Jeremias 27

1 THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE AGAINST BABYLON.

When Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, first became king this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2 Proclaim you amongst 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.

This is what the Lord has said to me: Make for yourself bands and yokes and put them on your neck;

3 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.

And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by their servants who come to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, king of Judah;

4 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.

And give them orders to say to their masters, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Say to your masters,

5 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.

I have made the earth, and man and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I will give it to anyone at my pleasure.

6 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.

And now I have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant; and I have given the beasts of the field to him for his use.

7 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.

And all the nations will be servants to him and to his son and to his son's son, till the time comes for his land to be overcome: and then a number of nations and great kings will take it for their use.

8 Flee you out of the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go forth, and be as serpents before sleep.

And it will come about, that if any nation does not become a servant to this same Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and does not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will send punishment on that nation, says the Lord, by the sword and need of food and by disease, till I have given them into his hands.

9 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.

And you are not to give attention to your prophets or your readers of signs or your dreamers or those who see into the future or those who make use of secret arts, who say to you, You will not become servants of the king of Babylon:

10 And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied.

For they say false words to you, so that you may be sent away far from your land, and so that you may be forced out by me and come to destruction.

11 Because you rejoiced, and boasted, [while] plundering mine heritage; because you exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls.

But as for that nation which puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and becomes his servant, I will let that nation keep on in its land, farming it and living in it, says the Lord.

12 Your mother is greatly ashamed; your mother that bore you for prosperity is confounded: [she is] the last of the nations, desolate,

And I said all this to Zedekiah, king of Judah, saying, Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and become his servants and his people, so that you may keep your lives.

13 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.

Why are you desiring death, you and your people, by the sword, and because food is gone, and by disease, as the Lord has said of the nation which does not become the servant of the king of Babylon?

14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows,

And you are not to give ear to the prophets who say to you, You will not become servants of the king of Babylon: for what they say is not true.

15 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.

For I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are saying what is false in my name, so that I might send you out by force, causing destruction to come on you and on your prophets.

16 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.

And I said to the priests and to all the people, This is what the Lord has said: Give no attention to the words of your prophets who say to you, See, in a very little time now the vessels of the Lord's house will come back again from Babylon: for what they say to you is false.

17 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.

Give no attention to them; become servants of the king of Babylon and keep yourselves from death: why let this town become a waste?

18 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.

But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make request to the Lord of armies that the vessels which are still in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.

19 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.

For this is what the Lord has said about the rest of the vessels which are still in this town,

20 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

Which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take away, when he took Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the great men of Judah and Jerusalem;

21 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.

For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said about the rest of the vessels in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem:

22 A sound of war, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans!

They will be taken away to Babylon, and there they will be till the day when I send their punishment on them, says the Lord. Then I will take them up and put them back in their place.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed! How is Babylon become a desolation amongst the nations!

24 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.

25 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.

26 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.

27 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.

28 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.

29 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.

30 Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her warriors shall be cast down, says the Lord.

31 Behold, I am against you the haughty one, says the Lord: for your day is come, and the time of your retribution.

32 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.

33 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.

34 But their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name: he will enter into judgement with his adversaries, that he may destroy the earth;

35 and he will sharpen a sword against the Chaldeans, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her nobles and upon her wise men;

36 a sword upon her warriors, and they shall be weakened: a sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots:

37 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,

38 and they shall be ashamed: for it is a land of graven [images]; and in the islands, where they boasted.

39 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.

40 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.

41 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:

42 [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.

43 The king of Babylon heard the sound of them, and his hands were enfeebled: anguish overcame him, pangs as of a woman in travail.

44 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?

45 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.

46 For at the sound of the taking of Babylon the earth shall quake, and a cry shall be heard amongst the nations.