HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  12your mother shall be utterly shamed,

  and she who bore you shall be disgraced.

  Lo, she shall be the last of the nations,

  a wilderness, dry land, and a desert.

  13Because of the wrath of the LORD she shall not be inhabited,

  but shall be an utter desolation;

  everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled

  and hiss because of all her wounds.

  14Take up your positions around Babylon,

  all you that bend the bow;

  shoot at her, spare no arrows,

  for she has sinned against the LORD.

  15Raise a shout against her from all sides,

  “She has surrendered;

  her bulwarks have fallen,

  her walls are thrown down.”

  For this is the vengeance of the LORD:

  take vengeance on her,

  do to her as she has done.

  16Cut off from Babylon the sower,

  and the wielder of the sickle in time of harvest;

  because of the destroying sword

  all of them shall return to their own people,

  and all of them shall flee to their own land.

  17Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured it, and now at the end King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has gnawed its bones. 18Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria. 19I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead its hunger shall be satisfied. 20In those days and at that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found; for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared.

  21Go up to the land of Merathaim;b

  go up against her,

  and attack the inhabitants of Pekodc

  and utterly destroy the last of them,d

  says the LORD;

  do all that I have commanded you.

  22The noise of battle is in the land,

  and great destruction!

  23How the hammer of the whole earth

  is cut down and broken!

  How Babylon has become

  a horror among the nations!

  24You set a snare for yourself and you were caught, O Babylon,

  but you did not know it;

  you were discovered and seized,

  because you challenged the LORD.

  25The LORD has opened his armory,

  and brought out the weapons of his wrath,

  for the Lord GOD of hosts has a task to do

  in the land of the Chaldeans.

  26Come against her from every quarter;

  open her granaries;

  pile her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly;

  let nothing be left of her.

  27Kill all her bulls,

  let them go down to the slaughter.

  Alas for them, their day has come,

  the time of their punishment!

  28Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon are coming to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his temple.

  29Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her—for she has arrogantly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 30Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the LORD.

  31I am against you, O arrogant one,

  says the Lord GOD of hosts;

  for your day has come,

  the time when I will punish you.

  32The arrogant one shall stumble and fall,

  with no one to raise him up,

  and I will kindle a fire in his cities,

  and it will devour everything around him.

  33Thus says the LORD of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and so too are the people of Judah; all their captors have held them fast and refuse to let them go. 34Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.

  35A sword against the Chaldeans, says the LORD,

  and against the inhabitants of Babylon,

  and against her officials and her sages!

  36A sword against the diviners,

  so that they may become fools!

  A sword against her warriors,

  so that they may be destroyed!

  37A sword against here horses and against herf chariots,

  and against all the foreign troops in her midst,

  so that they may become women!

  A sword against all her treasures,

  that they may be plundered!

  38A droughtg against her waters,

  that they may be dried up!

  For it is a land of images,

  and they go mad over idols.

  39Therefore wild animals shall live with hyenas in Babylon,h and ostriches shall inhabit her; she shall never again be peopled, or inhabited for all generations. 40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the LORD, so no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in her.

  41Look, a people is coming from the north;

  a mighty nation and many kings

  are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.

  42They wield bow and spear,

  they are cruel and have no mercy.

  The sound of them is like the roaring sea;

  they ride upon horses,

  set in array as a warrior for battle,

  against you, O daughter Babylon!

  43The king of Babylon heard news of them,

  and his hands fell helpless;

  anguish seized him,

  pain like that of a woman in labor.

