Jeremiah 50:1-51:64
A message about Babylon
Write it on a large piece of material and lift it up.
Do not hide anything but say,
“Enemies will get power over Babylon.
Bel will be ashamed and Marduk will be afraid.
All the gods that they have made with their hands will be ashamed.” ’
Nobody will live in it. Men and animals will run away.’
‘The people from Judah and from Israel will be sorry.
They will cry while they go to find the Lord their God.
They will return and they will promise to be the Lord's servants.
They will make a
Nobody will forget that covenant.
Those who should have led them to me have led them away.
They have been walking on the mountains and hills.
They have walked about and they have forgotten their place to rest.
Their enemies said, “They have caused this trouble to themselves.
They did many wrong things.
They did not obey the Lord who was really their leader.
He was the leader that their
They will come against Babylon from the north. And they will take its people away to be
Their
So run away from Babylon. Leave the country called Babylon.
Be the first people to leave Babylon.
Every enemy will have enough things,’ says the Lord.
You are so happy that you dance like young cows.
You shout aloud like a horse that wants sex.
Her child does not bring
Your people will be less important than other
Your country will be a
Your country will be completely empty.
All who pass Babylon will be very afraid.
And they will say all kinds of bad things about it when they see its troubles.
stand round Babylon.
Shoot at it! Use all your arrows.
Shoot because its people have done bad things against the Lord.
Its people will let you get power over it. Its strong buildings will fall.
You will pull down its walls.
That is how the Lord will
You must do to them what they have done to other people.
And do not let anyone remain to get food from the fields at the proper time.
All the foreign workers will return to their own
All those workers will run away to their own country.
They ran away because
The first to eat them was the king of Assyria.
The man who finished the meal was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.’
‘I will
as I
And their cows will feed on Carmel and in Bashan.
They will eat and they will be full on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
‘I will
Nobody will find any
There will not be any
Run after them and kill all those people,’ says the Lord.
‘Do everything that I have asked you to do.
It is like the noise when enemies are destroying everything.
But now enemies have broken it into small pieces.
It is now alone among the
And now I have caught you!
Your enemies found you and they got power over you. They got power over you because you did not obey the Lord.
He has taken out the
The great and powerful Lord has work to do in the country called Babylon.
They will break open the places where people had put their food.
They will break its buildings into pieces.
They will destroy it completely. Nothing will still be there.
They will be sorry. They will all die. It is time for me to
They will tell how the Lord has
The Lord has
They will stay all round it so that nobody will be able to run away.
You must
Do to them as they did to you.
Do that because they
Then none of their soldiers will be able to fight,’ says the Lord.
But you will see that I am against you,’ says the great and powerful Lord.
‘That is because the day for your
And nobody will help them to get up.
I will make a fire in your towns to burn up all who are near to it.’
‘You have been cruel to the people from Israel and Judah.
You have taken them as
and you will not let them go.
He will come to
He will fight hard to save them.
Then their country will have rest.
But Babylon's people will not have any rest.’
‘I am against those who live in Babylon.
And I am against its officers and its clever men.
I will cause them to become fools.
My
and foreign men who fight for it.
They will be as weak as women.
I will cause them to give their valuable things to you.
You will take them away.
Their country is full of
Their false gods will be afraid.
Birds that fly at night will live there, too.
Men will never live there again.
Nobody's sons or grandsons will live there.
and the towns near to them,’ says the Lord.
‘Babylon will be like those towns,
so nobody will live there, not one man.
A great
are coming towards Babylon.
They are cruel and they are not kind.
They make a noise like the moving sea while they ride on their horses.
They are an army that is ready to attack you, people in Babylon.
He is weak because he is afraid.
He feels pain like the pain of a woman who is having a baby.
that is coming out of the woods by the Jordan river.
I will come into your rich fields.
I will soon cause the people in Babylon to run from their country.
I will choose a man to do that, and nobody can stand against me.
Nobody can stop me.’
Hear about the things that he will do to their country.
He will pull the young children away from their mothers.
And he will completely destroy their good country
because of the bad things that they have done.
Then people will be afraid.
All the
Jeremiah 51
‘I will wake up those people who want to destroy Babylon and the people in Leb-Kamai.
