1The word which the LORD spoke to Babylon, to the land of Chaldea, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.2Declare among the nations and proclaim, and raise a banner; proclaim, do not conceal. Say: Babylon has been captured; Bel has withered; Merodach is dismayed; her idols have withered; her idols are dismayed.3For a nation from the north has risen against her; he will make her land a horror, and no inhabitant will remain in her, from man to beast; they have wandered away; they have gone.4In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah will come together; they will go and weep as they walk, and they will seek the LORD their God.5They will ask the way to Zion; their faces are set here. Come and join yourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.6My people were a perishing flock; their shepherds led them astray; they turned them back on the mountains; from mountain to hill they went and forgot their resting place.7All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, We are not guilty, because they sinned against the LORD, the pasture of righteousness, and the hope of their fathers, the LORD.8Flee from the midst of Babylon and from the land of Chaldea; go out, go out, and be like male goats before the flock.9For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a great assembly of nations from the land of the north, and they will array themselves against her; from there she will be captured. His arrows are like those of a skilled mighty man; he will not return empty.10Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will be satisfied, declares the LORD.11Rejoice over her, rejoice; exult over her, exult, you who plunder my inheritance; leap like a heifer in the grass and cry aloud like stallions.12Your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be ashamed; behold, the end of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.13Because of the wrath of the LORD she will not be inhabited, and she will become a complete devastation; everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and will hiss at all her wounds.14Array yourselves against Babylon on every side, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her; spare no arrow, for she has sinned against the LORD.15Raise a shout against her on every side; she has surrendered; her foundations have fallen; her walls are overthrown. For this is the vengeance of the LORD; take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done.16Cut off the sower from Babylon and the one who handles the sickle at harvest time; because of the oppressing sword, each will turn to his own people and each will flee to his own land.17Israel is a scattered flock; lions have driven her away; the first devoured him, the king of Assyria, and this last one has crushed his bones, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.18Therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.19I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.20In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the iniquity of Israel will be sought and there will be none, and the sins of Judah, and they will not be found, for I will forgive those whom I leave as a remnant.21Go up against the land of Merathaim and against the inhabitants of Pekod; kill and devote them to destruction after them, declares the LORD, and do all that I have commanded you.22A sound of battle is in the land, and a great crash.23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!24I set a snare for you, and you were caught, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and also seized, because you stirred yourself up against the LORD.25The LORD opened his treasure and brought out the articles of his indignation, for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of Chaldea.26Come against her from every quarter; open her granaries; pile her up like heaps and destroy her utterly; let nothing be left to her.27Slaughter all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.28The sound of fugitives and survivors from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for his temple.29Summon many against Babylon, all who bend the bow; encamp against her on every side; let no one escape; repay her according to her work; do to her all that she has done, for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men of war will be silenced on that day, declares the LORD.31Behold, I am against you, O arrogance, declares the Lord GOD of hosts; for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.32Arrogance will stumble and fall, and there will be no one to raise him up; I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all around him.33Thus says the LORD of Hosts: The people of Israel and the people of Judah together are oppressed, and all their captors have held them fast; they refused to let them go.34Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Hosts is his name; he will plead their cause so that he may give rest to the land and unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.35A sword against Chaldea, declares the LORD, and against the inhabitants of Babylon and against her officials and against her wise men.36A sword against the diviners, and they will be foolish; a sword against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.37A sword against her horses and against her chariots and against all the mixed peoples in her midst, and they will become like women; a sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered.38A drought against her waters, and they will be dried up, for it is a land of idols, and they are driven mad by terrifying images.39Therefore wild beasts will dwell with hyenas, and ostriches will dwell in her; she will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, declares the LORD, no man will dwell there, and no son of man will sojourn in her.41Behold, a people is coming from the north, and a great nation and many kings are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.42They lay hold of bow and javelin; they are cruel and show no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, arrayed like a man for battle against you, O daughter Babylon.43The king of Babylon heard the report of them, and his hands fell helpless; distress seized him, pain like that of a woman in labor.44Behold, like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a strong pasture, I will suddenly make them run away from her; and who is the one I will appoint over her? For who is like me, and who will summon me, and what shepherd can stand before me?