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Prophecies against Babylon

50 This is the word the Lord spoke about Babylon,(A) the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

Announce to the nations;
proclaim and raise up a signal flag;(B)
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say, ‘Babylon is captured;
Bel(C) is put to shame;
Marduk is terrified.’
Her idols are put to shame;
her false gods devastated.
For a nation from the north will attack her;(D)
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it –
both people and animals will escape.[a](E)
In those days and at that time –
this is the Lord’s declaration –
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,(F)
weeping as they come,
and will seek the Lord their God.(G)
They will ask about Zion,
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves[b] to the Lord
in a permanent covenant(H) that will never be forgotten.

My people were lost sheep;(I)
their shepherds led them astray,(J)
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.(K)
They wandered from mountain to hill;
they forgot their resting place.
Whoever found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, ‘We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord,
their righteous grazing land,(L)
the hope of their ancestors,(M) the Lord.’

Escape from Babylon;(N)
depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon(O)
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;(P)
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like a skilled[c] warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
10 The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

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Footnotes

  1. 50:3 Lit escape; they will walk
  2. 50:5 LXX; MT reads Come and join yourselves
  3. 50:9 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read bereaving