Jeremiah 50

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1This is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians:

2“Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’

3A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both men and animals will flee away.

4“In those days, at that time,” declares the Lord, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.

5They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

6“My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.

7Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their true pasture, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’

8“Flee out of Babylon; leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock.

9For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.

10So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the Lord.

11“Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions,

12your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. She will be the least of the nations– a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.

13Because of the Lord's anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate. All who pass Babylon will be horrified and scoff because of all her wounds.

14“Take up your positions around Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her! Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord.

15Shout against her on every side! She surrenders, her towers fall, her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the Lord, take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done to others.

16Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the reaper with his sickle at harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor let everyone return to his own people, let everyone flee to his own land.

17“Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

18Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.

19But I will bring Israel back to his own pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

20In those days, at that time,” declares the Lord, “search will be made for Israel's guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.

21“Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Pursue, kill and completely destroy them,” declares the Lord. “Do everything I have commanded you.

22The noise of battle is in the land, the noise of great destruction!

23How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations!

24I set a trap for you, O Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed the Lord.

25The Lord has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign Lord Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.

26Come against her from afar. Break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Completely destroy her and leave her no remnant.

27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished.

28Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how the Lord our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

29“Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

30Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets; all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,” declares the Lord.

31“See, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty, “for your day has come, the time for you to be punished.

32The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help her up; I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her.”

33This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go.

34Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

35“A sword against the Babylonians!” declares the Lord– “against those who live in Babylon and against her officials and wise men!

36A sword against her false prophets! They will become fools. A sword against her warriors! They will be filled with terror.

37A sword against her horses and chariots and all the foreigners in her ranks! They will become women. A sword against her treasures! They will be plundered.

38A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror.

39“So desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

40As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighboring towns,” declares the Lord, “so no one will live there; no man will dwell in it.

41“Look! An army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth.

42They are armed with bows and spears; they are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, O Daughter of Babylon.

43The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.

44Like a lion coming up from Jordan's thickets to a rich pastureland, I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And what shepherd can stand against me?”

45Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned against Babylon, what he has purposed against the land of the Babylonians: The young of the flock will be dragged away; he will completely destroy their pasture because of them.

46At the sound of Babylon's capture the earth will tremble; its cry will resound 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 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 SWAHSUV Neno hili ndilo alilosema Bwana, katika habari za Babeli, na katika habari za Wakaldayo, kwa kinywa cha Yeremia, nabii. Kiswahili