The Lord talks about the land of Babylon
1The Lord talked about Babylon, the land of the Chaldean people, and He sent the prophet Jeremiah to them to say:
2‘You must talk to all the nations.
You must put up a flag and speak.
Don't keep quiet. Say to them:
“Enemies have defeated the land of Babylon.
The god Bel can not help them
and the god Marduk is afraid.
Those gods can not help. They fear
3because a nation has come from the north
and they have defeated Babylon.
They have made the land empty,
and there are no more people living there.
The people and the animals have run away.” ’
4The Lord says:
‘At the time when this happens,
the Israelites will come home and
the people of Judah will come with them.
They will cry and look for the Lord their God.
5They will ask where the road to Zion is
and they will come to Jerusalem.
They will come to be with the Lord.
I will never break my covenant with them.
It will be forever and they will not forget it.
6My people were like sheep
that had lost their way.
Their shepherds had led them
in the wrong way and they got lost
in the mountains.
They went from one mountain
to another mountain and they forgot
where their home was.
7Everyone who saw the sheep
killed them and ate them
and their enemies said:
“The Lord will not punish us,
because the Israelites
have sinned_against Him.
The Lord wanted to be
like a resting place to them
where they could lie down,
but they did not listen to Him.
Their forefathers believed that
He was the Lord who would help them,
but they did not obey Him.”
8You must run away from Babylon,
and you must get out of the land
of the Babylonians.
You must be like the leader goat
in front of the other goats.
9Because I will soon bring a lot of big nations
from the land in the north to attack Babylon.
They will be ready to go to war.
They will start at the northern side
and they will defeat the cities.
They are men who know how to fight.
They shoot arrows that never miss.
10The enemies will catch
the Babylonians and take them away.
They will take everything
until they have enough.’
This is what the Lord says. 11The Lord also says:
‘Babylonians, you who carried away
everything out of my city,
you are happy and you rejoice now.
You dance like calves that have a lot of food,
and you make a noise like a horse
that wants to mate.
12But you will suffer,
and your enemies will humiliate you.
You will be unimportant,
more than any other nation,
and your land will become a dry desert.
13The Lord is angry.
He will make Babylon empty,
and no one will live there.
Everyone who walks past Babylon
will be shocked and whistle
when they see what has happened to the city.’
14‘You, who shoot with bows_and_arrows,
you must attack Babylon.
You must shoot, and you must use all your arrows,
because Babylon has
sinned_against the Lord.
15You must shout
when you attack the city.
The people of Babylon stop fighting,
and the towers of Babylon fall down.
The enemies break down the walls
of the city because the Lord
is punishing the people of the city.
You must do the same to the people
of Babylon as they did to you.
16Don't let the people of Babylon
sow wheat or harvest it.
The enemies have killed them
and now all the people from other lands
will go back to their own nations
and flee to their own people.’
The people of Israel will go back home
17‘The Israelites are like sheep
that got lost when lions
chased them and they ran away.
First the king of Assyria was like a lion
that ate the Israelites and then
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
chewed their bones and broke them all.’
18The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says:
‘That is why I will punish
the king of Babylon and his land
as I have punished the king of Assyria.
19And I will bring back the people
of Israel to their land.
They are my sheep and they will
lie down and eat on Mount Carmel
and Mount Bashan.
They will have enough food to eat
on the mountains of Ephraim and Gilead.’
20The Lord says:
‘At that time people will look for Israelites
who have done wrong
and for sinful people of Judah,
but they will not find any guilty people,
because I will forgive
all the sins of my people
who are still_alive.’
21The Lord says:
‘You must go to the land of Merathaim
and attack the people of Pekod.
You must destroy their cities and kill them all.
You must do everything that I tell you.
22War is coming to the land of Babylon,
and the enemies will destroy everything.
23Babylon was the hammer
that was beating the earth,
but now the hammer is broken.
The other people will be shocked
when they see what has happened to Babylon.
24Babylon, I made a trap and it caught you,
but you did not know about it.
You can not get out of it,
because you wanted
to go to war_against the Lord.
25The Lord has opened
his rooms full of weapons
and He has taken out his weapons,
because He has become angry.
The Lord who rules over all
wants to do something in the land of Babylon.
26All of you must come
from far away places to Babylon.
You must open its store rooms of wheat.
You must kill all the people
and throw them in heaps
like heaps of wheat.
Not one must stay alive.
27You must kill all their leaders.
They will suffer because
the day has come for Me to punish them.
28The people are running away,
and they try to escape from Babylon.
They tell the people in Zion
how the Lord is punishing
the people of Babylon
for what they have done to his temple.
29You must call a lot of soldiers
to come to Babylon,
everyone who can shoot
with a bow_and_arrow.
You must put up your tents
around the city, and no one must escape.
You must punish the people of the city
for everything that they have done.
You must do to them
what they have done to you,
because they have rebelled_against the Lord,
against the holy God of Israel.
30That is why their young men
will lie dead in their streets
and market places.
The enemies will kill all their soldiers.’
This is what the Lord says. 31The Lord who rules over all speaks. He says:
‘Listen to Me, rebellious people.
I am against you because
the day has come for Me to punish you.
32The rebellious people will fall
and no one will pick them up.
I will start a fire in their cities
and everything will burn down.’
33The Lord who rules over all says:
‘Enemies have oppressed the Israelites,
and they also oppressed the people of Judah.
Enemies have taken them as prisoners
and they will not let them go.
34But God is their Redeemer.
He is strong and He will set them free.
His name is the Lord who rules over all.
He will help them fight against their enemies.
He will bring peace in the land_of_Israel,
but He will not bring peace
to the people of Babylon.’
35The Lord says:
‘I will send people with swords
to kill the Babylonians,
the people of Babylon,
their officials and their wise men.
36I will send men with swords
to kill their false_prophets
so that everyone will know
that they are fools.
I will send people with swords
to kill their soldiers,
and all of them will become afraid.
37I will send men with swords
to kill their horses and to destroy
all the war-chariots in Babylon
and to kill all the strong soldiers
that they have hired.
All of them will become weak like women.
I will send people with swords
to destroy their store rooms,
and the enemies will take away everything.
38I will send drought
so that there will be no water.
I will do this because Babylon
is a land full of images,
and the people love their idols very much.
39That is why only hyenas
and other desert animals will live in Babylon.
Ostriches will also live there.
No people will ever live there again.’
40The Lord says:
‘It will be like when I destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah
and the other towns near them.
No one will live there again,
and no person will want to stay there.
41There is a big nation
coming from the north.
A lot of kings from
all over the world are coming.
42Everyone has a bow_and_arrow
and a spear. They are cruel,
and they don't feel sorry for anyone.
When they shout, it sounds
like the roaring of the sea.
They ride on horses and they
are ready to go to war_against you,
people of Babylon.
43When they told the king of Babylon
that his enemies were coming,
he became afraid.
He could not do anything.
He started to panic, and he was in pain
like a woman who is having a baby.
44This you must know:
Like animals that eat grass
near a water stream,
that run away when a lion comes
from the forest at the Jordan River,
that is how I will make the people of Babylon
flee from their land, and I will choose someone
to rule over their land.
Because who is like Me
and who can do what I do? No one.
What king can be against Me
and stay alive? No one.
45So listen to what the Lord
decided about Babylon.
Listen to what He is going to do
to the people of Babylon.
The enemies will take
their children away, this is sure.
They will take away
all the people from their homes.
People will be shocked when they see
what happens to the people of Babylon.
46The earth will tremble
when the people of Babylon fall,
and everyone will hear them shouting.’
