The Message (MSG)

You Vainly Collect Medicines

1 God’s Messages through the prophet Jeremiah regarding the godless nations.

2-5 The Message to Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt at the time it was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon while camped at Carchemish on the Euphrates River in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah:

“‘Present arms!

March to the front!

Harness the horses!

Up in the saddles!

Battle formation! Helmets on,

spears sharpened, armor in place!’

But what’s this I see?

They’re scared out of their wits!

They break ranks and run for cover.

Their soldiers panic.

They run this way and that,

stampeding blindly.

It’s total chaos, total confusion, danger everywhere!”

God’s Decree.

6 “The swiftest runners won’t get away,

the strongest soldiers won’t escape.

In the north country, along the River Euphrates,

they’ll stagger, stumble, and fall.

7-9 “Who is this like the Nile in flood?

like its streams torrential?

Why, it’s Egypt like the Nile in flood,

like its streams torrential,

Saying, ‘I’ll take over the world.

I’ll wipe out cities and peoples.’

Run, horses!

Roll, chariots!

Advance, soldiers

from Cush and Put with your shields,

Soldiers from Lud,

experts with bow and arrow.

10 “But it’s not your day. It’s the Master’s, me,God-of-the-Angel-Armies—

the day when I have it out with my enemies,

The day when Sword puts an end to my enemies,

when Sword exacts vengeance.

I, the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

will pile them on an altar—a huge sacrifice!—

In the great north country,

along the mighty Euphrates.

11-12 “Oh, virgin Daughter Egypt,

climb into the mountains of Gilead, get healing balm.

You will vainly collect medicines,

for nothing will be able to cure what ails you.

The whole world will hear your anguished cries.

Your wails fill the earth,

As soldier falls against soldier

and they all go down in a heap.”

Egypt’s Army Slithers Like a Snake

13 The Message thatGodgave to the prophet Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was on his way to attack Egypt:

14 “Tell Egypt, alert Migdol,

post warnings in Noph and Tahpanhes:

‘Wake up! Be prepared!

War’s coming!’

15-19 “Why will your bull-god Apis run off?

BecauseGodwill drive him off.

Your ragtag army will fall to pieces.

The word is passing through the ranks,

‘Let’s get out of here while we still can.

Let’s head for home and save our skins.’

When they get home they’ll nickname Pharaoh

‘Big-Talk-Bad-Luck.’

As sure as I am the living God”

—the King’s Decree,God-of-the-Angel-Armies is his name—

“A conqueror is coming: like Tabor, singular among mountains;

like Carmel, jutting up from the sea!

So pack your bags for exile,

you coddled daughters of Egypt,

For Memphis will soon be nothing,

a vacant lot grown over with weeds.

20-21 “Too bad, Egypt, a beautiful sleek heifer

attacked by a horsefly from the north!

All her hired soldiers are stationed to defend her—

like well-fed calves they are.

But when their lives are on the line, they’ll run off,

cowards every one.

When the going gets tough,

they’ll take the easy way out.

22-24 “Egypt will slither and hiss like a snake

as the enemy army comes in force.

They will rush in, swinging axes

like lumberjacks cutting down trees.

They’ll level the country”—God’s Decree—“nothing

and no one standing for as far as you can see.

The invaders will be a swarm of locusts,

innumerable, past counting.

Daughter Egypt will be ravished,

raped by vandals from the north.”

25-26 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Watch out when I visit doom on the god Amon of Thebes, Egypt and its gods and kings, Pharaoh and those who trust in him. I’ll turn them over to those who are out to kill them, to Nebuchadnezzar and his military. Egypt will be set back a thousand years. Eventually people will live there again.”God’s Decree.

27-28 “But you, dear Jacob my servant, you have nothing to fear.

Israel, there’s no need to worry.

Look up! I’ll save you from that far country,

I’ll get your children out of the land of exile.

Things are going to be normal again for Jacob,

safe and secure, smooth sailing.

Yes, dear Jacob my servant, you have nothing to fear.

Depend on it, I’m on your side.

I’ll finish off all the godless nations

among which I’ve scattered you,

But I won’t finish you off.

I have more work left to do on you.

I’ll punish you, but fairly.

No, I’m not finished with you yet.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/46-de50fcf5d43358c13b563c6622bedac3.mp3?version_id=97—

It’s Doomsday for Philistines

1-5 God’s Message to the prophet Jeremiah regarding the Philistines just before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. This is whatGodsays:

“Look out! Water will rise in the north country,

swelling like a river in flood.

