Jeremiah 50:1-13 ▼

1 CONCERNING Babylon, the word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare among the nations and publish and raise an ensign; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is fallen, Merodach is put to shame, her idols are confounded and her graven images are broken in pieces.

3 For out of the north there comes up a nation against her which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell in it; they shall flee, they shall depart, both man and beast.

4 In those days and in that time, says the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping and seeking the LORD their God.

5 They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces towards it, saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant which shall not be forgotten.

6 My people have been like lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have scattered them on the mountains; they have gone from mountains to hills, they have forgotten their fold.

7 All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries have said, We shall not spare them, because they have sinned against the LORD and against his righteous habitation; even the LORD, the hope of their families.

8 Flee from the midst of Babylon and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

9 For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come against Babylon a multitude of many nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken; their arrows shall be as those of an expert archer; none shall return empty.

10 And the land of the Chaldeans shall be a spoil; all that plunder her shall be satisfied, says the LORD.

11 Because you were glad, because you rejoiced over the destruction of my heritage, you leaped for joy like fat heifers and you danced like the rams of the flock:

12 Your mother is exceedingly ashamed; she who bore you is confounded: behold, the last of the nations shall become wilderness, waste, and desolation.

13 Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate; every one who passes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her wounds.