Jeremiah 50

¹ The word that Yahweh has spoken concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet: ² "Declare you among nations, and sound, And lift up an ensign, sound, do not hide, Say you: Captured has been Babylon, Put to shame has been Bel, Broken has been Merodach, Put to shame have been her grievous things, Broken have been her idols. ³ For come up against her has a nation from the north, It makes her land become a desolation, And there is not an inhabitant in it. From man even unto beast, They have moved, they have gone. ⁴ In those days, and at that time, An affirmation of Yahweh, Come in do sons of Israel, They and sons of Judah together, Going on and weeping they go, And Yahweh their Elohim they seek. ⁵ [To] Zion they ask the way, Thitherward [are] their faces: Come in, and we are joined unto Yahweh, A covenant eonian - not forgotten. ⁶ A perishing flock has My people been, Their shepherds have caused them to err, [To] the mountains causing them to go back, From mountain unto hill they have gone, They have forgotten their crouching-place. ⁷ All finding them have devoured them, And their adversaries have said: We are not guilty, Because that they sinned against Yahweh, The habitation of righteousness, And the hope of their fathers - Yahweh. ⁸ Move you from the midst of Babylon, And from the land of the Chaldeans go out. And be as he-goats before a flock. ⁹ For, lo, I am stirring up, And am causing to come up against Babylon, An assembly of great nations from a land of the north, And they have set in array against her, From thence she is captured, Its arrow - as a skilful hero - returns not empty, ¹⁰ And Chaldea has been for a spoil, All her spoilers are satisfied, An affirmation of Yahweh. ¹¹ Because you rejoice, because you exult, O spoilers of Mine inheritance, Because you increase as a heifer [at] the tender grass, And do cry aloud as bulls, ¹² Ashamed has been your mother greatly, Confounded has she been that bare you, Lo, the hindermost of nations [is] a wilderness, A dry land, and a desert. ¹³ Because of the wrath of Yahweh it is not inhabited, And it has been a desolation - all of it. Every passer by at Babylon is astonished, And does hiss because of all her plagues. ¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, All you treading a bow, Shoot at her, have no pity on the arrow, For against Yahweh she has sinned. ¹⁵ Shout against her round about, She has given forth her hand, Fallen have her foundations, Thrown down have been her walls, For it [is] the vengeance of Yahweh, Be avenged of her, as she did - do you to her. ¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, And him handling the sickle in the time of harvest, Because of the oppressing sword, Each unto his people - they turn, And each to his land - they flee. ¹⁷ A scattered sheep is Israel, lions have driven away, At first, devour him did the king of Asshur, And now, at last, broken his bone Has Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. ¹⁸ Therefore thus said Yahweh of Hosts, Elohim of Israel: Lo, I am seeing after the king of Babylon, And after his land, As I have seen after the king of Asshur; ¹⁹ And I have brought back Israel unto his habitation, And he has fed on Carmel, and on Bashan. And in mount Ephraim, and on Gilead is his soul satisfied. ²⁰ In those days, and at that time, An affirmation of Yahweh, Sought is the iniquity of Israel, and it is not, And the sin of Judah, and it is not found, For I am propitious to those whom I leave! ²¹ Against the land of Merathaim: Go up against it, and unto the inhabitants of Pekod, Waste and devote their posterity, An affirmation of Yahweh, And do according to all that I have commanded you. ²² A noise of battle [is] in the land, and of great destruction. ²³ How has it been cut and broken, The hammer of the whole earth! How has Babylon been for a desolation among nations! ²⁴ I have laid a snare for you, And also - you are captured, O Babylon, And you - you have known, You have been found, and also are caught, For against Yahweh you have stirred yourself up. ²⁵ Yahweh has opened His treasury, And He brings out the weapons of His indignation, For a work [is] to the Lord Yahweh of Hosts, In the land of the Chaldeans." ²⁶ Come you in to her from the extremity, Open you her storehouses, Raise her up as heaps, and devote her, Let her have no remnant. ²⁷ Slay all her kine, they go down to slaughter, Woe [is] on them, for come has their day, The time of their inspection. ²⁸ A voice of fugitives and escaped ones [Is] from the land of Babylon, To declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our Elohim, The vengeance of His temple. ²⁹ Summon unto Babylon archers, all treading the bow, Encamp against her round about, Let [her] have no escape; Recompense to her according to her work, According to all that she did - do to her, For unto Yahweh she has been proud, Unto the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore fall do her young men in her broad places, And all her men of war are cut off in that day, An affirmation of Yahweh. ³¹ Lo, I [am] against you, O pride, An affirmation of the Lord Yahweh of Hosts, For your day has come, the time of your inspection. ³² And stumbled has pride, And he has fallen, and has no raiser up, And I have kindled a fire in his cities, And it has devoured all round about him. ³³ Thus said Yahweh of Hosts: Oppressed are the sons of Israel, And the sons of Judah together, And all their captors have kept hold on them, They have refused to send them away. ³⁴ Their Redeemer [is] strong, Yahweh of Hosts [is] His name, He does thoroughly plead their cause, So as to cause the land to rest, And He has given trouble to the inhabitants of Babylon. ³⁵ A sword [is] for the Chaldeans, An affirmation of Yahweh, And it [is] on the inhabitants of Babylon, And on her heads, and on her wise men; ³⁶ A sword [is] on the princes, And they have become foolish; A sword [is] on her mighty ones, And they have been broken down; ³⁷ A sword [is] on his horses and on his chariot, And on all the rabble who [are] in her midst, And they have become women; A sword [is] on her treasuries, And they have been spoiled; ³⁸ A sword [is] on her waters, and they have been dried up, For it [is] a land of graven images, And in idols they do boast themselves. ³⁹ Therefore dwell do Ziim with Iim, Yea, dwelt in her have daughters of the ostrich, And it is not inhabited any more for ever, Nor dwelt in unto all generations. ⁴⁰ As overthrown by Elohim with Sodom, And with Gomorrah, and with its neighbors, An affirmation of Yahweh, none does dwell there, Nor sojourn in her does a son of man. ⁴¹ Lo, a people has come from the north, Even a great nation, And many kings are stirred up from the sides of the earth. ⁴² Bow and halbert they seize, Cruel [are] they, and they have no mercy, Their voice as a sea sounds, and on horses they ride, Set in array as a man for battle, Against you, O daughter of Babylon. ⁴³ Heard has the king of Babylon their report, And feeble have been his hands, Distress has seized him; pain as a travailing woman. ⁴⁴ Lo, as a lion he comes up, Because of the rising of the Jordan, Unto the enduring habitation, But I cause to rest, I cause them to run from off her. And who is chosen? on her I lay a charge, For who [is] like Me? And who does convene Me? And who [is] this shepherd who stands before Me? ⁴⁵ Therefore, hear you the counsel of Yahweh, That He counselled concerning Babylon, And His devices that He has devised Concerning the land of the Chaldeans; Drag them out do not little ones of the flock, Does He not make desolate over them the habitation? ⁴⁶ From the voice: Captured was Babylon, Has the earth been shaken, And a cry among nations has been heard!"