The torrent will flood the land,

washing away city and citizen.

Men and women will scream in terror,

wails from every door and window,

As the thunder from the hooves of the horses will be heard,

the clatter of chariots, the banging of wheels.

Fathers, paralyzed by fear,

won’t even grab up their babies

Because it will be doomsday for Philistines, one and all,

no hope of help for Tyre and Sidon.

Godwill finish off the Philistines,

what’s left of those from the island of Crete.

Gaza will be shaved bald as an egg,

Ashkelon struck dumb as a post.

You’re on your last legs.

How long will you keep flailing?

6 “Oh, Sword ofGod,

how long will you keep this up?

Return to your scabbard.

Haven’t you had enough? Can’t you call it quits?

7 “But how can it quit

when I,God, command the action?

I’ve ordered it to cut down

Ashkelon and the seacoast.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/47-95a35744abef6ad5d6aa31a6d63d827f.mp3?version_id=97—

Get Out While You Can!

1-10 The Message on Moab fromGod-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel:

“Doom to Nebo! Leveled to the ground!

Kiriathaim demeaned and defeated,

The mighty fortress reduced to a molehill,

Moab’s glory—dust and ashes.

Conspirators plot Heshbon’s doom:

‘Come, let’s wipe Moab off the map.’

Dungface Dimon will loudly lament,

as killing follows killing.

Listen! A cry out of Horonaim:

‘Disaster—doom and more doom!’

Moab will be shattered.

Her cries will be heard clear down in Zoar.

Up the ascent of Luhith

climbers weep,

And down the descent from Horonaim,

cries of loss and devastation.

Oh, run for your lives! Get out while you can!

Survive by your wits in the wild!

You trusted in thick walls and big money, yes?

But it won’t help you now.

Your big god Chemosh will be hauled off,

his priests and managers with him.

A wrecker will wreck every city.

Not a city will survive.

The valley fields will be ruined,

the plateau pastures destroyed, just as I told you.

Cover the land of Moab with salt.

Make sure nothing ever grows here again.

Her towns will all be ghost towns.

Nobody will ever live here again.

Sloppy work inGod’s name is cursed,

and cursed all halfhearted use of the sword.

11-17 “Moab has always taken it easy—

lazy as a dog in the sun,

Never had to work for a living,

never faced any trouble,

Never had to grow up,

never once worked up a sweat.

But those days are a thing of the past.

I’ll put him to work at hard labor.

That will wake him up to the world of hard knocks.

That will smash his illusions.

Moab will be as ashamed of god Chemosh

as Israel was ashamed of her Bethel calf-gods,

the calf-gods she thought were so great.

For how long do you think you’ll be saying, ‘We’re tough.

We can beat anyone anywhere’?

The destruction of Moab has already begun.

Her choice young soldiers are lying dead right now.”

The King’s Decree—

his full name,God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

“Yes. Moab’s doom is on countdown,

disaster targeted and launched.

Weep for Moab, friends and neighbors,

all who know how famous he’s been.

Lament, ‘His mighty scepter snapped in two like a toothpick,

that magnificent royal staff!’

18-20 “Come down from your high horse, pampered beauty of Dibon.

Sit in dog dung.

The destroyer of Moab will come against you.

He’ll wreck your safe, secure houses.

Stand on the roadside,

pampered women of Aroer.

Interview the refugees who are running away.

Ask them, ‘What’s happened? And why?’

Moab will be an embarrassing memory, nothing left of the place.

Wail and weep your eyes out!

Tell the bad news along the Arnon river.

Tell the world that Moab is no more.

21-24 “My judgment will come to the plateau cities: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath; on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim; on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon; on Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of Moab, far and near.

25 “Moab’s link to power is severed.

Moab’s arm is broken.”God’s Decree.

The Sheer Nothingness of Moab

26-27 “Turn Moab into a drunken sot, drunk on the wine of my wrath, a dung-faced drunk, filling the country with vomit—Moab a falling-down drunk, a joke in bad taste. Wasn’t it you, Moab, who made crude jokes over Israel? And when they were caught in bad company, didn’t you cluck and gossip and snicker?

28 “Leave town! Leave! Look for a home in the cliffs,

you who grew up in Moab.

Try living like a dove

who nests high in the river gorge.

29-33 “We’ve all heard of Moab’s pride,

that legendary pride,

The strutting, bullying, puffed-up pride,

the insufferable arrogance.

