Dual Panel1The word which the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldaeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2Declare among the nations, make proclamation; keep nothing back, spread the news: Babylon is taken, Bel put to shame, Marduk dismayed; the idols of Babylon are put to shame, her false gods are dismayed.
3A nation has come out of the north against her; it will make her land a desolate waste with no one living there; man and beast have fled and are gone.
4In those days and at that time, says the LORD, the people of Israel and the people of Judah will come together, and in tears go in search of the LORD their God;
5they will ask the way to Zion, turning their faces towards her, and saying, “Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant which will never be forgotten.”
6My people were lost sheep, whose shepherds let them stray and run wild on the mountains; they wandered from mountain to hill, forgetful of their fold.
7All who came on them devoured them; their enemies said, “We incur no guilt, because they have sinned against the LORD, the LORD who is the true goal and the hope of their forefathers.”
8Flee from Babylon, from the land of the Chaldaeans; go out like he-goats leading the flock.
9I shall stir up a host of mighty nations and bring them against Babylon, marshalled against her from a northern land; and from the north she will be captured. Their arrows are like those of a skilled warrior who never returns empty-handed;
10the Chaldaeans will be plundered, and all who plunder them will take their fill. This is the word of the LORD.
11You plundered my possession; but though you rejoice and exult, though you run free like a heifer during the threshing, though you neigh like a stallion,
12your mother will be cruelly disgraced, she who bore you will be put to shame. Look at her, bringing up the rear of the nations, a wilderness, parched and barren,
13uninhabited through the wrath of the LORD, an object of horror; all who pass by Babylon will be horror-struck and astounded at the sight of her many wounds.
14Marshal your forces and encircle Babylon, you whose bows are ready strung; shoot at her, spare not your arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.
15On every side shout in triumph over her; she has surrendered, her bastions are thrown down, her walls demolished. This is the vengeance of the LORD; be avenged on her; as she has done, so do to her.
16Destroy every sower in Babylon, every reaper with his sickle at harvest time. To escape the cruel sword everyone will turn back to his people, everyone flee to his own land.
17Israel is a scattered flock harried and chased by lions: the Assyrian king was the first to devour him, and now at the last his bones have been gnawed by King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.
18Therefore the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel says this: I shall punish the king of Babylon and his country as once I punished the king of Assyria.
19But I shall bring Israel back to his own pasture, to graze on Carmel and Bashan; on Ephraim's hills and in Gilead he will eat his fill.
20In those days, says the LORD, when that time comes, search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none, and for the sin of Judah, but it will not be found; for those whom I leave as a remnant I shall pardon.
21Attack the land of Merathaim; attack it and the inhabitants of Pekod; put them to the sword and utterly destroy them, and do whatever I command you. This is the word of the LORD.
22The sound of war is heard in the land and great destruction!
23See how the hammer of the whole world is hacked and broken, how Babylon has become a thing of horror among the nations!
24Babylon, you have set a snare for yourself and have been trapped unawares. There you are, you are caught, because you have challenged the LORD.
25The LORD has opened his armoury and brought out the weapons of his wrath; for this is work for the Lord the GOD of Hosts to do in the land of the Chaldaeans.
26Come against her from every quarter; throw open her granaries, pile her like heaps of grain; destroy her completely, let no survivor be left.
27Put all her warriors to the sword; let them be led to the slaughter. Woe betide them, for their time has come, their day of reckoning!
28I hear the fugitives escaping from the land of Babylon to proclaim in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance he takes for his temple.
29Let your arrows whistle against Babylon, all you whose bows are ready strung. Besiege her on all sides; let no one escape. Repay her in full for her misdeeds; as she has done, so do to her, for she has insulted the LORD the Holy One of Israel.
30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her warriors lie still in death that day. This is the word of the LORD.
31I am against you, insolent city; for your time has come, your day of reckoning. This is the word of the Lord GOD of Hosts.
32The insolent one will stumble and fall and no one will lift her up; I shall kindle fire in her towns and it will devour everything round about.
33The LORD of Hosts has said this: The peoples of Israel and Judah are both oppressed; their captors all hold them fast and will not let go.
34But they have a powerful advocate, whose name is the LORD of Hosts; he himself will take up their cause, that he may give distress to the land and turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35A sword hangs over the Chaldaeans, over the people of Babylon, her officers and wise men, says the LORD.
36A sword hangs over the false prophets, and they are made fools, a sword over her warriors, and they despair,
37a sword over her horses and her chariots and over all the mixed rabble within her, and they will become like women; a sword over her treasures, and they will be plundered,
38a sword over her waters, and they will dry up; for it is a land of idols that glories in its dreaded gods.
39Therefore marmots and jackals will skulk in it, desert-owls will haunt it; never more will it be inhabited and age after age no one will dwell in it.
40It will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbours, says the LORD; no one will live in it, no human being will make a home there.
41See, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and mighty kings rouse themselves from earth's farthest corners.
42Armed with bow and scimitar, they are cruel and pitiless; bestriding their horses, they sound like the thunder of the sea; they are like men arrayed for battle against you, Babylon.
43News of them has reached the king of Babylon, and his hands hang limp; agony grips him, pangs as of a woman in labour.
44Like a lion coming up from Jordan's dense thickets to the perennial pastures, in a moment I shall chase the shepherd away and round up the choicest of the rams. For who is like me? Who can challenge me? What shepherd can stand his ground before me?
45Therefore listen to the LORD's purpose against Babylon and his plans against the land of the Chaldaeans: The young of the flock will be dragged off, and their pasture will be aghast at their fate.
46At the sound of Babylon's capture the land quakes; it cries out, and the sound is heard throughout the nations.