Jeremiah 27
1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE AGAINST BABYLON.
2 “Thus says the Lord to me: Make bands and chains for yourself. And you shall place them on your neck.
Proclaim ye among the Gentiles, and cause the tidings to be heard, and suppress [them] not: say ye, Babylon is taken, Belus is confounded; the fearless, the luxurious Maerodach is delivered up.
3 And you shall send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah.
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 And you shall instruct them to say to their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You shall say these things to your masters:
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 I made the earth, and the men and beasts which are upon the face of the earth, by my great strength and by my outstretched arm. And I have given it to whomever it was pleasing in my eyes.
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 And now, therefore, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. Moreover, I have given to him also the beasts of the field, so that they may serve him.
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 And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his son’s son. Many nations and great kings will serve him, until the time arrives for him and his land.
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 But the nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and whoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I consume them by his hand.
Flee ye out of the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go forth, and be as serpents before sleep.
9 Therefore, you should not choose to listen to your own prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, who say to you: ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’
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 For they prophesy lies to you, so that they may cause you to be far from your own country, and may cast you out, and may cause you to perish.
And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied.
11 Furthermore, the nation which will bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and which will serve him, I will permit them to remain in their own land, says the Lord. And they will cultivate it, and they will live in it.”
Because ye rejoiced, and boasted, [while] plundering mine heritage; because ye exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls.
12 And I spoke to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, according to all these words, saying: “Subject your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and you will live.
Your mother is greatly ashamed; your mother that bore you for prosperity is confounded: [she is] the last of the nations, desolate,
13 Why should you suffer death, you and your people, by the sword, and famine, and pestilence, just as the Lord has spoken against any nation that refuses to serve the king of Babylon?
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 Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets, saying to you: ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ For they are speaking a lie to you.
Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows,
15 For I have not sent them, says the Lord. And they prophesy falsely in my name, so that they may cast you out, and so that you may perish, both you and the prophets who make predictions for you.”
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 I spoke also to the priests and to this people, saying: “Thus says the Lord: Do not choose to listen to the words of your prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord will now quickly be returned from Babylon.’ For they are prophesying to you a lie.
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 Therefore, do not choose to listen to them, but instead, serve the king of Babylon, so that you may live. Why should this city be given over into desolation?
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 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is in them, then let them intercede before the Lord of hosts, so that the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.
Therefore thus saith 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 For thus says the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea of brass, and to the bases, and to the remainder of the vessels that have been left behind in this city,
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 which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, did not take when he carried away Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem into Babylon, with all the nobility of Judah and Jerusalem:
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 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem:
on the land, saith the Lord. Go up against it roughly, and against them that dwell on it: avenge, O sword, and destroy utterly, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I command thee.
22 They shall be carried away to Babylon, and there they shall be, until the day of their visitation, says the Lord. And then I will cause them to be carried back, and to be restored to this place.
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 thee, and thou shalt not know it, Babylon, that thou wilt even be taken captive: thou art found and taken, because thou didst 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 ye her storehouses: search her as a cave, and utterly destroy her: let there be no remnant of her.
Dry ye 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, saith the Lord.
Behold, I am against thee the haughty one, saith the Lord: for thy day is come, and the time of thy retribution.
And thy 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 saith 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, saith 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 thee, 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 ye 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.