I know”—God’s Decree—“his rooster-crowing pride,

the inflated claims, the sheer nothingness of Moab.

But I will weep for Moab,

yes, I will mourn for the people of Moab.

I will even mourn for the people of Kir-heres.

I’ll weep for the grapevines of Sibmah

and join Jazer in her weeping—

Grapevines that once reached the Dead Sea

with tendrils as far as Jazer.

Your summer fruit and your bursting grapes

will be looted by brutal plunderers,

Lush Moab stripped

of song and laughter.

And yes, I’ll shut down the winepresses,

stop all the shouts and hurrahs of harvest.

34 “Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out, and the people in Jahaz will hear the cries. They will hear them all the way from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. Even the waters of Nimrim will be dried up.

35 “I will put a stop in Moab”—God’s Decree—“to all hiking to the high places to offer burnt sacrifices to the gods.

36 “My heart moans for Moab, for the men of Kir-heres, like soft flute sounds carried by the wind. They’ve lost it all. They’ve got nothing.

37 “Everywhere you look are signs of mourning:

heads shaved, beards cut,

Hands scratched and bleeding,

clothes ripped and torn.

38 “In every house in Moab there’ll be loud lamentation, on every street in Moab, loud lamentation. As with a pottery jug that no one wants, I’ll smash Moab to bits.”God’s Decree.

39 “Moab ruined!

Moab shamed and ashamed to be seen!

Moab a cruel joke!

The stark horror of Moab!”

40-42 God’s verdict on Moab. Indeed!

“Look! An eagle is about to swoop down

and spread its wings over Moab.

The towns will be captured,

the fortresses taken.

Brave warriors will double up in pain, helpless to fight,

like a woman giving birth to a baby.

There’ll be nothing left of Moab, nothing at all,

because of his defiant arrogance against me.

43-44 “Terror and pit and trap

are what you have facing you, Moab.”God’s Decree.

“A man running in terror

will fall into a trap.

A man climbing out of a pit

will be caught in a trap.

This is my agenda for Moab

on doomsday.”God’s Decree.

45-47 “On the outskirts of Heshbon,

refugees will pull up short, worn out.

Fire will flame high from Heshbon,

a firestorm raging from the capital of Sihon’s kingdom.

It will burn off Moab’s eyebrows,

will scorch the skull of the braggarts.

That’s all for you, Moab!

You worshipers of Chemosh will be finished off!

Your sons will be trucked off to prison camps;

your daughters will be herded into exile.

But yet there’s a day that’s coming

when I’ll put things right in Moab.

“For now, that’s the judgment on Moab.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/48-9e5577ae9e5fdc8adcd830c3e7d89de0.mp3?version_id=97—

You’re a Broken-Down Has-Been

1-6 God’s Message on the Ammonites:

“Doesn’t Israel have any children,

no one to step into her inheritance?

So why is the god Milcom taking over Gad’s land,

his followers moving into its towns?

But not for long! The time’s coming”

—God’s Decree—

“When I’ll fill the ears of Rabbah, Ammon’s big city,

with battle cries.

She’ll end up a pile of rubble,

all her towns burned to the ground.

Then Israel will kick out the invaders.

I,God, say so, and it willbeso.

Wail Heshbon, Ai is in ruins.

Villages of Rabbah, wring your hands!

Dress in mourning, weep buckets of tears.

Go into hysterics, run around in circles!

Your god Milcom will be hauled off to exile,

and all his priests and managers right with him.

Why do you brag of your once-famous strength?

You’re a broken-down has-been, a castoff

Who fondles his trophies and dreams of glory days

and vainly thinks, ‘No one can lay a hand on me.’

Well, think again. I’ll face you with terror from all sides.”

Word of the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

“You’ll be stampeded headlong,

with no one to round up the runaways.

Still, the time will come

when I will make things right with Ammon.”God’s Decree.

Strutting Across the Stage of History

7-11 The Message ofGod-of-the-Angel-Armies on Edom:

“Is there nobody wise left in famous Teman?

no one with a sense of reality?

Has their wisdom gone wormy and rotten?

Run for your lives! Get out while you can!

Find a good place to hide,

you who live in Dedan!

I’m bringing doom to Esau.

It’s time to settle accounts.

When harvesters work your fields,

don’t they leave gleanings?

When burglars break into your house,

don’t they take only what they want?

But I’ll strip Esau clean.

I’ll search out every nook and cranny.

I’ll destroy everything connected with him,

children and relatives and neighbors.

