1The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet:
2Declare among the nations and proclaim; raise a signal, proclaim, do not conceal it. Say: Babylon is captured, Bel is put to shame, Marduk is shattered; her images are put to shame, her idols are shattered.
3For a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land a desolation, and no inhabitant will be in her. From human to beast they have fled, they are gone.
4In those days and at that time, declares Yahweh, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; weeping as they go, they will go, and Yahweh their God they will seek.
5They will ask the way to Zion, their faces turned toward it: Come and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
6My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, turning them loose on the apostate mountains. From mountain to hill they went; they forgot their resting place.
7All who found them devoured them, and their foes said, ‘We are not guilty,’ because they sinned against Yahweh, the abode of righteousness, and the hope of their fathers, Yahweh.
8Flee from the midst of Babylon; go out from the land of the Chaldeans, and be like he-goats before the flock.
9For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north, and they will array themselves against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.
10And Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will be satisfied, declares Yahweh.
11Because you rejoice, because you exult, you plunderers of my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions—
12your mother is utterly ashamed, she who bore you is disgraced. Behold, the last of the nations—a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13Because of the wrath of Yahweh she will not be inhabited, but will become an utter desolation. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss at all her wounds.
14Array yourselves against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrow, for against Yahweh she has sinned.
15Raise a shout against her all around; she has surrendered. Her bulwarks have fallen, her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of Yahweh, take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.
16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle in the time of harvest. Because of the oppressing sword each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
17Israel is a scattered sheep that lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now, at the last, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
18Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and on Mount Ephraim and Gilead his appetite will be satisfied.
20In those days and at that time, declares Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none, and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will forgive those whom I leave as a remnant.
21Against the land of Merathaim, go up against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Slay and devote to destruction after them, declares Yahweh, and do according to all that I have commanded you.
22The sound of war is in the land, and a great crash.
23How the hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
24I set a snare for you, and you were also caught, Babylon, and you did not know it. You were found and also seized, because you contended with Yahweh.
25Yahweh has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his indignation, for the Lord Yahweh of hosts has a work in the land of the Chaldeans.
26Come against her from every quarter; open her granaries, pile her up like heaps, and devote her to destruction; let no remnant be left to her.
27Slay all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28The sound of fugitives and escapees from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance for his temple.
29Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; according to all that she has done, do to her, for against Yahweh she has acted arrogantly, against the Holy One of Israel.
30Therefore her young men will fall in her squares, and all her men of war will be silenced on that day, declares Yahweh.
31“Behold, I am against you, O insolent one,” declares the Lord Yahweh of hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I punish you.
32The insolent one will stumble and fall, with none to raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all his surroundings.”
33Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah together; all who took them captive have held them fast, refusing to let them go.
34Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, so as to give rest to the land but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35A sword against the Chaldeans, declares Yahweh, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men!
36A sword against the diviners, that they may become fools! A sword against her warriors, that they may be shattered!
37A sword against his horses and his chariotry, and against all the mixed multitude that is in her midst, that they may become like women! A sword against her treasuries, that they may be plundered!
38A drought against her waters, that they may dry up! For it is a land of idols, and over their terrors they go mad.
39Therefore desert creatures will dwell there with hyenas, and ostriches will dwell in her; she will never again be inhabited, nor be settled from generation to generation.
40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, declares Yahweh, so no one will dwell there, nor will any son of man sojourn in her.
41Behold, a people is coming from the north, a great nation and many kings, stirred up from the remotest parts of the earth.
42They grasp bow and javelin; they are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, arrayed like a man for battle against you, O Daughter of Babylon.
43The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands have gone slack; anguish has seized him, writhing like a woman in labor.
44Behold, like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, so in an instant I will drive them away from her; and whoever is chosen I will appoint over her. For who is like me, and who can summon me to account, and who is the shepherd who can stand before me?
45Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh that he has purposed against Babylon, and his plans that he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they will drag them away, the little ones of the flock; surely he will make their pasture desolate over them.
46At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth quakes, and an outcry is heard among the nations.
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