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Jeremiah 50

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1The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed; her images are disappointed, her idols are dismayed.

3For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and animal.

4In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.

5They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

7All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.

8Flee out of the middle of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks.

9For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; no one shall return in vain.

10Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says Yahweh.

11Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses;

12your mother shall be utterly disappointed; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh.

15Shout against her all around: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.

16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.

17Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.

18Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

20In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be no one; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

21Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: kill and utterly destroy after them, says Yahweh, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

22A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against Yahweh.

25Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought out the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

26Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.

27Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day has come, the time of their visitation.

28The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her all around; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men of war will be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh.

31Behold, I am against you, you proud one, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; for your day has come, the time that I will visit you.

32The proud one shall stumble and fall, and no one shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are around him.

33Yahweh of Armies says: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.

34Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Armies is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35A sword is on the Chaldeans, says Yahweh, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on her wise men.

36A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.

37A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

38A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

39Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation.

40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man live therein.

41Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

43The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labor.

44Behold, the enemy shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who can stand before me?

45Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

46At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.

Commentary

50:1-7 The king of Babylon was kind to Jeremiah, yet the prophet must foretell the ruin of that kingdom. If our friends are God's enemies, we dare not speak peace to them. The destruction of Babylon is spoken of as done thoroughly. Here is a word for the comfort of the Jews. They shall return to their God first, then to their own land; the promise of their conversion and reformation makes way for the other promises. Their tears flow not from the sorrow of the world, as when they went into captivity, but from godly sorrow. They shall seek after the Lord as their God, and have no more to do with idols. They shall think of returning to their own country. This represents the return of poor souls to God. In true converts there are sincere desires to attain the end, and constant cares to keep in the way. Their present case is lamented as very sad. The sins of professing Christians never will excuse those who rejoice in destroying them.

CHAPTER 50Jer 50:1-46. Babylon's Coming Downfall; Israel's Redemption.After the predictions of judgment to be inflicted on other nations by Babylon, follows this one against Babylon itself, the longest prophecy, consisting of one hundred verses. The date of utterance was the fourth year of Zedekiah, when Seraiah, to whom it was committed, was sent to Babylon (Jer 51:59, 60). The repetitions in it make it likely that it consists of prophecies uttered at different times, now collected by Jeremiah to console the Jews in exile and to vindicate God's ways by exhibiting the final doom of Babylon, the enemy of the people of God, after her long prosperity. The style, imagery, and dialogues prove its genuineness in opposition to those who deny this. It shows his faithfulness; though under obligation to the king of Babylon, he owed a higher one to God, who directed him to prophesy against Babylon.1. Compare Isa 45:1-47:15. But as the time of fulfilment drew nearer, the prophecies are now proportionally more distinct than then.

2. Declare … among … nations—who would rejoice at the fall of Babylon their oppressor.standard—to indicate the place of meeting to the nations where they were to hear the good news of Babylon's fall [Rosenmuller]; or, the signal to summon the nations together against Babylon (Jer 51:12, 27), [Maurer].Bel—the tutelary god of Babylon; the same idol as the Ph�nician Baal, that is, lord, the sun (Isa 46:1).confounded—because unable to defend the city under their protection.Merodach—another Babylonian idol; meaning in Syria "little lord"; from which Merodach-baladan took his name.

3. a nation—the Medes, north of Babylon (Jer 51:48). The devastation of Babylon here foretold includes not only that by Cyrus, but also that more utter one by Darius, who took Babylon by artifice when it had revolted from Persia, and mercilessly slaughtered the inhabitants, hanging four thousand of the nobles; also the final desertion of Babylon, owing to Seleucia having been built close by under Seleucus Nicanor.

50:4 In those days - In the days wherein God shall begin to execute judgment upon Babylon, (which was in the time of Cyrus) the children of Judah shall come out of captivity, and some of the children of Israel hearing that their brethren were gone out of Babylon, shall go up also from the several places into which they were disposed by the Assyrians: weeping for their sins, or for joy that God should shew them such mercy.

