Jeremiah

Against Babylon

This is the word the Lord spoke against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans through the prophet Jeremiah:

“Don’t hide this, but proclaim among the nations that Babylon has fallen, Bel is confounded, Marduk is dismayed; her images are shamed, her idols are destroyed.

A people from the north marches against her, set to turn her into a wasteland abandoned by both people and beasts.

In those days —declares the Lord— the people of Israel and Judah will come in tears to seek the Lord their God.

With their faces turned toward Zion, they will ask how to get there. They will come and say: ‘Let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten.’

My people were lost sheep misled by their shepherds and left to roam on the mountains. They wandered from hill to hill and lost their way back to their fold.

They were consumed by enemies who happened upon them and declared: ‘We have no guilt. This is their just punishment, for they sinned against the Lord, their true shepherd and hope of their ancestors.’

Flee from Babylon, leave the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the rams that lead the flock!

For I will stir up nations from the north to march against Babylon. Their arrows are like those of skilled warriors who never return empty-handed, and Babylon will be captured.

Chaldea will be plundered, and the plunderers will be filled.

Rejoice as long as you can, you plunderers of my inheritance! Frolic like heifers threshing grain and neigh like stallions!

But your mother will be disgraced; she will be the least of the nations, laid waste and a desert.

The Lord’s anger will leave her abandoned, an empty and uninhabited solitude. Every passerby will be appalled at Babylon’s wounds.

Take your positions around the city, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her, do not spare arrows, for her sins are great.

Raise the war cry! Now she surrenders! Her walls are torn down, her towers fallen. Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take revenge on her; do to her as she has done to others.

Cut off the sower from Babylon and the reaper with his sickle at harvest time. Escape from the oppressor’s sword; let everyone return to his own people and flee to his own land.

Israel was like a wandering sheep chased by lions. The first to devour her was the Assyrian, and the last to crush her bones was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I once punished the king of Assyria.

But I will bring Israel back to her pasture, to feed on Bashan, Carmel, Mount Ephraim, and Gilead until she is satisfied.

In those days, the Lord declares: “A search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but none will be found, and for the sins of Judah, and none will be found; for I will forgive the remnant whose lives I have spared.

Attack the land of Merathaim And those who live in Pekod; pursue and destroy them, says the Lord; do all as I have commanded.

A battle alarm is in the land, the alarm of great destruction.

How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How terrifying has Babylon become among the nations!

You trapped yourself, O Babylon, and were caught before you realized it; you were discovered and taken because you challenged the Lord.

The Lord has opened his armory, brought out the weapons of his fury, for the Lord Sabaoth has work to do in the land of Chaldea.

Come against her from every side; break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, destroy her, leaving no remnant.

Slay all her oxen, down to the slaughterhouse with them! Woe to them! Their day has come, the time for their chastisement.

Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon have come to declare in Zion the Lord’s vengeance for his temple.

Surround Babylon with archers, And cut off her escape routes. Repay her as she deserves; do to her as she has done to others. Pay her back for her defiance of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

That day, her warriors and young men will also fall and lie silent.

I am against you, arrogant one! It is the Lord Sabaoth who speaks— the time to punish you has arrived.

The arrogant one will stumble; no one will help her up. In her towns, I will set a fire that will consume everything around.

Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: The people of Israel and Judah are oppressed, for their captors hold them tightly and refuse to let them go.

But their strong defender Is the Lord Sabaoth, his name. He will fight for their cause and succeed; he will give them rest in their land, but bring unrest to those living in Babylon.

A sword against the Chaldeans, against the people of Babylon, her princes and sages!

A sword against her false prophets: May they lose their wits! A sword against her warriors: May they tremble in terror!

A sword against her mercenaries: May they become women! A sword upon her treasures: May they be plundered!

A sword upon her waters: May they dry up! For hers is a land of idols that go mad with terrors.

So, desert creatures will live there; The owl and ostrich will dwell there. From generation to generation, the land will never be inhabited again.

As when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, with their neighbors, will no longer be inhabited, and no one will make a home there again.

A strong nation is coming from the north, a mighty people. Roused from the farthest ends of the earth,

there are men armed with bows and spears who are cruel and merciless. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride swift steeds. They come in battle formation against you, daughter of Babylon.

Your king has heard news of them, and his hands hang limp. He is gripped by anguish, and his pain is like that of a woman in labor.

Just as a lion comes from the thicket of Jordan to a rich feeding ground, I will swiftly drive them away, And I will establish whichever I choose there. Who is like me? And who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?

Therefore, hear the Lord’s plans against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans: They will be taken away, Even the smallest sheep; their pasture will be destroyed because of them.

The earth trembles at the cry, ‘Babylon is captured!’ Among the nations, the outcry is heard.