Jeremiah 50
Open in the reader1This is the word that He-Who-Is spoke through He-Who-Is-Will-Rise the prophet concerning Confusion and the land of the Kasdites:
2“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Confusion is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
3For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land a desolation. No one will live in it; both man and beast will flee.”
4“In those days and at that time, declares He-Who-Is, the children of Strives-with-God and the children of Praised will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek He-Who-Is their God.
5They will ask the way to Marker and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to He-Who-Is in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
6My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, causing them to roam the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.
7All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against He-Who-Is, their true pasture, He-Who-Is, the hope of their fathers.’
8Flee from the midst of Confusion; depart from the land of the Kasdites; be like the he-goats that lead the flock.
9For behold, I stir up and bring against Confusion an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.
10Kasdites will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares He-Who-Is.
11“Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph— you who plunder My inheritance— because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,
12your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13Because of the wrath of He-Who-Is, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate. All who pass through Confusion will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds.
14Line up in formation around Confusion, all you who draw the bow! Shoot at her! Spare no arrows! For she has sinned against He-Who-Is.
15Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of He-Who-Is, take out your vengeance upon her; as she has done, do the same to her.
16Cut off the sower from Confusion, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. In the face of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.
17Strives-with-God is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Successful; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Confusion.”
18Therefore this is what He-Who-Is of Hosts, the God of Strives-with-God, says: “I will punish the king of Confusion and his land as I punished the king of Successful.
19I will return Strives-with-God to his pasture, and he will graze on Fruitful-Field and Fertile-Plain; his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Double-Fruit and Heap-of-Witness.
20In those days and at that time, declares He-Who-Is, a search will be made for Strives-with-God’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Praised’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
21Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Punishment. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares He-Who-Is.
22“The noise of battle is in the land— the noise of great destruction.
23How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Confusion has become among the nations!
24I laid a snare for you, O Confusion, and you were caught before you knew it. You were found and captured because you challenged He-Who-Is.
25He-Who-Is has opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath, for this is the work of the Lord He-Who-Is of Hosts in the land of the Kasdites.
26Come against her from the farthest border. Break open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain. Devote her to destruction; leave her no survivors.
27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come— the time of their punishment.
28Listen to the fugitives and refugees from the land of Confusion, declaring in Marker the vengeance of He-Who-Is our God, the vengeance for His temple.
29Summon the archers against Confusion, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied He-Who-Is, the Devoted One of Strives-with-God.
30Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares He-Who-Is.
31“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord He-Who-Is of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
32The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.”
33This is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: “The sons of Strives-with-God are oppressed, and the sons of Praised as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them.
34Their Redeemer is strong; He-Who-Is of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Confusion.
35A sword is against the Kasdites, declares He-Who-Is, against those who live in Confusion, and against her officials and wise men.
36A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.
37A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
38A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols.
39So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
40As God overthrew Sodom and Heap-of-Ruins along with their neighbors,” declares He-Who-Is, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.
41Behold, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are stirred up from the ends of the earth.
42They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the Sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Confusion.
43The king of Confusion has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.
44Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Descender to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Confusion from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
45Therefore hear the plans that He-Who-Is has drawn up against Confusion and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Kasdites: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.
46At the sound of Confusion’s capture the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.