There’ll be no one left who will be able to say,

‘I’ll take care of your orphans.

Your widows can depend on me.’”

12-13 Indeed.Godsays, “I tell you, if there are people who have to drink the cup of God’s wrath even though they don’t deserve it, why would you think you’d get off? You won’t get off. You’ll drink it. Oh yes, you’ll drink every drop. And as for Bozrah, your capital, I swear by all that I am”—God’s Decree—“that that city will end up a pile of charred ruins, a stinking garbage dump, an obscenity—and all her daughter-cities with her.”

14 I’ve just heard the latest fromGod.

He’s sent an envoy to the nations:

“Muster your troops and attack Edom.

Present arms! Go to war!”

15-16 “Ah, Edom, I’m dropping you to last place among nations,

the bottom of the heap, kicked around.

You think you’re so great—

strutting across the stage of history,

Living high in the impregnable rocks,

acting like king of the mountain.

You think you’re above it all, don’t you,

like an eagle in its aerie?

Well, you’re headed for a fall.

I’ll bring you crashing to the ground.”God’s Decree.

17-18 “Edom will end up trash. Stinking, despicable trash. A wonder of the world in reverse. She’ll join Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors in the sewers of history.”Godsays so.

“No one will live there,

no mortal soul move in there.

19 “Watch this: Like a lion coming up

from the thick jungle of the Jordan

Looking for prey in the mountain pastures,

I will come upon Edom and pounce.

I’ll take my pick of the flock—and who’s to stop me?

The shepherds of Edom are helpless before me.”

20-22 So, listen to this plan thatGodhas worked out against Edom, the blueprint of what he’s prepared for those who live in Teman:

“Believe it or not, the young, the vulnerable—

mere lambs and kids—will be dragged off.

Believe it or not, the flock

in shock, helpless to help, will watch it happen.

The very earth will shudder because of their cries,

cries of anguish heard at the distant Red Sea.

Look! An eagle soars, swoops down,

spreads its wings over Bozrah.

Brave warriors will double up in pain, helpless to fight,

like a woman giving birth to a baby.”

The Blood Will Drain from the Face of Damascus

23-27 The Message on Damascus:

“Hamath and Arpad will be in shock

when they hear the bad news.

Their hearts will melt in fear

as they pace back and forth in worry.

The blood will drain from the face of Damascus

as she turns to flee.

Hysterical, she’ll fall to pieces,

disabled, like a woman in childbirth.

And now how lonely—bereft, abandoned!

The once famous city, the once happy city.

Her bright young men dead in the streets,

her brave warriors silent as death.

On that day”—Decree ofGod-of-the-Angel-Armies—

“I’ll start a fire at the wall of Damascus

that will burn down all of Ben-hadad’s forts.”

Find a Safe Place to Hide

28-33 The Message on Kedar and the sheikdoms of Hazor who were attacked by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. This isGod’s Message:

“On your feet! Attack Kedar!

Plunder the Bedouin nomads from the east.

Grab their blankets and pots and pans.

Steal their camels.

Traumatize them, shouting, ‘Terror! Death! Doom!

Danger everywhere!’

Oh, run for your lives,

You nomads from Hazor.”God’s Decree.

“Find a safe place to hide.

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

has plans to wipe you out,

to go after you with a vengeance:

‘After them,’ he says. ‘Go after these relaxed nomads

who live free and easy in the desert,

Who live in the open with no doors to lock,

who live off by themselves.’

Their camels are there for the taking,

their herds and flocks, easy picking.

I’ll scatter them to the four winds,

these defenseless nomads on the fringes of the desert.

I’ll bring terror from every direction.

They won’t know what hit them.”God’s Decree.

“Jackals will take over the camps of Hazor,

camps abandoned to wind and sand.

No one will live there,

no mortal soul move in there.”

The Winds Will Blow Away Elam

34-39 God’s Message to the prophet Jeremiah on Elam at the outset of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. This is whatGod-of-the-Angel-Armies says:

“Watch this! I’ll break Elam’s bow,

her weapon of choice, across my knee.

Then I’ll let four winds loose on Elam,

winds from the four corners of earth.

I’ll blow them away in all directions,

landing homeless Elamites in every country on earth.

They’ll live in constant fear and terror

among enemies who want to kill them.

I’ll bring doom on them,

my anger-fueled doom.

I’ll set murderous hounds on their heels

until there’s nothing left of them.

And then I’ll set up my throne in Elam,

having thrown out the king and his henchmen.