4. Fulfilled only in part when some few of the ten tribes of "Israel" joined Judah in a "covenant" with God, at the restoration of Judah to its land (Ne 9:38; 10:29). The full event is yet to come (Jer 31:9; Ho 1:11; Zec 12:10).weeping—with joy at their restoration beyond all hope; and with sorrow at the remembrance of their sins and sufferings (Ezr 3:12, 13; Ps 126:5, 6).seek … Lord—(Ho 3:5).

5. thitherward—rather, "hitherward," Jeremiah's prophetical standpoint being at Zion. "Faces hitherward" implies their steadfastness of purpose not to be turned aside by any difficulties on the way.perpetual covenant—in contrast to the old covenant "which they brake" (Jer 31:31, &c. Jer 32:40). They shall return to their God first, then to their own land.

50:6 Their shepherds - Their civil and ecclesiastical governors have been a cause of it. The former by their wicked commands and example; the latter by example as well as doctrine. Turned them - To offer sacrifices unto idols. From mountain - From one idolatry to another. Forgotten - They have forgotten me.

50:7 Habitation - Some think this is a name here given to God, who indeed is the habitation of justice, but whether the Chaldeans would call him so, may be a question. Others therefore think the preposition in is understood, making this the aggravation of the Jews sins, that they were committed in a land which ought to have been an habitation of justice.

7. devoured—(Ps 79:7). "Found them" implies that they were exposed to the attacks of those whoever happened to meet them.adversaries said—for instance, Nebuzara-dan (Jer 40:2, 3; compare Zec 11:5). The Gentiles acknowledged some supreme divinity. The Jews' guilt was so palpable that they were condemned even in the judgment of heathens. Some knowledge of God's peculiar relation to Judea reached its heathen invaders from the prophets (Jer 2:3; Da 9:16); hence the strong language they use of Jehovah here, not as worshippers of Him themselves, but as believing Him to be the tutelary God of Judah ("the hope of their fathers," Ps 22:4; they do not say our hope), as each country was thought to have its local god, whose power extended no farther.habitation—(Ps 90:1; 91:1). Alluding to the tabernacle, or, as in Eze 34:14, "fold," which carries out the image in Jer 50:6, "resting-place" of the "sheep." But it can only mean "habitation" (Jer 31:23), which confirms English Version here.hope of their fathers—This especially condemned the Jews that their apostasy was from that God whose faithfulness their fathers had experienced.

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG እግዚአብሔር ስለ ከለዳውያን ምድር ስለ ባቢሎን በነቢዩ በኤርምያስ የተናገረው ቃል ይህ ነው። አማርኛ ENGNIV This is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians: English BCV እግዚኣብሄር ብዛዕባ ኸተማ ባቢሎንን ብዛዕባ ሃገር ከለዳውያንን ብነቢይ ኤርሚያስ ገይሩ ዝተዛረቦ ቓል እዙይ እዩ፦ ትግርኛ GAZBIB Dubbiin Waaqayyo waa'ee biyya Baabilonii fi waa'ee warra Kaldootaa karaa ana Ermiyaas dubbate kanatti fufe jira; Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ቃለ እግዚአብሔር ዘነበበ ላዕለ ባቢሎን ኀበ ምድረ ከላውዴዎን በእደ ኤርምያስ ነቢይ። giz GAZGAZ Dubbiin Waaqayyo waa'ee biyya Baabilonii fi waa'ee warra Kaldootaa karaa ana Ermiyaas dubbate kanatti fufe jira; Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum እግዚኣብሄር ብዛዕባ ኸተማ ባቢሎንን ብዛዕባ ሃገር ከለዳውያንን ብነቢይ ኤርሚያስ ገይሩ ዝተዛረቦ ቓል እዙይ እዩ፦ ትግርኛ AMHNIV እግዚአብሔር ስለ ባቢሎንና ስለ ባቢሎናውያን ምድር፣ በነቢዩ ኤርምያስ በኩል የተናገረው ቃል ይህ ነው፤ አማርኛ