Jeremiah 50
50This is the word that the Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans.H1697H3068H1696H894H776H3778H3027H3414H50302"Declare and proclaim among the nations. Lift up a banner and proclaim. Don't conceal anything. Say, 'Babylon will be captured. Bel will be disgraced, and Marduk will be destroyed. Her idols will be disgraced, and her filthy images will be destroyed.'H5046H1471H8085H5375H5251H8085H3582H559H894H3920H1078H3001H4781H2865H6091H3001H1544H28653For a nation from the north will go up against her. It will make her land into an object of horror, and no one will live in it. Both people and animals will wander off, and they'll leave.H6828H5927H1471H7896H776H8047H3427H5110H1980H120H9294In those days, and at that time," declares the Lord, "the people of Israel will come together with the people of Judah. They'll be weeping as they travel along, and they'll be seeking the Lord their God.H3117H6256H5002H3068H1121H3478H935H1121H3063H3162H1980H1058H3212H1245H3068H4305They'll ask the way to Zion, turning their faces in that direction. They'll come and join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that won't be forgotten.H7592H1870H6726H6440H2008H935H3867H3068H5769H1285H79116My people have become lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them toward the mountains. They go from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.H5971H6H6629H7462H8582H7725H7726H2022H1980H2022H1389H7911H72587All who find them devour them, but their enemies say, 'We're not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of righteousness, the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.'H4672H398H6862H559H816H2398H3068H5116H6664H3068H4723H18Move away from the middle of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans. Be like male goats at the head of the flock.H5110H8432H894H3318H3318H776H3778H6260H6440H66299Indeed, I'm going to stir up and bring against Babylon a great company of nations from the land of the north. They'll deploy for battle against her, and from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior; they won't miss their targets.H5782H5927H894H6951H1419H1471H6828H776H6186H3920H2671H1368H7919H7921H7725H738710The Chaldeans will become plunder, and all who plunder them will get more than enough," declares the Lord.H3778H7998H7997H7646H5002H306811"Though you rejoice, though you exult, you plunderers of my inheritance, though you skip around like a heifer in the grass and neigh like stallions,H8055H5937H8154H5159H6335H5697H1877H1758H6670H4712Your mother will be greatly devastated, she who gave birth to you will be ashamed. She will become the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.H517H3966H954H3205H2659H319H1471H4057H6723H616013Because of the anger of the Lord she won't be inhabited, but will be utterly devastated. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will scoff because of all her wounds.H7110H3068H3427H8077H5674H894H8074H8319H434714Deploy the troops all around Babylon. All who bend the bow, shoot at her and spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord.H6186H894H5439H1869H7198H3034H2550H2671H2398H306815Raise a battle cry against her on every side. She has surrendered, her pillars have fallen, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.H7321H5439H5414H3027H803H5307H2346H2040H5360H3068H5358H6213H621316Eliminate from Babylon the one who plants seeds and the one who uses the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor's sword, let each one turn toward his own people and flee to his own land.H3772H2232H894H8610H4038H6256H7105H6440H3238H2719H6437H376H5971H5127H376H77617"Israel is a scattered flock, driven out by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria, and then afterward King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnawed his bones.H3478H6340H7716H738H5080H7223H4428H804H398H314H5019H4428H894H610518Therefore this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'Look, I'm about to judge the king of Babylon and his land, just as I've judged the king of Assyria.H559H3068H6635H430H3478H6485H4428H894H776H6485H4428H80419I'll bring Israel back to his pasture. He will graze on Carmel, on Bashan, on Mt. Ephraim, and on Gilead - his hunger will be satisfied.H7725H3478H7725H5116H7462H3760H1316H5315H7646H2022H669H156820In those days and at that time,' declares the Lord, 'the iniquity of Israel will be searched for, but there will be none; and the sin of Judah, but none will be found, because I'll pardon those I leave as a remnant.'"H3117H6256H5002H3068H5771H3478H1245H2403H3063H4672H5545H760421"Go up against the land of Merathaim and the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill them with swords, and completely destroy them," declares the Lord, "and do everything that I've commanded you.H5927H776H4850H3427H6489H2717H2763H310H5002H3068H6213H668022The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction.H6963H4421H776H1419H766723How the