They will break it and they will destroy its country.
They will be all round it at that time.
or to pick up their
You will kill all its young men.
You will completely destroy its army.
They have done many wrong things.
And they have not obeyed him.
But he has not left them.
Run to save your lives!
My armies are coming to
Do not let them hurt you.
The time has come to
The Lord will
The Lord saw that the
The
If you get medicine, perhaps you may make it well.
“We would have made Babylon well if we could.
But nobody can make it well.
We will leave it and each person will go back to his own country.
Its
It reaches up to the sky.”
We must tell the people in
about the things that our God has done.”
The Lord has caused the kings of Media to prepare for war.
He wants them to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will
Watch. And be ready to catch those who try to run away.
The Lord will do as he has promised against Babylon's people.
I speak to those rich people who live by the rivers of Babylon.
“I will fill Babylon with men. They will come like a very big number of insects. And they will shout happily because they have beaten you.”
He was so
He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends
And he causes the wind to blow.
Men who work with gold should be ashamed.
They make
The Lord will
So he is not like the
He chose Israel's people to be his own people.
His is called the great and powerful Lord.
I use you to fight for me.
You will break the
I will use you to destroy
With you I will break
With you, I will break old men and young men.
With you, I will break young men and girls.
With you, I will break farmers and their animals.
With you, I will break those in authority and their officers.
I will
You will see it with your own eyes,’ says the Lord.
says the Lord.
‘I will put out my hands towards you and I will push you down.
I will burn you up.
You will be like a
You must make a noise with the
Cause the
Ask the armies of the
They must choose their captain to lead them. They will have many horses.
Their horses will be like so many insects that they seem like a cloud.
and to their officers and leaders.
Ask them to prepare for war against Babylon.
Cause them to bring armies from the places that they rule.
The country is
The Lord will destroy Babylon and he will make it a desert.
Nobody will live there.
They are staying in their strong buildings.
They are very tired and they have become like women.
Soldiers are burning the city.
They have broken down its gates and they have burnt its houses.
They all tell him that his enemies have got power over his city.
Enemies have made the country like a fire and the soldiers of Babylon are afraid.’
‘Babylon is like the place where men walk on the
It is time for men to walk over the city.
It will soon be time for men to take away the city's valuable things.’
He has confused us. He has made us like an empty jar.
Like a snake, he has eaten us and he has filled himself with our good things.
Then he threw us away.’
We are asking him to do to Nebuchadnezzar all the bad things that he did to our people.’
‘We ask him to
‘Watch. And see that I will fight for you. I will
I will cause its sea and its rivers to become dry.
Wild animals will live there.
Men will
like angry
I will cause them to get drunk. And so they will laugh.
They will sleep and they will never wake again,’ says the Lord.
They will be like sheep and goats and their young animals.
None of the
Nobody will live there. Nobody will walk on its land.
I will cause him to give back everything that he has taken.
And the walls of Babylon will fall.
Run away because the Lord is very angry with it.
when people say things to make you afraid.
They will tell stories this year and they will tell more stories next year.
They will tell stories about men who hurt each other badly.
They will say that rulers will fight each other.
when I will
Men will be ashamed of its whole country.
And its dead people will lie in its streets.
They will be so happy that they will shout. And they will dance.
They will be happy because people will come to destroy Babylon.
They will come from the north to attack it,’ says the Lord.
People killed the people in Babylon as they caused many to die in all the earth.
Do not wait for anything, but go quickly.
Remember the Lord. Think about Jerusalem, you who are far away.’
We cannot look at people's faces.
We are ashamed because
‘when I will
And I will hurt many people all over that country.
They will cry with pain.
They may make its walls very strong.
But I will send men to destroy it,’ says the Lord.
It will be the noise of the country of Babylon as men destroy it.
Enemies will come against it like a hill of waters.
Their voices will sound like the sea when it is moving like an angry person.
They will take its soldiers and they will break their
The Lord will be paying back those who have hurt his people.
He will give full
I will do that also to its rulers and to its soldiers.
They will sleep and they will never wake up,’ says the King.
He is the great and powerful Lord.
‘They will knock down the thick walls of Babylon.
They will burn its high gates.
The
All the things that the
That is the end of Jeremiah's words.