Jeremiah 50–52

1The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2“Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal; say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’

3For a nation comes up out of the north against her, which will make her land desolate, and no one will dwell in it. They have fled. They are gone, both man and animal.

4“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God.

5They will inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.’

6My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.

7All who found them have devoured them. Their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.’

8“Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks.

9For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they will set themselves in array against her. She will be taken from there. Their arrows will be as of an expert mighty man. None of them will return in vain.

10Chaldea will be a prey. All who prey on her will be satisfied,” says Yahweh.

11“Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses,

12your mother will be utterly disappointed. She who bore you will be confounded. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13Because of Yahweh’s wrath she won’t be inhabited, but she will be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her. Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh.

15Shout against her all around. She has submitted herself. Her bulwarks have fallen. Her walls have been thrown down, for it is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do to her.

16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword, they will each return to their own people, and they will each flee to their own land.

17“Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

18Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan. His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

20In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none, also the sins of Judah, and they won’t be found; for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

21“Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill and utterly destroy after them,” says Yahweh, “and do according to all that I have commanded you.

22A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

24I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware. You are found, and also caught, because you have fought against Yahweh.

25Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought out the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

26Come against her from the farthest border. Open her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps. Destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left.

27Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.

28Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29“Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Pay her back according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. All her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says Yahweh.

31“Behold, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; “for your day has come, the time that I will visit you.

32The proud one will stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all who are around him.”

33Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go.

34Their Redeemer is strong. Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35“A sword is on the Chaldeans,” says Yahweh, “and on the inhabitants of Babylon, on her princes, and on her wise men.

36A sword is on the boasters, and they will become fools. A sword is on her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.

37A sword is on their horses, on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they will become as women. A sword is on her treasures, and they will be robbed.

38A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

39Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves will dwell there. The ostriches will dwell therein. It will be inhabited no more forever, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation.

40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says Yahweh, “so no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein.

41“Behold, a people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42They take up bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea. They ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

43The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labor.

44Behold, the enemy will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against the strong habitation; for I will suddenly make them run away from it. Whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it, for who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?”

45Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they will drag them away, even the little ones of the flock. Surely he will make their habitation desolate over them.

46The earth trembles at the noise of the taking of Babylon. The cry is heard among the nations.

1Yahweh says: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind.

2I will send to Babylon strangers, who will winnow her. They will empty her land; for in the day of trouble they will be against her all around.

3Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army!

4They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.

5For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

6“Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity, for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance. He will give to her a recompense.

7Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

8Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed.

9“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let’s each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

10‘Yahweh has produced our righteousness. Come, and let’s declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.’

11“Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.

12Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the watchmen, and prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.

14Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they will lift up a shout against you.’

15“He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens.

16When he utters his voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.

17“Every man has become stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image, for his molten images are falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.

19The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he formed all things, including the tribe of his inheritance. Yahweh of Armies is his name.

20“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.

21With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.

22With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin.

23With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.

24“I will give to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says Yahweh.

25“Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.

26They won’t take a cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate forever,” says Yahweh.

27“Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the swarming locusts!

28Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion!

29The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken.

31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.

32So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.”

33For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest comes for her.”

34“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out.

35May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!” will Jerusalem say.

36Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

37Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38They will roar together like young lions. They will growl as lions’ cubs.

39When they are inflamed, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh.

40“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

41“How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

42The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells. No son of man passes by it.

44I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.

45“My people, go away from the middle of her, and each of you save yourselves from Yahweh’s fierce anger.

46Don’t let your heart faint. Don’t fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year, and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land will be confounded. All her slain will fall in the middle of her.

48Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, will sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers will come to her from the north,” says Yahweh.

49“As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon.

50You who have escaped the sword, go! Don’t stand still! Remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

51“We are confounded because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”

52“Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded will groan.

53Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet destroyers will come to her from me,” says Yahweh.

54“The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55For Yahweh lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice! Their waves roar like many waters. The noise of their voice is uttered.

56For the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon. Her mighty men are taken. Their bows are broken in pieces, for Yahweh is a God of retribution. He will surely repay.

57I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

58Yahweh of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary.”

59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster.

60Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,

62and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’

63It will be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates.

64Then you shall say, ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

2He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

3For through Yahweh’s anger this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.

5So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

7Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went toward the Arabah,

8but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

9Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he pronounced judgment on him.

10The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

11He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

12Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.

13He burned Yahweh’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.

14All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.

15Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers.

17The Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in Yahweh’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house in pieces, and carried all of their bronze to Babylon.

18They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered.

19The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the spoons, and the bowls; that which was of gold, as gold, and that which was of silver, as silver.

20They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made for Yahweh’s house. The bronze of all these vessels was without weight.

21As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow.

22A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. The second pillar also had the same, with pomegranates.

23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around.

24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold,

25and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the middle of the city.

26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

27The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

28This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Jews;

29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons;

30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five people. All the people numbered four thousand six hundred.

31In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and released him from prison.

32He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

33and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life.

34For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.