Jeremiah 50 - New Catholic Bible (NCB)

Chapter 50

A Prophecy against Babylon.^{[a] 1} This is the word which the Lord spoke against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

² Declare this among the nations and proclaim it;
lift up a banner and proclaim it;
keep nothing back, but announce,
“Babylon will be captured;
Bel^[b] will be put to shame;
Marduk will be dismayed.
Her images are disgraced;
her idols are shattered.”
³ A nation from the north is marching against her
that will turn her land into a desolate waste,
so that no one will be able to live there anymore;
both men and beasts have fled and are gone.
⁴ In those days and at that time,
says the Lord,
the people of Israel and of Judah will come,
weeping as they seek the Lord, their God.
⁵ They will ask the way to Zion
and turn their faces toward it, saying,
“Come, let us bind ourselves to the Lord
in an everlasting covenant
that will never be forgotten.”
⁶ My people were lost sheep;
their shepherds led them astray
and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountains and hills
and lost the way to their fold.
⁷ Whoever came upon them devoured them,
and their enemies insisted,
“We incur no guilt,
because they have sinned
against the Lord, their true pasture,
against the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”
⁸ Flee from Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans;
be like male goats leading the flock.
⁹ Behold, I will stir up against Babylon
a host of mighty nations from the land of the north.
They will advance against her,
and there she will be conquered.
Their arrows are like those of a skilled warrior
that are never shot unsuccessfully.
¹⁰ Chaldea will be plundered,
and all who plunder her will be sated,
says the Lord.
¹¹ O you who plundered my heritage,
although you rejoice and exult,
although you playfully frolic
like heifers on the grass
and neigh like stallions,
¹² your mother^[c] will be cruelly put to shame;
she who bore you will be completely disgraced.
She is now the least of the nations,
a desert, a parched land, a wilderness.
¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord
she will not be inhabited
but will be totally desolate.
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled
and stunned at the enormity of her wounds.
¹⁴ Take up your positions and surround Babylon,
all you who draw the bow.
Shoot at her, and do not spare your arrows,
for she has sinned against the Lord.^[d]
15 Raise your war cries against her on all sides;
shout in triumph,
“She has surrendered,
her bastions have fallen,
her walls have been demolished.”
This is the vengeance of the Lord.
Avenge yourselves on her;
as she has done, so do to her.
¹⁶ Drive out from Babylon the sowers
and those who wield the sickle at harvest time.
To escape the destroying sword,
all of them will return to their own people;
all of them will flee to their own land.
¹⁷ Israel is a scattered flock
that was pursued by lions.
First the king of Assyria devoured her,
and now her bones have been crushed
by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

¹⁸ Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

I intend to punish the king of Babylon and his land,
as I formerly punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹ I will restore Israel to her pastures,
and she will graze on Carmel and in Bashan;
on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead
her hunger will be satisfied.
²⁰ In those days, and at that time,
says the Lord,
you will search for evidence of the iniquity of Israel,
but there will be none,
and for the sins of Judah,
but these will no longer be found,
for I will pardon the remnant
of those that I have preserved.
²¹ Attack the land of Merathaim^[e]
and the inhabitants of Pekod.
Put them to the sword and destroy them;
do all I have commanded you, says the Lord.
²² The noise of battle amid great destruction
is heard throughout the land.
²³ See how the hammer of the whole world
has been broken and shattered,
how Babylon has become
an object of horror among the nations.
²⁴ I set a snare for you, O Babylon,
and you were caught before you realized it.
You were discovered and seized
because you challenged the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened his armory
and brought forth the weapons of his wrath.
For the Lord God has work to do
in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from every side;
open her granaries,
pile up her goods in heaps,
and completely destroy her
until nothing of her is left.
²⁷ Slay all her bulls;
lead them down to the slaughterhouse.
Woe to them, for their time has come,
their day of punishment.
²⁸ Listen! Fugitives and refugees
from the land of Babylon
have arrived in Zion to proclaim
the vengeance of the Lord, our God,
the vengeance he inflicts for his temple.
²⁹ Summon against Babylon the archers,
all those who are skilled with the bow.
Surround her on all sides;
allow no one to escape.
Repay her in full for her misdeeds;
treat her as she has treated others.
³⁰ Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets,
and all her soldiers will be destroyed on that day,
says the Lord.
³¹ I am against you, O arrogant city,
says the Lord of hosts.
For your day has come,
the time for me to punish you.
³² You will stumble and fall, O arrogant city,
and no one will offer to raise you up.
I will kindle a fire in your cities
that will devour everything within it.
³³ Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The people of Israel are oppressed,
as are the people of Judah.
All their captors hold them fast
and refuse to let them go.
³⁴ But their redeemer^[f] is strong;
his name is the Lord of hosts.
He will successfully take up their cause,
thereby affording rest to the earth
while leaving the inhabitants of Babylon in turmoil.
³⁵ A sword against the Chaldeans, says the Lord,
against the inhabitants of Babylon,
and against her officials and her wise men.
³⁶ A sword against her false prophets;
they will become fools.
A sword against her warriors;
they will succumb to panic.
³⁷ A sword against her horses and her chariots
and all the foreign troops in her midst;
they will become like women.
A sword against her treasures;
they will be plundered.
³⁸ A drought against her waters;
they will be dried up.
For it is a land of idols,
and they will be overcome with terror
when confronted by them.
³⁹ Therefore, wildcats and jackals will dwell there,
and there ostriches will make their home.
Never again will it be inhabited;
no people ever again will dwell there.
⁴⁰ As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
and all their neighboring towns, says the Lord,
no one will live there anymore
or attempt to settle there.
⁴¹ Look! A people is coming from the north,
a mighty nation.
Many kings are rousing themselves
from the ends of the earth.
⁴² They wield bows and spears,
and their cruelty allows no mercy.
As they ride forth on their horses,
their sound resembles that of the roaring sea.
All of them are arrayed for battle
to fight against you, daughter of Babylon.
⁴³ News of their approach has reached the king of Babylon,
and his hands fall limp at his side.
Anguish has seized him,
pangs like those of a woman in labor.
⁴⁴ Behold, like a lion coming up
from the thickets of the Jordan
to the perennial feeding grounds,
I will in a single instant drive them away
and appoint over her whomever I choose.
For who is there like me?
Who can challenge me?
What shepherd can stand up to me?
⁴⁵ Therefore, hear the plan
that the Lord has devised against Babylon,
and what he proposes to do
against the land of the Chaldeans:
The young of the flock will be dragged away,
and he will completely destroy their pastures.
⁴⁶ The earth will tremble at the news,
and the shouting will be heard among the nations.

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 50:1 In Jeremiah’s eyes, Babylon was only an instrument in God’s hands, and he knew that sooner or later its control of the East would be taken from it. The prophet had predicted that Israel would be reprieved. Made confident by these reflections of Jeremiah, his disciples here proclaim the judgment of the Lord against the Chaldeans, at a time when, toward the middle of the sixth century B.C., their power was beginning to decline and the deportees were hoping for deliverance. We are in the atmosphere that reigned before 538 B.C. and which we know from Second Isaiah.
2. Jeremiah 50:2 Bel was an ancient Sumerian deity; his name was then taken over by the Babylonian national god, Marduk.
3. Jeremiah 50:12 Mother: the Babylonian nation.
4. Jeremiah 50:14 The archers here are the Elamites.
5. Jeremiah 50:21 Merathaim and Pekod: regions of Babylonia, the Hebrew names of which (“twofold rebellion” and “visit, punish”) lend themselves to a play on words.
6. Jeremiah 50:34 Redeemer: Hebrew, goel; see Lev 25:25.