Against Babylon
1This is the word Yahweh spoke against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2“Do not hide this, but announce among the nations that Babylon is taken, Bel confounded, Merodach dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols destroyed.
3A people from the north marches against her, set to turn her into a wasteland abandoned by both people and beast.
4In those days – declares Yahweh – the people of Israel and Judah will come in tears to seek their God Yahweh.
5Their faces turned toward Zion, they will ask the way to it. They will come and say, ‘Let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten.’
6My people were lost sheep misled by their shepherds and left to roam on the mountains. They wandered from hill to hill and lost the way to their fold.
7They were devoured by enemies who chanced upon them and said, ‘We have no guilt. This is their due for they sinned against Yahweh, their true shepherd and hope of their ancestors.’
8Flee from Babylon, leave the land of the Chaldeans, be like the rams that lead the flock!
9For I will stir up nations from the north to march against Babylon. Their arrows are like those of skilled warriors, that never return empty-handed; and Babylon will be captured.
10Chaldea will be plundered, and the plunderers will be filled.
11Rejoice as long as you can, you plunderers of my inheritance! Frolic like heifers threshing grain, and neigh like stallions!
12But your mother will be disgraced; she will be the least of the nations, laid waste and a desert.
13Yahweh’s fury will leave her desolate, an empty solitude, uninhabited. Every passerby will be horrified
at the sight of the wounds of Babylon. 14Take your posts around the city, all you who bend the bow.
Shoot at her, spare no arrows, for great is her iniquity.
15Raise the war cry!
Now she surrenders!
Her walls are torn down, her towers fallen. Since this is Yahweh’s vengeance, take revenge on her;
do to her as she has done to others. 16Cut 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, let everyone flee to his own land.
17Israel was a straying sheep which lions pursued. First to devour her was the Assyrian; and the last to crush her bones was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
18Therefore Yahweh, God of Israel, says: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as once I punished the king of Assyria.
19But I will return Israel to her fold, to feed on Bashan and Carmel and on Mount Ephraim and Gilead, till she has her fill.
20In those days, Yahweh says, 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.
21Attack the land of Merathaim, and those who live in Pekod; pursue and kill them, says Yahweh; do all as I have commanded.
22Battle alarm is in the land, the alarm of great destruction. 23How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How horrifying has Babylon become among the nations!
24You ensnared yourself, O Babylon, and were caught before you knew it; you were found out and seized because you challenged Yahweh. 25Yahweh has opened his armory, brought out the arms of his fury, for Yahweh Sabaoth has work to do in the land of Chaldea.
26Come against her from every side; break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, destroy her, leaving no remnant. 27Slay all her oxen, down to the slaughterhouse with them! Woe to them! Their day has come, the time for their chastisement.
28Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon have come to announce in Zion Yahweh’s vengeance for his temple.
29Surround Babylon with archers, and leave her no way of escape. Repay her as her deeds deserve; do to her as she has done to others. Give her the due for her defiance of Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.
30That day her warriors and young men as well will fall and lie in silence. 31I am against you, arrogant one! It is Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks – the time to punish you has come.
32The arrogant one will stumble; no one will help her up. In her towns I will kindle a fire that will consume everything around.
33Thus says Yahweh Sabaoth: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well, for their captors hold them fast and refuse to let them go. 34But strong is their avenger, Yahweh Sabaoth is his name. He will fight for their cause and succeed; he will give them rest in their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.
35A sword upon the Chaldeans, upon the people of Babylon, her princes and sages! 36A sword upon her false prophets: may they lose their wits! A sword upon her warriors: may they tremble in terror! 37A sword upon her mercenaries: may they become women!
A sword upon her treasures: may they be plundered! 38A sword upon her waters: may they dry up! For hers is a land of idols that go mad with terrors.
39So, desert beasts will live there; there will the owl and ostrich dwell. From generation to generation, the land will never be inhabited again. 40As when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah with their neighbors, nobody will live there any more, no one will make his home there again. 41A strong people is coming from the north, a mighty nation. Stirred up from the far ends of the earth 42are men armed with bows and spears who are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on galloping steeds. They come in battle formation against you, daughter of Babylon.
43Your king has heard news of them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, and pain as that of a woman in travail.
44As a lion comes from the thicket of Jordan to a rich feeding ground, so I, in an instant, will drive them off, and whom I choose I will establish there. For who is like me? And who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?
45Therefore hear Yahweh’s plans against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans: they will be dragged away, even the smallest sheep, their pasture will be destroyed on account of them.
46The earth quakes at the cry ‘Babylon is captured!’ Among the nations the outcry is heard.”
