< 耶利米书 27 >
1 犹大王约西亚的儿子约雅敬登基的时候,有这话从耶和华临到耶利米说:
THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE AGAINST BABYLON.
2 “耶和华对我如此说:你做绳索与轭,加在自己的颈项上,
Proclaim you among the Gentiles, and cause the tidings to be heard, and suppress [them] not: say you, Babylon is taken, Belus is confounded; the fearless, the luxurious Maerodach is delivered up.
3 借那些来到耶路撒冷见犹大王西底家的使臣之手,把绳索与轭送到以东王、摩押王、亚扪王、泰尔王、西顿王那里,
For a nation has come up against her from the north, he shall utterly ravage her land, and there shall be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast.
4 且嘱咐使臣,传与他们的主人说,万军之耶和华—以色列的 神如此说:
In those days, and at that time, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together; they shall proceed, weeping as they go, seeking the Lord their God.
5 我用大能和伸出来的膀臂,创造大地和地上的人民、牲畜。我看给谁相宜,就把地给谁。
They shall ask the way till [they come to] Sion, for that way shall they set their face; and they shall come and flee for refuge to the Lord their God; for the everlasting covenant shall not be forgotten.
6 现在我将这些地都交给我仆人巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒的手,我也将田野的走兽给他使用。
My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds thrust them out, they caused them to wander on the mountains: they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting-place.
7 列国都必服事他和他的儿孙,直到他本国遭报的日期来到。那时,多国和大君王要使他作他们的奴仆。
All that found them consumed them: their enemies said, Let us not leave them alone, because they have sinned against the Lord: he that gathered their fathers [had] a pasture of righteousness.
8 “无论哪一邦哪一国,不肯服事这巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒,也不把颈项放在巴比伦王的轭下,我必用刀剑、饥荒、瘟疫刑罚那邦,直到我借巴比伦王的手将他们毁灭。这是耶和华说的。
Flee you out of the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go forth, and be as serpents before sleep.
9 至于你们,不可听从你们的先知和占卜的、圆梦的、观兆的,以及行邪术的;他们告诉你们说:‘你们不致服事巴比伦王。’
For, behold, I stir up against Babylon the gatherings of nations out of the land of the north; and they shall set themselves in array against her: thence shall she be taken, as the dart of an expert warrior shall not return empty.
10 他们向你们说假预言,要叫你们迁移,远离本地,以致我将你们赶出去,使你们灭亡。
And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied.
11 但哪一邦肯把颈项放在巴比伦王的轭下服事他,我必使那邦仍在本地存留,得以耕种居住。这是耶和华说的。”
Because you rejoiced, and boasted, [while] plundering mine heritage; because you exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls.
12 我就照这一切的话对犹大王西底家说:“要把你们的颈项放在巴比伦王的轭下,服事他和他的百姓,便得存活。
Your mother is greatly ashamed; your mother that bore you for prosperity is confounded: [she is] the last of the nations, desolate,
13 你和你的百姓为何要因刀剑、饥荒、瘟疫死亡,正如耶和华论到不服事巴比伦王的那国说的话呢?
by reason of the Lord's anger: it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be all a desolation; and every one that passes through Babylon shall scowl, and they shall hiss at all her plague.
14 不可听那些先知对你们所说的话;他们说:‘你们不致服事巴比伦王’,其实他们向你们说假预言。
Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows,
15 耶和华说:‘我并没有打发他们,他们却托我的名说假预言,好使我将你们和向你们说预言的那些先知赶出去,一同灭亡。’”
and prevail against her: her hands are weakened, her bulwarks are fallen, and her wall is broken down: for it is vengeance from God: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her.
16 我又对祭司和这众民说:“耶和华如此说:你们不可听那先知对你们所说的预言。他们说:‘耶和华殿中的器皿快要从巴比伦带回来’;其实他们向你们说假预言。
Utterly destroy seed out of Babylon, [and] him that holds a sickle in time of harvest: for fear of the Grecian sword, they shall return every one to his people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
17 不可听从他们,只管服事巴比伦王便得存活。这城何致变为荒场呢?
Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have driven him out: the king of Assyria first devoured him, and afterward this king of Babylon [has gnawed] his bones.
18 他们若果是先知,有耶和华的话临到他们,让他们祈求万军之耶和华,使那在耶和华殿中和犹大王宫内,并耶路撒冷剩下的器皿,不被带到巴比伦去。(
Therefore thus says the Lord; Behold, I [will] take vengeance on the king of Babylon, and upon his land, as I took vengeance on the king of Assyria.
19 因为万军之耶和华论到柱子、铜海、盆座,并剩在这城里的器皿,
And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and on mount Ephraim and in Galaad, and his soul shall be satisfied.
20 就是巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒掳掠犹大王约雅敬的儿子耶哥尼雅,和犹大、耶路撒冷一切贵胄的时候所没有掠去的器皿。)
In those days, and at that time, they shall seek for the iniquity of Israel, and there shall be none; and for the sins of Juda, and they shall not be found: for I will be merciful to them that are left
21 论到那在耶和华殿中和犹大王宫内,并耶路撒冷剩下的器皿,万军之耶和华—以色列的 神如此说:
on the land, says the Lord. Go up against it roughly, and against them that dwell on it: avenge, O sword, and destroy utterly, says the Lord, and do according to all that I command you.
22 必被带到巴比伦存在那里,直到我眷顾以色列人的日子。那时,我必将这器皿带回来,交还此地。这是耶和华说的。”
A sound of war, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans!
How is the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
They shall come upon you, and you shall not know it, Babylon, that you will even be taken captive: you are found and taken, because you did resist the Lord.
The Lord has opened his treasury, and brought forth the weapons of his anger: for the Lord God [has] a work in the land of the Chaldeans.
For her times are come: open you her storehouses: search her as a cave, and utterly destroy her: let there be no remnant of her.
Dry you up all her fruits, and let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, and the time of their retribution.
A voice of men fleeing and escaping from the land of Babylon, to declare to Sion the vengeance [that comes] from the Lord our God.
Summon many against Babylon, [even] every one that bends the bow: camp against her round about; let no one of her [people] escape: render to her according to her works; according to all that she has done, do to her: for she has resisted the Lord, the Holy God of Israel.
Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her warriors shall be cast down, says the Lord.
Behold, I am against you the haughty one, says the Lord: for your day is come, and the time of your retribution.
And your pride shall fail, and fall, and there shall be no one to set it up again: and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all things round about her.
Thus says the Lord; The children of Israel and the children of Juda have been oppressed: all they that have taken them captive have oppressed them together; for they would not let them go.
But their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name: he will enter into judgment with his adversaries, that he may destroy the earth;
and he will sharpen a sword against the Chaldeans, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her nobles and upon her wise men;
a sword upon her warriors, and they shall be weakened: a sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots:
a sword upon their warriors and upon the mixed people in the midst of her; and they shall be as women: a sword upon the treasures, and they shall be scattered upon her water,
and they shall be ashamed: for it is a land of graven [images]; and in the islands, where they boasted.
Therefore shall idols dwell in the islands, and the young of monsters shall dwell in it: it shall not be inhabited any more for ever.
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities bordering upon them, says the Lord: no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn there.
Behold, a people comes from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be stirred up from the end of the earth; holding bow and dagger:
[the people] is fierce, and will have no mercy: their voices shall sound as the sea, they shall ride upon horses, prepared for war, like fire, against you, O daughter of Babylon.
The king of Babylon heard the sound of them, and his hands were enfeebled: anguish overcame him, pangs as of a woman in travail.
Behold, he shall come up as a lion from Jordan to Gaethan; for I will speedily drive them from her, and I will set all the youths against her: for who is like me? and who will resist me? and who is this shepherd who will stand before me?
Therefore hear you the counsel of the Lord, which he has taken against Babylon; and his devices, which he has devised upon the Chaldeans inhabiting [it]: surely lambs of their flock shall be destroyed: surely pasture shall be cut off from them.
For at the sound of the taking of Babylon the earth shall quake, and a cry shall be heard among the nations.