Jeremiah 27
Declare Among the Nations: Babylon Is Taken
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The Word Against Babylon
27:1The Lord’s word that He spoke against Babylon:
27:2Announce among the nations and make it heard; do not hide it. Say, Babylon has been captured! Bel was disgraced, the fearless one; the delicate one was handed over, Marodach.
27:3A nation came up against her from the north; it will make her land a disappearance, with no one living in it, from human to livestock.
27:4In those days and at that time, Israel’s sons and Judah’s sons will come together; walking and weeping, they will go seeking the Lord their God.
Lost Sheep Seek the Way to Zion
27:5They will ask the way as far as Zion, for they will turn their faces here. They will come and take refuge with the Lord God, for an everlasting covenant will not be forgotten.
27:6My people became lost sheep; their shepherds thrust them away and led them astray upon the mountains. They went from mountain to hill and forgot their resting place.
27:7All who found them consumed them. Their enemies said, Let us not release them, because they sinned against the Lord, the pasture of righteousness, who gathered their fathers.
27:8Separate yourselves from Babylon’s midst and the Chaldeans’ land; come out and become like dragons before sheep.
Nations Roused from the North Against Babylon
27:9I am rousing assemblies of nations against Babylon from the north. They will deploy against her; from there she will be captured. Like a discerning warrior’s missile, it will not return empty.
27:10Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will be filled.
27:11because you rejoiced and boasted while plundering My inheritance, because you leaped like little cattle in pasture and butted like bulls,
27:12your mother was deeply ashamed—a mother for good things, last of nations, a wilderness.
27:13Because of the Lord’s anger she will not be inhabited and will entirely disappear. Everyone passing through Babylon will look gloomy, and they will hiss at every wound of hers.
27:14Deploy against Babylon all around, all who stretch the bow. Shoot at her; do not spare your arrows.
27:15Clap against her! Her hands were disabled, her battlements fell, and her wall was demolished. For this is vengeance from God; take vengeance upon her. Do to her as she did.
27:16Destroy seed from Babylon, the one holding a sickle at harvest. Before the Greek sword, each will return to his people and flee to his land.
Israel Is a Wandering Sheep
27:17Israel is a wandering sheep driven away by lions. First Assyria’s king ate him; later this one, Babylon’s king, ate his bones.
27:18Therefore thus says the Lord: I am taking vengeance upon Babylon’s king and his land, as I took vengeance upon Assyria’s king.
27:19I will restore Israel to his pasture. He will graze on Carmel, on Ephraim’s mountain, and in Gilead, and his soul will be filled.
27:20In those days and at that time they will seek Israel’s injustice, and it will not exist, and Judah’s sins, and they certainly will not be found, for I will be merciful to those left upon the land, says the Lord.
The Hammer of the Whole Earth Shattered
27:21Go fiercely against her and her inhabitants. Take vengeance, sword, and make her disappear, says the Lord; do everything I command you.
27:22A sound of war and great shattering in the Chaldeans’ land!
27:23How the hammer of the whole earth was snapped and shattered! How Babylon became a disappearance among nations!
27:24They will attack you and you will be captured, Babylon, without knowing it. You were found and taken because you resisted the Lord.
27:25The Lord opened His treasury and brought out the instruments of His anger, for the Lord God has work in the Chaldeans’ land,
27:26for her times have arrived. Open her storehouses; search her like a cave and destroy her. Let no remnant of her remain.
27:27Dry up all her fruits, and let them go down to slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their vengeance.
27:28A sound of those fleeing and being rescued from Babylon’s land, announcing in Zion vengeance from the Lord our God!
Babylon Repaid According to Her Works
27:29Give orders against Babylon to many, to everyone drawing a bow. Encamp against her all around; let none of her people escape. Repay her according to her works; do to her all she did, for she resisted the Lord, Israel’s holy God.
27:30Therefore her young men will fall in her squares, and all her warriors will be thrown down, said the Lord.
27:31I am against you, insolent woman, says the Lord, for your day has come, the time of your vengeance.
27:32Your insolence will grow weak and fall, with no one to raise it. I will kindle fire in her forest, and it will devour everything around her.
Israel’s Sons and Judah’s Sons Oppressed
27:33Thus says the Lord: Israel’s sons and Judah’s sons have been oppressed together. All who captured them oppressed them, because they did not want to release them.
27:34The One redeeming them is strong; the Lord Almighty is His name. He will judge a case against His adversaries, to remove the land, and He will provoke Babylon’s inhabitants.
27:35A sword against the Chaldeans, Babylon’s inhabitants, her nobles, and her discerning men!
27:36A sword against her warriors, and they will be disabled!
27:37A sword against their horses and chariots! A sword against their warriors and the mixed people within her, and they will become like women! A sword against her treasures, and they will be scattered!
27:38She trusted in her water, and they will be ashamed, for it is a land of carved images, and in the islands where they boasted.
27:39Therefore apparitions will live on the islands, and daughters of sirens will live in her. She certainly will never again be inhabited.
27:40As God overturned Sodom, Gomorrah, and their bordering places, said the Lord, no person will live there, and no human being will reside there.
A People Is Coming from the North
27:41A people is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings will be roused from the earth’s farthest part,
27:42holding bow and dagger. It is insolent and certainly will not show mercy. Their voice will sound like the sea. They will ride horses, prepared like fire for war against you, daughter Babylon.
27:43Babylon’s king heard the report about them, and his hands were disabled. Distress seized him, birth pains like a woman giving birth.
27:44Like a lion he will come up from the Jordan into Aitham’s place, for I will quickly drive them away from her and appoint every young man over her. For who is like Me? Who will resist Me, and what shepherd can stand before Me?
27:45Therefore hear the Lord’s counsel that He has planned against Babylon and His purposes against the resident Chaldeans: Surely the lambs of their sheep will be destroyed; surely pasture will disappear from them.
27:46For at the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will shake, and a cry will be heard among the nations.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.