24Damascus has grown weak,
She has turned around to flee;
Trembling has seized her,
Pain and anguish have taken hold of her,
Like a woman in childbirth.
25l-How has the glorious city not been deserted,-l
The citadel of my joy!
26Assuredly, her young men shall lie fallen in her squares.
And all her warriors shall be stilled in that day
—declares the LORD of Hosts.
27I will set fire to the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the fortresses of Ben-hadad.
28Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which King
Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon conquered.
Thus said the LORD:
Arise, march against Kedar,
And ravage the Kedemites!
29They will take away their tents and their flocks,
Their tent cloths and all their gear;
They shall carry off their camels,
And shall proclaim against them:
Terror all around!
30Flee, wander far,
Sit down low, O inhabitants of Hazor
—says the LORD.
For King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon
Has devised a plan against you
And formed a purpose against you:
31Rise up, attack a tranquil nation
That dwells secure
—says the LORD—
That has no barred gates,
That dwells alone.
32Their camels shall become booty,
And their abundant flocks a spoil;
And I will scatter to every quarter
Those who have their hair clipped;
And from every direction I will bring
Disaster upon them
—says the LORD.
33Hazor shall become a lair of jackals,
A desolation for all time.
No man shall live there,
No human shall sojourn there.
34The word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah:
35Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I am going to break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their strength. 36And I shall bring four winds against Elam from the four quarters of heaven, and scatter them to all those winds. There shall not be a nation to which the fugitives from Elam do not come. 37And I will break Elam before their enemies, before those who seek their lives; and I will bring disaster upon them, My flaming wrath—declares the LORD. And I will dispatch the sword after them until I have consumed them.
38And I will set My throne in Elam,
And wipe out from there king and officials
—says the LORD.
39But in the days to come I will restore the fortunes of Elam—declares the LORD.
50 The word which the LORD spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2Declare among the nations, and proclaim;
Raise a standard, proclaim;
Hide nothing! Say:
Babylon is captured,
Bela is shamed,
Merodacha is dismayed.
Her idols are shamed,
Her fetishes dismayed.
3For a nation from the north has attacked her,
It will make her land a desolation.
No one shall dwell in it,
Both man and beast shall wander away.
4In those days and at that time—declares the LORD—the people of Israel together with the people of Judah shall come, and they shall weep as they go to seek the LORD their God. 5They shall inquire for Zion; in that direction their faces shall turn; b-they shall come-b and attach themselves to the LORD by a covenant for all time, which shall never be forgotten. 6My people were lost sheep: their shepherds led them astray, they drove them out to the mountains, they roamed from mount to hill, they forgot their own resting place. 7All who encountered them devoured them; and their foes said, “We shall not be held guilty, because they have sinned against the LORD, the true Pasture, the Hope of their fathers—the LORD.”
8Flee from Babylon,
Leave the land of the Chaldeans,
And be like he-goats that lead the flock!
9For see, I am rousing and leading
An assemblage of great nations against Babylon
From the lands of the north.
They shall draw up their lines against her,
There she shall be captured.
Their arrows are like those of c-a skilled warrior-c
Who does not turn back without hitting the mark.
10Chaldea shall be despoiled,
All her spoilers shall be sated
—declares the LORD.
11For you rejoiced, you exulted,
You who plundered My possession;
You stamped like a heifer treading grain,
You neighed like steeds.
12So your mother will be utterly shamed,
She who bore you will be disgraced.
Behold the end of the nations—
Wilderness, desert, and steppe!
13Because of the LORD’s wrath she shall not be inhabited;
She shall be utterly desolate.
Whoever passes by Babylon will be appalled
And will hiss at all her wounds.
14Range yourselves roundabout Babylon,
All you who draw the bow;
Shoot at her, don’t spare arrows,
For she has sinned against the LORD.
15Raise a shout against her all about!
d-She has surrendered;-d
Her bastions have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down—
This is the LORD’s vengeance.
Take vengeance on her,
Do to her as she has done!
16Make an end in Babylon of sowers,
And of wielders of the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the deadlye sword,
Each man shall turn back to his people,
They shall flee every one to his land.
17Israel are scattered sheep, harried by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured them, and in the end King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon crunched their bones. 18Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I will deal with the king of Babylon and his land as I dealt with the king of Assyria. 19And I will lead Israel back to his pasture, and he shall graze in Carmel and Bashan, and eat his fill in the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead.