  44Like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly chase them away from her; and I will appoint over her whomever I choose.i For who is like me? Who can summon me? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me? 45Therefore hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the purposes that he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away; surely theirj fold shall be appalled at their fate. 46At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.

  next chapter

  * * *

  a Gk: Heb toward it. Come! They shall join

  b Or of Double Rebellion

  c Or of Punishment

  d Tg: Heb destroy after them

  e Cn: Heb his

  f Cn: Heb his

  g Another reading is A sword

  h Heb lacks in Babylon

  i Or and I will single out the choicest of her rams: Meaning of Heb uncertain

  j Syr Gk Tg Compare 49.20: Heb lacks their

  50.1–51.58 A collection of poetic and prose judgment oracles that speak of the destruction of Babylon and the return of the Jews from captivity (see chs. 24, 25, 29). Whether or not these two chapters contain a nucleus of material from Jeremiah is debated. Prior to the fall of Jerusalem the prophet speaks favorably of Babylon: Nebuchadrezzar is the servant of God, the Babylonians are the instrument of God’s will, the exiles are to pray for Babylon, and Judah should submit to Babylonian rule. After the fall of Jerusalem the prophet may have changed his views. Now the devastator of nations will be destroyed because of its arrogance. It is more likely, however, that most of the collection derives from prophets of the exile and the early postexilic period who announce and celebrate the collapse of the empire and the return home. The Babylonian Empire fell in 539 BCE to the Persians, and shortly thereafter Cyrus, the Persian king, allowed the Jews to return home (Ezra 1.1–4).

  50.1 Superscription (see Hag 1.1; Mal 1.1).


  50.2 Bel, one of the names of Marduk, the leading god of Babylonia. Merodach, the biblical name for Marduk.

  50.3 The imagery of the “foe from the north” (see chs. 4–10) is transferred to the enemies of Babylonia (the Medes and the Persians).

  50.11–16 Babylon surrendered to the armies of Persia, led by Gobryas. It was not taken by force and destroyed.

  50.21 This verse contains two wordplays. Merathaim means “double rebellion” and is a word-play on a region in southern Babylonia, nar marratu. Pekod, “punishment” in Hebrew, refers to an Aramean tribe on the eastern bank of the lower Tigris River (see Ezek 23.23).

  50.29–32 The pride of rulers that leads to self-exaltation and the desire to rule in the place of God is the basis for Babylonia’s judgment (see Ezek 28).

  50.40 Sodom and Gomorrah. See 20.16 and note; 23.14.

  JEREMIAH 51

  1Thus says the LORD:

  I am going to stir up a destructive winda

  against Babylon

  and against the inhabitants of Lebqamai;b

  2and I will send winnowers to Babylon,

  and they shall winnow her.

  They shall empty her land

  when they come against her from every side

  on the day of trouble.

  3Let not the archer bend his bow,

  and let him not array himself in his coat of mail.

  Do not spare her young men;

  utterly destroy her entire army.

  4They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,

  and wounded in her streets.

  5Israel and Judah have not been forsaken

  by their God, the LORD of hosts,

  though their land is full of guilt

  before the Holy One of Israel.

  6Flee from the midst of Babylon,

  save your lives, each of you!

  Do not perish because of her guilt,

  for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance;

  he is repaying her what is due.

  7Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,

  making all the earth drunken;

  the nations drank of her wine,

  and so the nations went mad.

  8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered;

  wail for her!

  Bring balm for her wound;

  perhaps she may be healed.

  9We tried to heal Babylon,

  but she could not be healed.

  Forsake her, and let each of us go

  to our own country;

  for her judgment has reached up to heaven

  and has been lifted up even to the skies.

  10The LORD has brought forth our vindication;

  come, let us declare in Zion

  the work of the LORD our God.

  11Sharpen the arrows!

  Fill the quivers!

  The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for his temple.

  12Raise a standard against the walls of Babylon;

  make the watch strong;

  post sentinels;

  prepare the ambushes;

  for the LORD has both planned and done

  what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

  13You who live by mighty waters,

  rich in treasures,

  your end has come,

  the thread of your life is cut.

  14The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:

  Surely I will fill you with troops like a swarm of locusts,

  and they shall raise a shout of victory over you.