hammer of all the earth is cut off and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!H6360H776H1438H7665H894H8047H147124I'll set a trap for you, and you will be caught, Babylon, but you don't realize it. You will be found and also seized, because you challenged the Lord!"H3369H3920H894H3045H4672H8610H1624H306825The Lord will open his armory, and bring out the weapons of his anger. Indeed, a work of the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will be in the land of the Chaldeans.H3068H6605H214H3318H3627H2195H4399H136H3069H6635H776H377826"Come to her from afar. Open up her barns. Pile her up like heaps of grain, and completely destroy her. Don't leave any survivors.H935H7093H6605H3965H5549H6194H2763H761127"Put all her bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them because their day has come, the time of their judgment.H2717H6499H3381H2874H1945H3117H935H6256H648628"The sound of fugitives and refugees will come from the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, vengeance for his temple.H6963H5127H6405H776H894H5046H6726H5360H3068H430H5360H196429"Summon many to Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Camp all around her, let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds. Do to her just as she has done. For she has behaved arrogantly against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.H8085H7228H894H1869H7198H2583H5439H6413H7999H6467H6213H6213H2102H3068H6918H347830Therefore, her warriors will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day," declares the Lord.H970H5307H7339H582H4421H1826H3117H5002H306831Look, I'm against you, arrogant one," declares the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies. "Indeed your day is coming, the time of your judgment.H2087H5002H136H3069H6635H3117H935H6256H648532The arrogant one will stumble and fall, and there will be no one to lift him up. I'll set fire to his cities, and it will devour everything around him."H2087H3782H5307H6965H3341H784H5892H398H543933This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: "The people of Israel are oppressed, along with the people of Judah. All their captors have held on to them and refused to let them go.H559H3068H6635H1121H3478H1121H3063H6231H3162H7617H2388H3985H797134Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of the Heavenly Armies is his name. He will vigorously plead their case in order to bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.H1350H2389H3068H6635H8034H7378H7378H7379H7280H776H7264H3427H89435A sword against the Chaldeans," declares the Lord, "and against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her officials and her wise men.H2719H3778H5002H3068H3427H894H8269H245036A sword against the diviners. They'll be made fools. A sword against her warriors. They'll be shattered.H2719H907H2973H2719H1368H286537A sword against her horses, against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst. They'll become women. A sword against her treasures. They'll be plundered.H2719H5483H7393H6153H8432H802H2719H214H96238A drought against her waters. They'll dry up. For it's a land of idols, and they go mad over their terrifying images.H2721H4325H3001H776H6456H1984H36739Therefore the desert creatures along with hyenas will live there. They'll live in it with ostriches, but people won't live in it again. They won't inhabit it from generation to generation.H6728H338H3427H1323H3284H3427H3427H5331H7931H1755H175540Just as when God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors," declares the Lord, "so also no one will live there. No human being will reside in it."H430H4114H5467H6017H7934H5002H3068H376H3427H1121H120H148141"Look, people are coming from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the ends of the earth.H5971H935H6828H1419H1471H7227H4428H5782H3411H77642They grab bow and spear. They're cruel and show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, as they ride on horses deployed like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Babylon.H2388H7198H3591H394H7355H6963H1993H3220H7392H5483H6186H376H4421H1323H89443The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands hang limp. Distress has seized him, like a woman in labor.H4428H894H8085H8088H3027H7503H6869H2388H2427H320544"Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me?Who gives me counsel?Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?H5927H738H1347H3383H5116H386H7323H7280H7323H7323H977H6485H3259H7462H5975H644045Therefore, hear the plan that the Lord has made against Babylon, and the strategy that he devised against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely they'll drag the little ones of the flock away. Surely their pasture will be desolate because of them.H8085H6098H3068H3289H894H4284H2803H776H3778H6810H6629H5498H5116H807446At the shout that Babylon has been seized, the earth will be shaken, and the cry will be heard among the nations.H6963H8610H894H776H7493H2201H8085H1471
Columbus, OH