20In those days and at that time
—declares the LORD—
The iniquity of Israel shall be sought,
And there shall be none;
The sins of Judah,
And none shall be found;
For I will pardon those I allow to survive.
21Advance against her—e- the land of Merathaim-e—
And against the inhabitants of Pekod;
Ruin and destroy after them to the last
—says the LORD—
Do just as I have commanded you.
22Hark! War in the land
And vast destruction!
23How the hammer of the whole earth
Has been hacked and shattered!
How Babylon has become
An appallment among the nations!
24I set a snare for you, O Babylon,
And you were trapped unawares;
You were found and caught,
Because you challenged the LORD.
25The LORD has opened His armory
And brought out the weapons of His wrath;
For that is the task
Of my Lord GOD of Hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26Come against her e-from every quarter;-e
Break open her granaries,
e-Pile her up like heaps of grain,-e
And destroy her, let her have no remnant!
27f-Destroy all-f her bulls,
Let them go down to slaughter.
Alas for them, their day is come,
The hour of their doom!
28Hark! fugitives are escaping
From the land of Babylon,
To tell in Zion of the vengeance of the LORD our God,
Vengeance for His Temple.
29Summon archers against Babylon,
All who draw the bow!
Encamp against her roundabout,
Let none of her people escape.
Pay her back for her actions,
Do to her just what she has done;
For she has acted insolently against the LORD,
The Holy One of Israel.
30Assuredly, her young men shall fall in her squares,
And all her warriors shall perish in that day
—declares the LORD.
31I am going to deal with you, O Insolence
—declares the LORD GOD of Hosts—
For your day is come, the time when I doom you:
32Insolence shall stumble and fall,
With none to raise her up.
I will set her cities on fire,
And it shall consume everything around her.
33Thus said the LORD of Hosts:
The people of Israel are oppressed,
And so too the people of Judah;
All their captors held them,
They refused to let them go.
34Their Redeemer is mighty,
His name is LORD of Hosts.
He will champion their cause—
So as to give rest to the earth,
And unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35A sword against the Chaldeans
—declares the LORD—
And against the inhabitants of Babylon,
Against its officials and its wise men!
36A sword against the diviners, that they be made fools of!
A sword against the warriors, that they be dismayed!
37A sword against its horses and chariots,
And against all the motley crowd in its midst,
That they become like women!
A sword against its treasuries, that they be pillaged!
38A droughtg against its waters, that they be dried up!
For it is a land of idols;
They are besotted by their e-dread images.-e
39Assuredly,
e-Wildcats and hyenas-e shall dwell [there],
And ostriches shall dwell there;
It shall never be settled again,
Nor inhabited throughout the ages.
40It shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors—declares the LORD; no man shall live there, no human shall sojourn there.
41Lo, a people comes from the northland;
A great nation and many kings are roused
From the remotest parts of the earth.
42They grasp the bow and javelin,
They are cruel, they show no mercy;
The sound of them is like the roaring sea.
They ride upon horses,
Accoutered like a man for battle,
Against you, O Fair Babylon!
43The king of Babylon has heard the report of them,
And his hands are weakened;
Anguish seizes him,
Pangs like a woman in childbirth.
44It shall be as when a lion comes out of the jungle of the Jordan against a secure pasture: in a moment h-I can harry them out of it and appoint over it anyone I choose.-h Then who is like Me? Who can summon Me? Who is the shepherd that can stand up against Me? 45Hear, then, the plan that the LORD has devised against Babylon, and has purposed against the land of Chaldea:
Surely the shepherd boys
Shall drag them away;
Surely the pasture shall be
Aghast because of them.
46At the sound of Babylon’s capture
The earth quakes,
And an outcry is heard among the nations.
51Thus said the LORD:
See, I am rousing a destructive wind
Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.a
2I will send strangersb against Babylon, and they shall winnow her.
And they shall strip her land bare;
They shall beset her on all sides
On the day of disaster.
3Letc the archer draw his bow,
And let him stand ready in his coat of mail!
Show no pity to her young men,
Wipe out all her host!
4Let them fall slain in the land of Chaldea,
Pierced through in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah were not bereftd
Of their God the LORD of Hosts,
But their land was filled with guilt
Before the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from the midst of Babylon
And save your lives, each of you!
Do not perish for her iniquity;
For this is a time of vengeance for the LORD,
He will deal retribution to her.
7Babylon was a golden cup in the
