1This is the message Yahweh gave to Jeremiah the prophet about Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans.
2"Announce and proclaim among the nations, raise a banner; proclaim it and don't hide it. Say, 'Babylon has been captured, Bel is disgraced, Merodach is shattered! Her images are disgraced. Her idols are shattered.'
3Because a nation from the north will attack her and turn her land into a wasteland. No one will live there. Both people and animals will flee and be gone.
4"In those days, at that time," says Yahweh, "the people of Israel and Judah will come together. They will walk along weeping, seeking Yahweh their God.
5They will ask about Zion and turn their faces toward it, saying, 'Come, let's join Yahweh in an everlasting promise that will never be forgotten.'
6My people have been like lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, sending them wandering over mountains. They went from mountain to hill and forgot their resting place.
7Everyone who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, because they sinned against Yahweh, the home of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.'
8“Flee from Babylon! Leave the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the male goats leading the flocks.
9For I will awaken and bring against Babylon a group of powerful nations from the north. They will prepare to attack her, and she will be captured from there. Their arrows will be like those of a skilled, strong warrior; none of them will return without hitting their mark.
10The land of the Chaldeans will be plundered. All who plunder her will be satisfied,” says Yahweh.
11“Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, you who plundered my inheritance, because you were frisky like a heifer stomping grain, and neighed like strong horses;
12your mother will be utterly disappointed. The one who gave birth to you will be shamed. Look, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13Because of Yahweh’s anger, she will not be inhabited, but will be completely desolate. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be shocked and will hiss at all her plagues.
14Get ready to attack Babylon from all sides, all of you who draw the bow. Shoot at her; don't hold back any arrows, for she has sinned against Yahweh.
15Shout against Babylon from all sides. She has given in. Her defenses have fallen. Her walls have been torn down, because this is Yahweh's revenge. Get revenge on her. Do to her exactly what she has done to others.
16Stop the farmer from planting in Babylon, and the reaper from harvesting. Because of the frightening sword of the oppressor, everyone will return to their own people, and everyone will flee to their own land.
17“Israel is like a hunted sheep. Lions have chased him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has crushed his bones.”
18Therefore, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Look, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19I will bring Israel back to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan. He will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
20“In those days, and at that time,” says Yahweh, “people will search for Israel's wrongdoing, but there will be none; also for Judah's sins, but they won't be found; for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.”
21“Attack the land of Merathaim, yes, attack it, and the people of Pekod. Kill and completely destroy them,” says Yahweh, “and do everything I have commanded you.”
22The sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
23How the hammer that struck the whole earth has been cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a wasteland among the nations!
24I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught without realizing it. You were found and captured because you fought against Yahweh.
25Yahweh has opened his weapon storage and brought out the tools of his anger; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a job to do in the land of the Babylonians.
26Come attack her from the farthest border. Open her storage places. Pile her up like heaps of rubble. Destroy her completely. Let nothing of her remain.
27Kill all her powerful leaders (like bulls). Let them go to be slaughtered. How terrible for them! For their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28Listen to those who escape and flee from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the revenge of Yahweh our God, the revenge for his temple.
29“Gather the archers against Babylon, all those who can shoot a bow. Surround her with your camp. Let no one escape. Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her exactly what she has done; for she has been arrogant against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.”
30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day,” says Yahweh.
31“Look, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.”
32The proud one will stumble and fall, and no one will help him up. I will start a fire in his cities, and it will destroy everything around him.
33Yahweh of Armies says: “The people of Israel and the people of Judah are oppressed together. All who captured them hold them tightly. They refuse to let them go.
34Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will strongly argue their case, so that he may bring peace to the earth, and bring trouble to the people of Babylon.”
35The Lord says, "A sword will strike the Chaldeans, the people of Babylon, her officials, and her wise men."
36A sword will strike her boastful warriors, and they will become fools. A sword will strike her mighty men, and they will be filled with dread.
37A sword will strike their horses and chariots, and all the foreign people among them; they will become like women. A sword will strike her treasures, and they will be stolen.
38A drought will strike her waters, and they will dry up; because it is a land full of idols, and they are obsessed with them.
39Therefore, desert wild animals along with wolves will live there. Ostriches will live there, and it will never be inhabited again, nor will anyone live in it from generation to generation.
40The Lord says, "Just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, no one will live there; no human being will reside in it."
41Look! A people is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings will rise up from the farthest parts of the earth.
42They will carry bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voices roar like the sea. They ride horses, all of them prepared for battle, coming against you, daughter of Babylon.
43The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands grow weak. Anguish has gripped him, pains like a woman in labor.
44Look, the enemy will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against the secure pasture. I will suddenly drive them away from it. I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who can challenge me? What shepherd can stand before me?
45Therefore, listen to the plan Yahweh has made against Babylon, and the purposes he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they will drag away even the lambs of the flock. Surely he will make their homeland a desolation over them.
46At the sound of Babylon's capture, the earth shakes, and the cries are heard among the nations.