Jeremiah 50:1-19

1This is the word the Lord spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

2Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing. Say, “Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is terrified.” Her idols are put to shame; her false gods, devastated.

3For a nation from the north will attack her; it will make her land desolate. No one will be living in it — both people and animals will escape.

4In those days and at that time — this is the Lord’s declaration — the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the Lord their God.

5They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the Lord in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.

6My people were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.

7Whoever found them devoured them. Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty; instead, they have sinned against the Lord, their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the Lord.”

8Escape from Babylon; depart from the Chaldeans’ land. Be like the rams that lead the flock.

9For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.

10The Chaldeans will become plunder; all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied. This is the Lord’s declaration.

11Because you rejoice, because you celebrate — you who plundered my inheritance — because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,

12your mother will be utterly humiliated; she who bore you will be put to shame. Look! She will lag behind all the nations — an arid wilderness, a desert.

13Because of the Lord’s wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds.

14Line up in battle formation around Babylon, all you archers! Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow, for she has sinned against the Lord.

15Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished. Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.

16Cut off the sower from Babylon as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.

17Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last who crushed his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

18Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

19I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan; he will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.