The Father's Prophecy Against Babylon
The empire that carried Judah off is itself sentenced: Bel shamed, walls pulled down, the land left to jackals. Meanwhile Israel and Judah come back weeping, asking the way to Zion and their Father, their guilt searched for and not found, their Redeemer strong.
50 1The word our Father spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Babylonians, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2Declare among the nations and proclaim it; raise a banner and proclaim it; hide nothing. Say: Babylon is captured; Bel is ashamed, Marduk is shattered. Her images are ashamed, her idols are shattered. a a v2 Bel and Marduk were the chief gods of Babylon. 3For out of the north a nation comes up against her; it will make her land a desolation, and no one will live in it. Both people and animals have fled; they are gone.
4In those days and at that time, declares our Father, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go weeping as they walk, and they will seek their Father. 5They will ask the way to Zion, their faces turned toward it: "Come, let us join ourselves to our Father in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten." 6My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, turning them loose on the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place. 7All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, "We are not guilty, because they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their ancestors." 8Flee from within Babylon; go out from the land of the Babylonians, and be like the male goats that lead the flock. 9For look, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a company of great nations from the land of the north. They will array themselves against her, and from there she will be captured. Their arrows fly like those of a skilled warrior who never returns empty-handed. 10Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will be satisfied, declares our Father.
11Because you rejoice, because you celebrate, you plunderers of my heritage, because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions, 12your mother will be utterly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Look, she will be the last of the nations—a wilderness, a dry land, a desert. 13Because of our Father's wrath she will not be inhabited; she will become a complete desolation. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss at all her wounds. 14Take your positions against Babylon all around, all you archers. Shoot at her; spare no arrows, for she has sinned against our Father. 15Shout against her on every side; she has surrendered. Her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is our Father's justice, carry out justice against her; do to her as she has done. 16Cut off from Babylon the sower and the harvester. Before the sword of the oppressor each will turn back to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
17Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at the end Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
18This is what the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel, says: I will punish Babylon's king and his land as I punished Assyria's king. 19I will bring Israel back to his own pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead his soul will be satisfied. 20In those days and at that time, declares our Father, Israel's guilt will be searched for and there will be none; the sins of Judah will be searched for and none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I leave alive.
21Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against those who live in Pekod. Slay and devote them to destruction, declares our Father; do everything I have commanded you. 22The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction. 23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! 24I set a snare for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it. You were found and seized because you contended with our Father.
25Our Father has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Father of heaven's armies has work to do in the land of the Babylonians. 26Come against her from every quarter; open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Devote her to destruction; let nothing be left of her. 27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment. 28Listen—fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, coming to Zion to declare our Father's justice, his justice for his temple. 29Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow. Camp around her on every side; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her everything she has done. For she has been arrogant against our Father, against the Holy One of Israel.
30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day, declares our Father. 31Look, I am against you, you arrogant one, declares the Father of heaven's armies, for your day has come, the time when I will punish you. 32The arrogant one will stumble and fall, with no one to raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will consume everything around him. 33This is what the Father of heaven's armies says: The children of Israel are oppressed, and the children of Judah with them. All who captured them hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.
34Their Redeemer is strong; the Father of heaven's armies is his name. He will surely defend their cause, to bring rest to the earth but unrest to those who live in Babylon.
35A sword against the Babylonians, declares our Father, and against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men! 36A sword against the false prophets, and they will become fools! A sword against her warriors, and they will be shattered! 37A sword against her horses and her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst, and they will become like women! A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered! 38A drought against her waters, and they will dry up! For it is a land of idols, and they go mad over their dreadful images. 39Therefore desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and ostriches will dwell in her. She will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations. 40As when our Father overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, declares our Father, so no one will live there; no human being will stay in her. 41Look, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. 42They grip bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea as they ride on horses, arrayed like a man for battle against you, Daughter of Babylon. 43The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish grips him, pain like a woman in labor. 44Look, like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan to a settled pasture, in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land, and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who can summon me? What shepherd can stand before me?
45Therefore hear the plan our Father has made against Babylon and the purposes he has formed against the land of the Babylonians: Surely the little ones of their flock will be dragged away; surely their pasture will be appalled at their fate. 46At the sound of Babylon's capture the earth will tremble, and her cry will be heard among the nations.
