Jeremiah 27

1 The Lord’s word concerning Babylon.

2 “Proclaim this among the nations. Make the news heard and do not hold it back: Babylon has been taken; Bel, the fearless one, has been put to shame; Merodach, the pampered one, has been handed over.”

3 “A nation has come against her from the north. It will turn her land into ruin, and no person or animal will live there.”

4 “In those days and at that time, the people of Israel and Judah will come together. They will go forward weeping and seek the Lord their God.”

5 “They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and take refuge in the Lord God, for the everlasting covenant will not be forgotten.”

6 “My people have become lost sheep. Their shepherds drove them out and made them wander on the mountains. They went from mountain to hill and forgot their resting place.”

7 “Everyone who found them devoured them. Their enemies said, We will not spare them, because they sinned against the Lord — the pasture of righteousness, the one who gathered their ancestors.”

8 “Flee from Babylon and leave the land of the Chaldeans. Go out like serpents before the sheep.”

9 “Look, I am stirring up a gathering of nations from the north against Babylon. They will take their positions against her, and from there she will be captured. Like a skilled warrior’s arrow, it will not return empty.”

10 “Chaldea will become plunder, and everyone who plunders her will be satisfied.”

11 “You rejoiced and boasted while plundering my inheritance. You leaped like calves in the grass and pushed with your horns like bulls.”

12 “Your mother is deeply ashamed — the mother who bore you for good is the last of the nations, a wilderness.”

13 “Because of the Lord’s anger, it will be completely uninhabited and become a ruin. Everyone who passes through Babylon will scowl and hiss at all her wounds.”

14 “Take your positions all around Babylon, all you who bend the bow. Shoot at her, and do not spare your arrows.”

15 “Shout in triumph over her. Her hands have weakened, her defenses have fallen, and her wall has been torn down. This is vengeance from God. Take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done.”

16 “Destroy the seed from Babylon, and the one who holds the sickle at harvest. For fear of the Greek sword, everyone will return to his people and flee to his own land.”

17 “Israel is a wandering sheep. Lions drove him out: first the king of Assyria devoured him, and afterward this one, the king of Babylon, gnawed his bones.”

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

19 “I will restore Israel to his pasture. He will feed on Carmel, Mount Ephraim, and Gilead, and his soul will be satisfied.”

20 “In those days and at that time, they will search for Israel’s wrongdoing, but none will be found, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found, because I will be merciful to those left in the land, says the Lord.”

21 “Go up against her bitterly, and against those who live in her. Take vengeance, sword, and destroy, says the Lord, and do everything I command you.”

22 “The sound of war and great destruction fills the land of the Chaldeans!”

23 “How the hammer of the whole earth has been broken and crushed! How Babylon has become a ruin among the nations!”

24 “They will come against you, Babylon, and you will be captured before you know it. You were found and taken because you resisted the Lord.”

25 “The Lord has opened his treasury and brought out the weapons of his anger, because the Lord God has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.”

26 “Her time has come. Open her storehouses, search her as one searches a cave, and destroy her completely. Let no one remain.”

27 “Dry up all her produce and send her people down to slaughter. Woe to them, because their day and the time of their repayment have come.”

28 “The sound of those fleeing and escaping from the land of Babylon, to proclaim in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God.”

29 “Summon many against Babylon, everyone who bends the bow. Camp all around her. Let none of her people escape. Repay her according to her work; do to her everything she has done, because she resisted the Lord, the Holy God of Israel.”

30 “Therefore her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be struck down, says the Lord.”

31 “Look, I am against you, you arrogant one, says the Lord, because your day and the time of your repayment have come.”

32 “Your pride will stumble and fall, with no one to raise it up. I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around her.”

33 “This is what the Lord says: The people of Israel and Judah have been oppressed. Everyone who took them captive held them down and refused to let them go.”

34 “The one who ransoms them is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will take up the case against his adversaries, so that he may sweep the land away, and he will provoke those who live in Babylon.”

35 “A sword is against the Chaldeans, against Babylon’s residents, against her nobles, and against her wise men.”

36 “A sword is against her warriors, and they will be weakened.”

37 “A sword is against their horses and chariots, against the warriors and mixed peoples among her. They will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be scattered.”

38 “She trusted in her water, but they will be ashamed, because this is a land of carved images, and they boasted in the islands.”

39 “Therefore phantoms will live in the islands, and the daughters of Sirens will live in her. She will never again be inhabited.”

40 “As God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities around them, says the Lord, no one will live there and no human being will stay there.”

41 “Look, a people is coming from the north. A great nation and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth.”

42 “They carry bow and dagger. They are fierce and have no mercy. Their voices roar like the sea. They ride horses and are prepared like fire for war against you, daughter of Babylon.”

43 “The king of Babylon heard about them, and his hands went weak. Anguish seized him, pain like that of a woman in labor.”

44 “Look, he will come up like a lion from the Jordan to the place of Aitham. I will quickly drive them away from her and appoint every young man against her. Who is like me? Who can resist me? What shepherd can stand before me?”

45 “Therefore hear the Lord’s plan against Babylon and what he has devised against the Chaldeans who live there: surely the lambs of their flock will be destroyed, and their pasture will be made a ruin.”

46 “The earth will quake at the sound of Babylon’s capture, and a cry will be heard among the nations.”