Jeremias 27

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

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

2 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.

Yahweh says to me: “Make bonds and bars, 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.

Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the children of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers 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.

Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell 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, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.

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.

Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him.

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.

All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.

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.

“‘“‘It will happen that I will punish the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon,’ says Yahweh, ‘with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

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.

But as for you, don’t listen to your prophets, to your diviners, to your dreams, to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon;”

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

for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, so that I would drive you out, and you would perish.

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 the nation that brings their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will let remain in their own land,’ says Yahweh; ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’”’”

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

I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

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 will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve 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,

Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

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 Yahweh, “but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

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.

Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Yahweh says, “Don’t listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of Yahweh’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

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.

Don’t listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city become a desolation?

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 Yahweh’s word is with them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of Armies, that the vessels which are left in Yahweh’s house, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don’t 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 Yahweh of Armies says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,

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 didn’t take when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles 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.

yes, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in Yahweh’s house, 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 carried to Babylon, and there they will be, until the day that I visit them,’ says Yahweh; ‘then I will bring them up, and restore them to this place.’”

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