Jeremiah 50:2-28

2“Announce this among the nations, and spread the news. Raise a flag, and announce it. Don’t hide anything. Say, ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be filled with terror. Babylon’s statues will be put to shame. Its idols will be filled with terror.’

3A nation from the north will attack Babylon and destroy its land so that no one will live in it. People and animals will run away.

4“In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the people of Israel and Judah will cry as they go together to seek the Lord their God.

5They will ask which road goes to Zion and turn in that direction. They will go there to make a permanent agreement with the Lord. It will not be forgotten.

6My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray. They wander around on the mountains. They go from mountains to hills. They have forgotten their resting place.

7Everyone who finds them eats them. Their enemies say, ‘We’re not guilty. They have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture. They have sinned against the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.’

8“Run away from Babylon. Leave the land of the Babylonians. Be like the male goats that lead the flock.

9I am going to stir up an alliance of strong nations from the north and bring it against Babylon. Those nations will take up positions against Babylon. Babylon will be captured from the north. Its enemy’s arrows will be like skilled soldiers who don’t come back empty-handed.

10The Babylonians will become the prize. All who loot them will get everything they want,” declares the Lord.

11“You are happy and excited. You have looted the people who belong to me. You dance around like calves on the grass and neigh like stallions.

12But your mother will be greatly ashamed. The woman who gave birth to you will be disgraced. Babylon, you will be the least important nation. You will become a parched desert.

13No one will live in Babylon because of the Lord’s anger. It will be completely abandoned. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and hiss at all its wounds.

14“Take up your positions around Babylon, all you archers with bows. Shoot at it; don’t save any arrows, because the people of Babylon have sinned against the Lord.

15Shout a war cry against them on every side. They’ll surrender. Their towers will fall and their walls will be torn down. Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take revenge against them. Do to them what they did to others.

16Don’t allow anyone in Babylon to plant or harvest. Everyone will turn to his own people and flee to his own homeland because of the enemies’ swords.

17“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep that lions have chased. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria. The last to gnaw at their bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

18“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.

19I will bring the people of Israel back to their pastures. They will eat on Mount Carmel and Mount Bashan. They will eat until they are full on the mountains of Ephraim and Gilead.

20In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “people will look for Israel’s crimes, but they will find none. They will look for Judah’s sins, but none will be found. I will forgive the faithful few whom I have spared.

21Attack the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod. Claim them for me by killing them with a sword,” declares the Lord. “Do everything I commanded you.

22The noise of battle and great destruction fills the land.

23The hammer of the whole earth is broken and shattered. See how desolate Babylon is of all the nations!

24I will set traps for you, Babylon. You will be caught, but you won’t know it. You will be found and captured because you have opposed the Lord.

25The Lord will open his armory and bring out the weapons of his fury, because the Almighty Lord of Armies has a job to do in the land of the Babylonians.

26Attack them from a distance, open their storehouses, pile up their corpses like piles of grain, claim them for me by destroying them, and don’t leave anyone behind.

27Kill all their young bulls. Let them go to be slaughtered. How horrible it will be for them when their time has come, the time for them to be punished.

28Listen! Fugitives and refugees from Babylon are coming to Zion to tell about the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for his temple.