But the time will come when I make

everything right for Elam again.”God’s Decree.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/49-7b88f1923f9aa8d226c10534d08259a1.mp3?version_id=97—

Get Out of Babylon as Fast as You Can

1-3 The Message ofGodthrough the prophet Jeremiah on Babylon, land of the Chaldeans:

“Get the word out to the nations! Preach it!

Go public with this, broadcast it far and wide:

Babylon taken, god-Bel hanging his head in shame,

god-Marduk exposed as a fraud.

All her god-idols shuffling in shame,

all her play-gods exposed as cheap frauds.

For a nation will come out of the north to attack her,

reduce her cities to rubble.

Empty of life—no animals, no people—

not a sound, not a movement, not a breath.

4-5 “In those days, at that time”—God’s Decree—

“the people of Israel will come,

And the people of Judah with them.

Walking and weeping, they’ll seek me, theirGod.

They’ll ask directions to Zion

and set their faces toward Zion.

They’ll come and hold tight toGod,

bound in a covenant eternal they’ll never forget.

6-7 “My people were lost sheep.

Their shepherds led them astray.

They abandoned them in the mountains

where they wandered aimless through the hills.

They lost track of home,

couldn’t remember where they came from.

Everyone who met them took advantage of them.

Their enemies had no qualms:

‘Fair game,’ they said. ‘They walked out onGod.

They abandoned the True Pasture, the hope of their parents.’

8-10 “But now, get out of Babylon as fast as you can.

Be rid of that Babylonian country.

On your way. Good sheepdogs lead, but don’t you be led.

Lead the way home!

Do you see what I’m doing?

I’m rallying a host of nations against Babylon.

They’ll come out of the north,

attack and take her.

Oh, they know how to fight, these armies.

They never come home empty-handed.

Babylon is ripe for picking!

All her plunderers will fill their bellies!”God’s Decree.

11-16 “You Babylonians had a good time while it lasted, didn’t you?

You lived it up, exploiting and using my people,

Frisky calves romping in lush pastures,

wild stallions out having a good time!

Well, your mother would hardly be proud of you.

The woman who bore you wouldn’t be pleased.

Look at what’s come of you! A nothing nation!

Rubble and garbage and weeds!

Emptied of life by my holy anger,

a desert of death and emptiness.

Travelers who pass by Babylon will gasp, appalled,

shaking their heads at such a comedown.

Gang up on Babylon! Pin her down!

Throw everything you have against her.

Hold nothing back. Knock her flat.

She’s sinned—oh, how she’s sinned, against me!

Shout battle cries from every direction.

All the fight has gone out of her.

Her defenses have been flattened,

her walls smashed.

‘OperationGod’s Vengeance.’

Pile on the vengeance!

Do to her as she has done.

Give her a good dose of her own medicine!

Destroy her farms and farmers,

ravage her fields, empty her barns.

And you captives, while the destruction rages,

get out while the getting’s good,

get out fast and run for home.

17 “Israel is a scattered flock,

hunted down by lions.

The king of Assyria started the carnage.

The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar,

Has completed the job,

gnawing the bones clean.”

18-20 And now this is whatGod-of-the-Angel-Armies,

the God of Israel, has to say:

“Just watch! I’m bringing doom on the king of Babylon and his land,

the same doom I brought on the king of Assyria.

But Israel I’ll bring home to good pastures.

He’ll graze on the hills of Carmel and Bashan,

On the slopes of Ephraim and Gilead.

He will eat to his heart’s content.

In those days and at that time”—God’s Decree—

“they’ll look high and low for a sign of Israel’s guilt—nothing;

Search nook and cranny for a trace of Judah’s sin—nothing.

These people that I’ve saved will start out with a clean slate.

21 “Attack Merathaim, land of rebels!

Go after Pekod, country of doom!

Hunt them down. Make a clean sweep.”God’s Decree.

“These are my orders. Do what I tell you.

22-24 “The thunderclap of battle

shakes the foundations!

The Hammer has been hammered,

smashed and splintered,

Babylon pummeled

beyond recognition.

I set out a trap and you were caught in it.

O Babylon, you never knew what hit you,

Caught and held in the steel grip of that trap!

That’s what you get for taking onGod.

25-28 “I,God, opened my arsenal.

I brought out my weapons of wrath.

The Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

has a job to do in Babylon.

Come at her from all sides!

Break into her granaries!

Shovel her into piles and burn her up.

Leave nothing! Leave no one!

Kill all her young turks.

