¹The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon – concerning the land of the Chaldeans – through the intermediacy of Jeremiah the prophet.

²“Tell it to the nations,

And proclaim it,

And raise a banner.

Proclaim it;

Do not conceal it.

Say, ‘Babylon has been captured,

Bel has been put to shame;

Merodach has been thrown into disarray.

Its images have been put to shame;

Its idols have been thrown into disarray.

³For a nation from the north has come up against it;

It will make its land a desolation,

And there will not be anyone inhabiting it.

Both man and beast will flee and depart.’

⁴In those days, and at that time,

Says the Lord,

The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah

Will come together.

They will go about weeping profusely,

And they will seek the Lord their God.

⁵They will ask for Zion

– That destination is their goal –

And say, ‘Come, and let us be joined to the Lord

In an age-abiding covenant

Which will not be forgotten.’

⁶My people were sheep going astray,

For their shepherds caused them to stray.

The mountains have turned them aside,

They have gone from mountain to hill;

They have forgotten their resting place.

⁷All who find them will devour them,

And their adversaries will say,

‘We will not incur guilt,

Because they have sinned against the Lord

– The home of righteousness,

The hope of their fathers,

The Lord.’

⁸Flee from Babylon

And from the Chaldeans.

Depart

And be like goats in the company of sheep.

⁹For I am about to arouse and bring up against Babylon a contingent of great nations

From the land of the north,

And they will draw up against it,

And from there it will be captured.

Its arrows will be like a warrior causing bereavement,

Who does not return empty-handed.

¹⁰And Chaldea will be a spoil,

And all who despoil it will be satisfied,

Says the Lord.

¹¹For you were glad,

For you exulted,

You plunderers of my inheritance,

For you feasted yourselves like a threshing calf,

And you bellowed like strong bulls.

¹²Your mother will be put to great shame;

She who gave birth to you will be put to the blush.

Behold, the final state of the nations

Will be desert, parched ground,

And an arid land.

¹³Because of the Lord's wrath,

It will not be inhabited,

But all of it will become a desolation.

Everyone who passes by Babylon will be astonished

And will jeer at all its wrecked places.

¹⁴Draw up against Babylon around it,

All you who draw the bow.

Shoot at it;

Do not spare an arrow,

For it has sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵Shout at it all around.

It has surrendered,

Its foundations have fallen;

Its walls have been demolished,

For it is the Lord's vengeance.

Take vengeance on it;

Do to it as it has done.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon

And him who wields the sickle in the harvest season.

At the presence of the oppressing sword,

Let each man turn to his people,

And let each man flee to his own country.

¹⁷Israel is a scattered flock of sheep;

Lions have driven them out.

First the king of Assyria consumed them,

And just recently Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken their bones,

¹⁸Which is why this is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says:

‘I am about to visit the king of Babylon and his land,

As I visited the king of Assyria.

¹⁹And I will bring Israel back to their home,

And they will feed on Carmel and Bashan,

And their appetite will be satisfied

On Mount Ephraim and in Gilead.

²⁰In those days and at that time,

Says the Lord,

Israel's iniquity will be sought,

But it will not be there,

And Judah's sins,

But they will not be found,

For I will pardon those

Whom I leave remaining.

²¹Go up against it

– Against the land of Merathaim

And against the inhabitants of Pekod.

Make them desolate and obliterate them,

Says the Lord,

And do everything I command you.

²²There is the sound of war in the land,

And of extensive destruction.

²³How the hammer of the whole earth is cut off and broken!

How Babylon has become an object of astonishment

Among the nations!

²⁴I set a trap for you,

And you were duly caught, Babylon,

And you were not aware of it.

You were found and duly caught,

For you contended with the Lord.

²⁵The Lord opened his storehouse

And brought out instruments of his indignation,

For this is the work of the Lord, the Lord of hosts

In the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Go to it from the furthest point,

Open its granaries;

Cast it up into heaps,

And obliterate it.

Don't let it have any remnant.

²⁷Dispatch all its bulls;

Let them go to the slaughter.

Woe to them,

For their day has come

– The time of their visitation.

²⁸There will be the sound of those who flee,

And those who escape from the land of Babylon,

To report in Zion

The vengeance of the Lord our God

– The avenging of his temple.

²⁹Call up the archers to go to Babylon

– All who draw the bow.

Encamp against it all around;

Do not let it have anyone who escapes.

Requite it according to its own course of action;

Do to it according to everything which it did,

For it has acted defiantly against the Lord

– Against the holy one of Israel,

³⁰Which is why its youths will fall in its streets,

And all its warriors will be cut down on that day,

Says the Lord.

³¹I will soon be against you, Defiance,

Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts,

For your day is coming

– The time when I will visit you.

³²And Defiance will stumble and fall;

It will have no-one to raise it up.

And I will light a fire in its cities,

Which will consume all its surrounding areas.’

³³This is what the Lord of hosts says:

‘The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been oppressed together,

And all those who took them captive

Have held on to them;

They have refused to let them go.

³⁴Their redeemer is strong;

The Lord of hosts is his name.

He will certainly defend their cause

So as to bring calm to the land

And to bring disquiet

To the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵The sword against the Chaldeans!

Says the Lord,

And against the inhabitants of Babylon,

And against its officials,

And against its wise men.

³⁶The sword against those who falsify,

And they will be seen to have been foolish.

The sword against its valiant men,

And they will be terrified.

³⁷The sword against his horses,

And against his chariot fleet,

And against all the mixed foreigners who are in it,

So that they become women.

The sword against its treasuries,

So that they are plundered.

³⁸A drought on its waters,

So that they dry up,

For it is a land of carved images,

And so that they are driven mad by their monstrosities.

And it will never be inhabited any more,

And it will not be dwelt in from generation to generation.

⁴⁰As in God's overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbours,

Says the Lord,

No man will live there,

And no son of Adam will reside there.

⁴¹Behold, a people is coming from the north,

And a great nation and many kings.

They will be stirred up

From the remote parts of the earth.

⁴²They will wield bow and spear.

They are cruel,

And they will not show compassion.

The sound of them is as when the sea rages,

And they ride on horses.

Each will be drawn up as a man of war against you,

O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,

And his hands have become limp.

Anguish has seized him,

As has pain

As of a woman giving birth.

⁴⁴Behold, he will come up like a lion

From the splendour of the Jordan

To the residence of the strong one,

For I will act all of a sudden

And make them run away from the place.

And who is chosen

So that I may appoint him over it?

For who is like me,

And who can arraign me?

And who is this shepherd

Who will stand before me?

⁴⁵So hear the counsel of the Lord

With which he gave counsel concerning Babylon,

And his purposes which he has conceived

Regarding the land of the Chaldeans.

Men will certainly drag away the young of the sheep,

And he will certainly devastate their dwelling place

To their cost.

⁴⁶At the sound when Babylon is captured,

The earth will shake,

And an outcry will be heard among the nations.’ ”

Reference(s) in Chapter 50: v.39 ↔ Revelation 18:2.