  15It is he who made the earth by his power,

  who established the world by his wisdom,

  and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

  16When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,

  and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

  He makes lightnings for the rain,

  and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.

  17Everyone is stupid and without knowledge;

  goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols;

  for their images are false,

  and there is no breath in them.

  18They are worthless, a work of delusion;

  at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

  19Not like these is the LORD,c the portion of Jacob,

  for he is the one who formed all things,

  and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;

  the LORD of hosts is his name.

  Israel the Creator’s Instrument

  20You are my war club, my weapon of battle:

  with you I smash nations;

  with you I destroy kingdoms;

  21with you I smash the horse and its rider;

  with you I smash the chariot and the charioteer;

  22with you I smash man and woman;

  with you I smash the old man and the boy;

  with you I smash the young man and the girl;

  23with you I smash shepherds and their flocks;

  with you I smash farmers and their teams;

  with you I smash governors and deputies.

  The Doom of Babylon

  24I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong that they have done in Zion, says the LORD.

  25I am against you, O destroying mountain,

  says the LORD,

  that destroys the whole earth;

  I will stretch out my hand against you,

  and roll you down from the crags,

  and make you a burned-out mountain.

  26No stone shall be taken from you for a corner

  and no stone for a foundation,

  but you shall be a perpetual waste,

  says the LORD.

  27Raise a standard in the land,

  blow the trumpet among the nations;

  prepare the nations for war against her,

  summon against her the kingdoms,

  Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;

  appoint a marshal against her,

  bring up horses like bristling locusts.

  28Prepare the nations for war against her,

  the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,

  and every land under their dominion.

  29The land trembles and writhes,

  for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand,

  to make the land of Babylon a desolation,

  without inhabitant.

  30The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting,

  they remain in their strongholds;

  their strength has failed,

  they have become women;

  her buildings are set on fire,

  her bars are broken.

  31One runner runs to meet another,

  and one messenger to meet another,

  to tell the king of Babylon

  that his city is taken from end to end:

  32the fords have been seized,

  the marshes have been burned with fire,

  and the soldiers are in panic.

  33For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

  Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor

  at the time when it is trodden;

  yet a little while

  and the time of her harvest will come.

  34“King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me,

  he has crushed me;

  he has made me an empty vessel,

  he has swallowed me like a monster;

  he has filled his belly with my delicacies,

  he has spewed me out.

  35May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,”

  the inhabitants of Zion shall say.

  “May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

  Jerusalem shall say.

  36Therefore thus says the LORD:


  I am going to defend your cause

  and take vengeance for you.

  I will dry up her sea

  and make her fountain dry;

  37and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,

  a den of jackals,

  an object of horror and of hissing,

  without inhabitant.

  38Like lions they shall roar together;

  they shall growl like lions’ whelps.

  39When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink

  and make them drunk, until they become merry

  and then sleep a perpetual sleep

  and never wake, says the LORD.

  40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

  like rams and goats.

  41How Sheshachd is taken,

  the pride of the whole earth seized!

  How Babylon has become

  an object of horror among the nations!

  42The sea has risen over Babylon;

  she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.

  43Her cities have become an object of horror,

  a land of drought and a desert,

  a land in which no one lives,

  and through which no mortal passes.

  44I will punish Bel in Babylon,

  and make him disgorge what he has swallowed.

  The nations shall no longer stream to him;

  the wall of Babylon has fallen.

  45Come out of her, my people!

  Save your lives, each of you,

  from the fierce anger of the LORD!

  46Do not be fainthearted or fearful

  at the rumors heard in the land—

  one year one rumor comes,

  the next year another,

  rumors of violence in the land

  and of ruler against ruler.

  47Assuredly, the days are coming

  when I will punish the images of Babylon;

  her whole land shall be put to shame,

  and all her slain shall fall in her midst.

  48Then the heavens and the earth,

  and all that is in them,

  shall shout for joy over Babylon;

  for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,

  says the LORD.

  49Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,

  as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.