Send them to their doom!

Doom to them! Yes, Doomsday!

The clock has finally run out on them.

And here’s a surprise:

Runaways and escapees from Babylon

Show up in Zion reporting the news ofGod’s vengeance,

taking vengeance for my own Temple.

29-30 “Call in the troops against Babylon,

anyone who can shoot straight!

Tighten the noose!

Leave no loopholes!

Give her back as good as she gave,

a dose of her own medicine!

Her brazen insolence is an outrage

againstGod, The Holy of Israel.

And now she pays: her young strewn dead in the streets,

her soldiers dead, silent forever.”God’s Decree.

31-32 “Do you get it, Mister Pride? I’m your enemy!”

Decree of the Master,God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

“Time’s run out on you:

That’s right: It’s Doomsday.

Mister Pride will fall flat on his face.

No one will offer him a hand.

I’ll set his towns on fire.

The fire will spread wild through the country.”

33-34 And here’s more fromGod-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“The people of Israel are beaten down,

the people of Judah along with them.

Their oppressors have them in a grip of steel.

They won’t let go.

But the Rescuer is strong:

God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

Yes, I will take their side,

I’ll come to their rescue.

I’ll soothe their land,

but rough up the people of Babylon.

35-40 “It’s all-out war in Babylon”—God’s Decree—

“total war against people, leaders, and the wise!

War to the death on her boasting pretenders, fools one and all!

War to the death on her soldiers, cowards to a man!

War to the death on her hired killers, gutless wonders!

War to the death on her banks—looted!

War to the death on her water supply—drained dry!

A land of make-believe gods gone crazy—hobgoblins!

The place will be haunted with jackals and scorpions,

night-owls and vampire bats.

No one will ever live there again.

The land will reek with the stench of death.

It will join Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,

the cities I did away with.”God’s Decree.

“No one will live there again.

No one will again draw breath in that land, ever.

41-43 “And now, watch this! People pouring

out of the north, hordes of people,

A mob of kings stirred up

from far-off places.

Flourishing deadly weapons,

barbarians they are, cruel and pitiless.

Roaring and relentless, like ocean breakers,

they come riding fierce stallions,

In battle formation, ready to fight

you, Daughter Babylon!

Babylon’s king hears them coming.

He goes white as a ghost, limp as a dishrag.

Terror-stricken, he doubles up in pain, helpless to fight,

like a woman giving birth to a baby.

44 “And now watch this: Like a lion coming up

from the thick jungle of the Jordan,

Looking for prey in the mountain pastures,

I’ll take over and pounce.

I’ll take my pick of the flock—and who’s to stop me?

All the so-called shepherds are helpless before me.”

45-46 So, listen to this plan thatGodhas worked out against Babylon, the blueprint of what he’s prepared for dealing with Chaldea:

Believe it or not, the young,

the vulnerable—mere lambs and kids—will be dragged off.

Believe it or not, the flock

in shock, helpless to help, watches it happen.

When the shout goes up, “Babylon’s down!”

the very earth will shudder at the sound.

The news will be heard all over the world.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/50-3639c82e14eee1774aa1ab8f0d8a6ff4.mp3?version_id=97—

Hurricane Persia

1-5 There’s more.Godsays more:

“Watch this:

I’m whipping up

A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia’—

against all who live in that perverse land.

I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon.

They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom.

When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her

worth taking or talking about.

They won’t miss a thing.

A total and final Doomsday!

Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got.

It’s no-holds-barred.

They will spare nothing and no one.

It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end!

Babylon littered with the wounded,

streets piled with corpses.

It turns out that Israel and Judah

are not widowed after all.

As their God,God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well,

committed to them even though

They filled their land with sin

against Israel’s most Holy God.

6-8 “Get out of Babylon as fast as you can.

Run for your lives! Save your necks!

Don’t linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her

as I pay her back for her sins.

Babylon was a fancy gold chalice

held in my hand,

Filled with the wine of my anger

to make the whole world drunk.

The nations drank the wine

and they’ve all gone crazy.

Babylon herself will stagger and crash,

senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic!

Get anointing balm for her wound.

Maybe she can be cured.”

9 “We did our best, but she can’t be helped.

Babylon is past fixing.

Give her up to her fate.

Go home.

The judgment on her will be vast,

a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance.

Your Lifeline Is Cut

10 “Godhas set everything right for us.

Come! Let’s tell the good news

Back home in Zion.

Let’s tell what ourGoddid to set things right.

