where their home is.
Their enemies said, “We are not
They
He is their true home where they are safe.
But they turned against the Lord,
the God that their
Leave the land of Babylonia!
Be the first people to leave.
Lead the other people away,
like a male goat that leads the other goats.
They will join together to fight against Babylon.
They will get ready to attack.
They will come from the north
and they will take power over Babylon.
Their
They will kill everyone that they want to kill.
Enemy soldiers will take everything that they want for themselves.’
That is what the Lord says.
because you have robbed my people.
You dance like young cows that have fresh grass to eat.
You make a happy noise, like a strong male horse.
but she will become ashamed.
Yes, she will become the least important of all nations.
The country will be dry and empty, like a
because I, the Lord, am very angry with it.
It will be only a
Everyone who goes that way will see that it is a
They will
because of the
Stand in your places around Babylon.
Shoot your arrows into the city! Shoot all of them!
Its people are ready to stop fighting.
Its strong
You will knock down its walls.
The Lord is punishing Babylon,
so punish the people for their
Do the same thing to them that they have done to other people.
Remove all the people who cut the crops at
The
They must run away to
They are like sheep that hungry
The first to catch them was the king of Assyria.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed them,
like a lion that broke their bones.’
‘I will
as I punished the king of Assyria.
They will grow their crops on Carmel and in Bashan.
They will have plenty of food to eat
on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
I have let a few people of Israel and Judah remain.
And they will no longer be
That is what the Lord says.
‘Attack the land of Merathaim.
Attack the people who live in Pekod.
Run after them! Kill them! Completely destroy them!
Do everything that I have
The enemy is destroying everything!
like a hammer that breaks things into pieces.
But now that hammer has broken into pieces.
Now the other nations see that Babylon is a
and you did not know about it.
Now I have caught you in my trap,
because you fought against me.
I will use those weapons to punish the people of Babylonia,
because I am very angry with them.
I am the Lord God Almighty.
I have work to do in the land of Babylonia.
Break open the store rooms and take out the
Knock down their buildings and break them into pieces.
Completely destroy everything.
Do not let anything remain!
Let them go to their place of death!
The time of their
They must make their camp all around the city.
Do not let anyone
Punish the people for the things that they have done.
Do the same thing to them that they have done to others.
Those people have
All its soldiers will die in battle on that day.’
That is what the Lord says.
‘You people of Babylon are very
so I will fight against you.
Now the day has come
when I will punish you for your sins.
Nobody will help you to get up.
I will burn Babylonia's towns with fire,
and it will destroy everything that is around them.’
‘People have been cruel to the people of Israel and Judah.
Enemies have taken them away as
They have refused to let my people go free.
I am strong and I will
I will fight hard to save them.
I will bring
But the people of Babylonia will only have trouble.’
‘I am sending an army to fight against Babylon.
They will attack the people of Babylonia,
its leaders and its
and people will see that the prophets are fools.
They will attack the soldiers of Babylonia,
and those soldiers will be very afraid.
and the foreign soldiers who belong to its army.
They will become as weak as women.
The enemy soldiers will take Babylon's valuable things.
They will take them away for themselves.
so that the rivers and streams become dry.
I will send all this trouble because
their whole land is full of
The people become crazy
because they are afraid of their idols.
But people will never live there again.
It will remain as empty as a
The same thing happened to Sodom and Gomorrah
and the towns near to them.
Nobody will live there any more.’
That is what the Lord says.
A great
They are coming from a place that is far away.
They are always cruel and they are never kind.
They ride into the
and it sounds like the noise of the sea.
They are ready to attack you, people of Babylon!
and he is very afraid.
He feels too weak to fight.
He feels pain like a woman who is giving birth.
and I will chase them out of their land.
I will do that like a
It attacks the sheep in the fields beside the Jordan River.
Like that lion, I will suddenly chase Babylonia's people out of their country.
Then I will choose a leader to rule that nation.
There is nobody who is like me.
Nobody can
No ruler can stand against me.
This is what I have decided to do to Babylon.
Yes, this is the trouble that I will bring to the people of Babylonia.
Soldiers will catch their children and take them away,
like little
I will completely destroy their homes.
the noise will cause the whole earth to
The other nations will hear Babylon's people shout with pain.’