1. The word the Lord spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2. Announce to the nations;proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing.Say: Babylon is captured;Bel is put to shame;Marduk is devastated;her idols are put to shame;her false gods, devastated.
3. For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land desolate.No one will be living in it —both man and beast will escape.
4. In those days and at that time —this is the Lord’s declaration —the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come,and will seek the Lord their God.
5. They will ask about Zion,turning their faces to this road.They will come and join themselves to the Lordin an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
6. My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill;they have forgotten their resting place.
7. All who found them devoured them.Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;instead, they have sinned against the Lord,their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the Lord.”
8. Escape from Babylon; depart from the Chaldeans’ land.Be like the rams that lead the flock.
9. For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country.They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured.Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warriorwho does not return empty-handed.
10. The Chaldeans will become plunder;all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.This is the Lord’s declaration.
11. Because you rejoice,because you sing in triumph —you who plundered My inheritance —because you frolic like a young cow treading grainand neigh like stallions,
12. your mother will be utterly humiliated;she who bore you will be put to shame.Look! She will lag behind all the nations —a dry land, a wilderness, an Arabah.
13. Because of the Lord’s wrath,she will not be inhabited;she will become a desolation, every bit of her.Everyone who passes through Babylonwill be horrifiedand scoff because of all her wounds.
14. Line up in battle formation around Babylon,all you archers!Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,for she has sinned against the Lord.
15. Raise a war cry against her on every side!She has thrown up her hands in surrender;her defense towers have fallen;her walls are demolished. Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take out your vengeance on her;as she has done, do the same to her.
16. Cut off the sower from Babylonas well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.Because of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.
17. Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;the last one who crushed his boneswas Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
18. Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19. I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;he will be satisfiedin the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.
20. In those days and at that time —this is the Lord’s declaration —one will search for Israel’s guilt,but there will be none,and for Judah’s sins,but they will not be found,for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.