11-13 “Sharpen the arrows!

Fill the quivers!

Godhas stirred up the kings of the Medes,

infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!’

God’s on the warpath.

He’s out to avenge his Temple.

Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls.

Station guards around the clock.

Bring in reinforcements.

Set men in ambush.

Godwill do what he planned,

what he said he’d do to the people of Babylon.

You have more water than you need,

you have more money than you need—

But your life is over,

your lifeline cut.”

14 God-of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn:

“I’ll fill this place with soldiers.

They’ll swarm through here like locusts

chanting victory songs over you.”

15-19 By his power he made earth.

His wisdom gave shape to the world.

He crafted the cosmos.

He thunders and rain pours down.

He sends the clouds soaring.

He embellishes the storm with lightnings,

launches the wind from his warehouse.

Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish!

god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!

Their gods are frauds, dead sticks—

deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.

They’re nothing but stale smoke.

When the smoke clears, they’re gone.

But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing;

he put the whole universe together,

With special attention to Israel.

His name?God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

They’ll Sleep and Never Wake Up

20-23 God says, “You, Babylon, are my hammer,

my weapon of war.

I’ll use you to smash godless nations,

use you to knock kingdoms to bits.

I’ll use you to smash horse and rider,

use you to smash chariot and driver.

I’ll use you to smash man and woman,

use you to smash the old man and the boy.

I’ll use you to smash the young man and young woman,

use you to smash shepherd and sheep.

I’ll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen,

use you to smash governors and senators.

24 “Judeans, you’ll see it with your own eyes. I’ll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion.”God’s Decree.

25-26 “I’m your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer,

you ravager of the whole earth.

I’ll reach out, I’ll take you in my hand,

and I’ll crush you till there’s no mountain left.

I’ll turn you into a gravel pit—

no more cornerstones cut from you,

No more foundation stones quarried from you!

Nothing left of you but gravel.”God’s Decree.

27-28 “Raise the signal in the land,

blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations.

Consecrate the nations for holy work against her.

Call kingdoms into service against her.

Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a field marshal against her,

and round up horses, locust hordes of horses!

Consecrate the nations for holy work against her—

the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.

29-33 “The very land trembles in terror, writhes in pain,

terrorized by my plans against Babylon,

Plans to turn the country of Babylon

into a lifeless moonscape—a wasteland.

Babylon’s soldiers have quit fighting.

They hide out in ruins and caves—

Cowards who’ve given up without a fight,

exposed as cowering milksops.

Babylon’s houses are going up in flames,

the city gates torn off their hinges.

Runner after runner comes racing in,

each on the heels of the last,

Bringing reports to the king of Babylon

that his city is a lost cause.

The fords of the rivers are all taken.

Wildfire rages through the swamp grass.

Soldiers desert left and right.

I,God-of-the-Angel-Armies, said it would happen:

‘Daughter Babylon is a threshing floor

at threshing time.

Soon, oh very soon, her harvest will come

and then the chaff will fly!’

34-37 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

chewed up my people and spit out the bones.

He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair,

and belched—a huge gluttonous belch.

Lady Zion says,

‘The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!’

And Jerusalem says,

‘The blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!’

Then I,God, step in and say,

‘I’m on your side, taking up your cause.

I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge.

I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs.

Babylon will be a pile of rubble,

scavenged by stray dogs and cats,

A dumping ground for garbage,

a godforsaken ghost town.’

38-40 “The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs,

ravenous, roaring for food.

I’ll fix them a meal, all right—a banquet, in fact.

They’ll drink themselves falling-down drunk.

Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep, and sleep . . .

and they’ll never wake up.”God’s Decree.

“I’ll haul these ‘lions’ off to the slaughterhouse

like the lambs, rams, and goats,

never to be heard of again.

41-48 “Babylon is finished—

the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face.

What a comedown for Babylon,

to end up inglorious in the sewer!

Babylon drowned in chaos,

battered by waves of enemy soldiers.

Her towns stink with decay and rot,

the land empty and bare and sterile.

No one lives in these towns anymore.

Travelers give them a wide berth.

I’ll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon.

I’ll make him vomit up all he gulped down.

No more visitors stream into this place,

admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon.

The wonders of Babylon are no more.

Run for your lives, my dear people!

Run, and don’t look back!

Get out of this place while you can,

this place torched byGod’s raging anger.

Don’t lose hope. Don’t ever give up

when the rumors pour in hot and heavy.

