Jeremiah 50
Bye-bye Babylon
Prophecy: Babylon will fall
1This is the message the LORD gave the prophet Jeremiah concerning the people and the land of Babylon:2Tell everyone, all the nations.
Post notices. Put up banners.
Don’t keep this message to yourself.
Tell everyone, “Babylon has fallen.
Bel [1] is ashamed.
Marduk [2] is shocked.
Her idols are ashamed of themselves.
3A nation from the north [3] will attack.
It will decimate Babylon.
No one will want to live there anymore.
People and even animals will stay away.
Jews pray to come home
4When that happens, Israel and Judah will pray.
Weeping, they’ll pray together to the LORD.
Asking God to show them how to get there.
Then they’ll make an agreement with the Lord
That will never end—
A covenant no one will ever forget.
6My people are lost.
Their shepherds got them lost.
They bounce around from one hilltop [4] to another,
because they forgot where they came from.
7When enemies find them, they’ll kill them
And say, “We didn't do anything wrong.
It's their own fault they got lost
and forgot the LORD is their true pasture,
And has been for many generations.”
8Get out of Babylon.
Lead the way, like a goat leads a flock.
9I'm going to mobilize northern nations.
They’ll join forces and attack Babylon
With expert archers who never lose.
Babylon will fall.
10Invaders will pick Babylon to the bone.
They'll take anything they want.
Babylon’s shame
11You were happy to rob my people
weren't you, Babylon?
You celebrated. You partied.
You danced like a calf in the grass.
You strutted like a neighing stallion.
Your mother’s gonna be disgraced.
She’ll be ashamed when it’s over.
For she’ll drop to last place
Among all the nations in the world.
She’ll be a dry and barren desert.
13God’s anger will change her empire
Into a kingdom of ghost towns.
People passing by Babylon’s ruins
will be shocked at the destruction.
14Invaders, take your positions around Babylon.
Archers, fire at will until you run out of arrows
Because she has offended the LORD by sinning against him.
15Scream your battle cry from all sides,
For you won the war.
Babylon surrendered.
You dropped her towers and her walls.
You’re punishing her for the LORD.
So don’t hesitate to do your job.
Do to her what she did to others.
16Babylon’s workforce is gone,
Farmers and harvesters have left.
The threat of war sent them running
Away from Babylon, toward their homeland. [5]
Babylon fed on Judah, now pays the bill
17Predators hunted Israel like lions hunt sheep.
First came the Assyrians, devouring Israel.
Now it's King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon,
Feeding on Judah's bones.
and the God of Israel says:
I'm going to punish Babylon and their king
like I punished Assyria and their king.
19I’ll give Israel back it's pastures.
Flocks will again graze at Carmel and Bashan,
And on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
They’ll eat their fill.
20Some will try to find fault with Israel and Judah.
A waste of time. There is no fault.
I have pardoned those who survived the exile.
21Invaders, “Attack Merathaim and Pekod. [6]
Wipe them out.
Follow my orders.”
22Sounds of battle echo throughout the land.
Destruction is everywhere.
Babylon’s hammer of strength breaks
23The king with the biggest hammer
now holds a busted hammer handle.
Babylon is wiped out.
This news shocks the world.
You didn't know it.
But I did it because you challenged me.
So I captured you.
25The Lord opened up his armory
and brought out weapons suited to his anger.
For the LORD God of everyone
has work to do in Babylon.
26Break into Babylon from every side.
Open her up like opening a greenery.
Pile the dead like sacks of grain.
Don't leave anyone alive.
27Kill her bulls, every soldier.
Slaughter them all.
It's too bad.
But it's time for them to face their punishment.
28Refugees returning from Babylon
Announce the news in Jerusalem:
The LORD God has settled the score,
Punishing those who destroyed his Temple.
29Call in all archers, anyone who can bend a bow.
Surround Babylon and seal it up. No one escapes.
It’s payback time.