One year it’s this, the next year it’s that—

rumors of violence, rumors of war.

Trust me, the time is coming

when I’ll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place.

I’ll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud,

with dead bodies strewn all over the place.

Heaven and earth, angels and people,

will throw a victory party over Babylon

When the avenging armies from the north

descend on her.”God’s Decree!

Remember God in Your Long and Distant Exile

49-50 “Babylon must fall—

compensation for the war dead in Israel.

Babylonians will be killed

because of all that Babylonian killing.

But you exiles who have escaped a Babylonian death,

get out! And fast!

RememberGodin your long and distant exile.

Keep Jerusalem alive in your memory.”

51 How we’ve been humiliated, taunted and abused,

kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are!

And we hardly know what to think—

our old Sanctuary,God’s house, desecrated by strangers.

52-53 “I know, but trust me: The time is coming”

—God’s Decree—

“When I will bring doom on her no-god idols,

and all over this land her wounded will groan.

Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon

and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her,

That wouldn’t stop me.

I’d make sure my avengers would reach her.”

God’s Decree.

54-56 “But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon!

An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!

Godis taking his wrecking bar to Babylon.

We’ll be hearing the last of her noise—

Death throes like the crashing of waves,

death rattles like the roar of cataracts.

The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon:

Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed.

Indeed,Godis a God who evens things out.

All end up with their just deserts.

57 “I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them—

princes, sages, governors, soldiers.

Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep and sleep . . .

and never wake up.” The King’s Decree.

His name?God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

58 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:

“The city walls of Babylon—those massive walls!—

will be flattened.

And those city gates—huge gates!—

will be set on fire.

The harder you work at this empty life,

the less you are.

Nothing comes of ambition like this

but ashes.”

59 Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.

60-62 Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon. He told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, read this out in public. Read, ‘You, OGod, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human nor animal—a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.’

63-64 “When you’ve finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink. Then say, ‘That’s how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I’m going to bring upon her.’”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/51-4531cb9735a5f241eee05072285c15c5.mp3?version_id=97—

The Destruction of Jerusalem and Exile of Judah

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.

2 As far asGodwas concerned, Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.

3-5 The source of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah wasGod’s anger.Godturned his back on them as an act of judgment.

Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. He arrived on the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah’s reign. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah).

6-8 By the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn’t so much as a crumb of bread for anyone. Then the Babylonians broke through the city walls. Under cover of the night darkness, the entire Judean army fled through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King’s Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan into the Arabah Valley, but the Babylonians were in full pursuit. They caught up with them in the Plains of Jericho. But by then Zedekiah’s army had deserted and was scattered.

9-11 The Babylonians captured Zedekiah and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath, who tried and sentenced him on the spot. The king of Babylon then killed Zedekiah’s sons right before his eyes. The summary murder of his sons was the last thing Zedekiah saw, for they then blinded him. The king of Babylon followed that up by killing all the officials of Judah. Securely handcuffed, Zedekiah was hauled off to Babylon. The king of Babylon threw him in prison, where he stayed until the day he died.

12-16 In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon on the seventh day of the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon’s chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned the Temple ofGodto the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city. He burned the whole place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields.

17-19 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in the Temple ofGod, and hauled the bronze off to Babylon. They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical accessories, as well as the gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls, used in the services of Temple worship. The king’s deputy didn’t miss a thing. He took every scrap of precious metal he could find.

20-23 The amount of bronze they got from the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls that supported the Sea, and the ten washstands that Solomon had made for the Temple ofGodwas enormous. They couldn’t weigh it all! Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high with a circumference of eighteen feet. The pillars were hollow, the bronze a little less than an inch thick. Each pillar was topped with an ornate capital of bronze pomegranates and filigree, which added another seven and a half feet to its height. There were ninety-six pomegranates evenly spaced—in all, a hundred pomegranates worked into the filigree.

24-27 The king’s deputy took a number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate priest, three wardens, the chief remaining army officer, seven of the king’s counselors who happened to be in the city, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty men of standing from among the people who were still there. Nebuzaradan the king’s deputy marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood.

Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.

28 3,023 men of Judah were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign.

29 832 from Jerusalem were taken in the eighteenth year of his reign.

30 745 men from Judah were taken off by Nebuzaradan, the king’s chief deputy, in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year.

The total number of exiles was 4,600.

31-34 When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and from then on ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided everything he needed to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/52-340c249d0bc4efdb936ee1255639e340.mp3?version_id=97—