Time to give Babylon what she gave others.
This is what she gets for defying the LORD,
The Holy One of Israel.
30Her soldiers will die on that day.
Her young men will get slaughtered in the streets.
31I’m on the side against you, arrogant nation.
And I’m the LORD God of everyone.
Time’s up.
This is the day I punish you.
32The arrogant nation will collapse,
With no one to help her back up.
I’m going to set your town on fire
And burn it all to the ground.
Jews have a savior
33People of Israel and Judah are mistreated.
Their captors won’t let them go.
After all these years, they still refuse.
Me. I’m the LORD of everyone.
I’ll defend my people, no doubt about it.
I can bring peace on earth to everyone but Babylon.
They get trouble.
35Turn the sword loose in Babylon, the LORD says.
Turn them against:
citizens,
officials,
Royal sage advisors,
36Fraud prophets, which will prove they’re frauds, [7]
Warriors, which will shock them,
37Horses,
Chariots,
Mercenaries, who will turn into cowards,
Bankers, so invaders get a little bonus.
38They get a drought, too,
Which will dry up their water.
After all, this is a sinful land
Overpopulated with idols.
39This is the end of Babylon.
No one will ever live here again.
Only critters—wild desert animals,
Like jackals and birds.
40I annihilated Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns.
Ditto on tap for Babylon. I’ll hit them just as hard.
No human will ever live there again.
Babylon’s king terrified
41Look at that.
A group of people come from the north.
Nations near and far are buzzing and joining.
What they don’t have is mercy.
Marching, they sound like the thundering sea.
They ride horseback in battle formations.
And they’re coming for you, Babylon.
43Babylon’s king heard the news.
His hands fell limp.
Terror took him over.
He felt as frightened as a woman in labor.
44I’m going to run you out of Babylon
Like a lion from the Jordan River weeds
Chases prey across the pasture.
Who’s going to stop me?
Is there anyone like me?
What shepherd can challenge me?
45So, here’s the LORD’s plan for Babylon.
Lead the lambs away,
The children into slavery
While their families watch in horror.
46The ground will tremble when Babylon falls.
And the people will scream
loud enough to rattle the nations.
Footnotes
Bel was originally a storm god in a dry part of the world. But it later became blended into Marduk, and here likely refers to Marduk, many scholars say. So, it may have been just another name for Marduk. One hint is that the next line in the poem uses “Marduk.” Hebrew poetry uses parallelism the way English poetry uses rhyme. In English, the end of the first line might rhyme with the last word in the second line. Hebrew poetry often emphasizes a subject by repeating the general idea of the first line but saying it in a slightly different way in the second line.
Marduk was the boss god, head of the gallery of gods in Babylon. Gods of Babylon were supposed to protect the empire. That’s why the writer says Babylon’s fall will shame and shock the gods.
A coalition of armies from the Persian and Mede empires overran the Babylonians. Combined, they covered what are now all of Iran and parts of Turkey, Afghanistan, and sections of neighboring nations.
Hilltops are where people built small shrines or larger worship centers devoted to regional gods—idolatry in the eyes of God.
People running to another land would have included the Jews, captured a generation earlier and finally freed when Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon and freed the political prisoners. A nine-inch-long clay cylinder from Cyrus’ time, about 538 BC, confirms that he freed Babylonian captives after he took control of the former Babylonian Empire. He didn’t simply free the Jewish captives. He freed them all. The cylinder reports that he told them all to go home, rebuild their worship centers, and to say a prayer for him every day.
Merathaim and Pekod were areas on the southern fringes of the Babylonian empire. Merathaim is where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers drain into the Persian Gulf. Pekod was a Syrian (Aramean) tribe living in that area, on the eastern banks of the southern part of the Euphrates River. Akkadian locals at the time called them the Puqudu.
Perhaps what makes the fake prophets look like fools is that they couldn’t predict the fall of Babylon or their own deaths.
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