Babylon, which hath afflicted the Israelites, after their restoration,
shall be utterly destroyed.
50:1. The word that the Lord hath spoken against Babylon, and against
the land of the Chaldeans in the hand of Jeremias the prophet.
50:2. Declare ye among the nations, and publish it, lift up a standard:
proclaim, and conceal it not: say: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded,
Merodach is overthrown, their graven things are confounded, their idols
are overthrown.
Bel, etc.... Bel and Merodach were worshipped for gods by the men of
Babylon.
50:3. For a nation is come up against her out of the north, which shall
make her land desolate: and there shall be none to dwell therein, from
man even to beast: yea they are removed, and gone away.
A nation, etc.... Viz., the Medes.
50:4. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of
Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together: going and
weeping they shall make haste, and shall seek the Lord their God.
50:5. They shall ask the way to Sion, their faces are hitherward. They
shall come, and shall be joined to the Lord by an everlasting covenant,
which shall never be forgotten.
50:6. My people have been a lost flock, their shepherds have caused
them to go astray, and have made them wander in the mountains: they
have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting
place.
50:7. All that found them, have devoured them: and their enemies said:
We have not sinned in so doing: because they have sinned against the
Lord the beauty of justice, and against the Lord the hope of their
fathers.
50:8. Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land
of the Chaldeans: and be ye as kids at the head of the flock.
50:9. For behold I raise up, and will bring against Babylon an assembly
of great nations from the land of the north: and they shall be prepared
against her, and from thence she shall be taken: their arrows, like
those of a mighty man, a destroyer, shall not return in vain.
50:10. And Chaldea shall be made a prey: all that waste her shall be
filled, saith the Lord.
50:11. Because you rejoice, and speak great things, pillaging my
inheritance: because you are spread abroad as calves upon the grass,
and have bellowed as bulls.
50:12. Your mother is confounded exceedingly, and she that bore you is
made even with the dust: behold she shall be the last among the
nations, a wilderness unpassable, and dry.
50:13. Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but
shall be wholly desolate: every one that shall pass by Babylon, shall
be astonished, and shall hiss at all her plagues.
50:14. Prepare yourselves against Babylon round about, all you that
bend the bow: fight against her, spare not arrows: because she hath
sinned against the Lord.
50:15. Shout against her, she hath every where given her hand, her
foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down, for it is the
vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance upon her: as she hath done, so do
to her.
50:16. Destroy the sower out of Babylon, and him that holdeth the
sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the sword of the dove every
man shall return to his people, and every one shall flee to his own
land.
The dove.... Or the destroyer; for the Hebrew word signifies either the
one or the other.
50:17. Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven him away:
first the king of Assyria devoured him: and last this Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
50:18. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold
I will visit the king of Babylon and his land, as I have visited the
king of Assyria.
50:19. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation: and he shall
feed on Carmel, and Bason, and his soul shall be satisfied in mount
Ephraim, and Galaad.
50:20. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sin of
Juda, and there shall none be found: for I will be merciful to them,
whom I shall leave.
50:21. Go up against the land of the rulers, and punish the inhabitants
thereof, waste, and destroy all behind them, saith the Lord: and do
according to all that I have commanded thee.
50:22. A noise of war in the land, and a great destruction.
50:23. How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed! how
is Babylon turned into a desert among the nations!
50:24. I have caused thee to fall into a snare, and thou art taken, O
Babylon, and thou wast not aware of it: thou art found and caught,
because thou hast provoked the Lord.
50:25. The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the
weapons of his wrath: for the Lord the God of hosts hath a work to be
done in the land of the Chaldeans.
50:26. Come ye against her from the uttermost borders: open that they
may go forth that shall tread her down: take the stones out of the way,
and make heaps, and destroy her: and let nothing of her be left.
50:27. Destroy all her valiant men, let them go down to the slaughter:
woe to them, for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
50:28. The voice of them that flee, and of them that have escaped out
of the land of Babylon: to declare in Sion the revenge of the Lord our
God, the revenge of his temple.
50:29. Declare to many against Babylon, to all that bend the bow: stand
together against her round about, and let none escape; pay her
according to her work: according to all that she hath done, do ye to
her: for she hath lifted up herself against the Lord, against the Holy
One of Israel.
50:30. Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets: and all her
men of war shall hold their peace in that day, saith the Lord.
50:31. Behold I come against thee, O proud one, saith the Lord the God
of hosts: for thy day is come, the time of thy visitation.
50:32. And the proud one shall fall, he shall fall down, and there
shall be none to lift him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it shall devour all round about him.
50:33. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel, and the
children of Juda are oppressed together: all that have taken them
captives, hold them fast, they will not let them go.
50:34. Their redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name: he will
defend their cause in judgment, to terrify the land, and to disquiet
the inhabitants of Babylon.
50:35. A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the
inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.
50:36. A sword upon her diviners, and they shall be foolish: a sword
upon her valiant ones, and they shall be dismayed.
50:37. A sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all
the people that are in the midst of her: and they shall become as
women: a sword upon her treasures, and they shall be made a spoil.
50:38. A drought upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: because
it is a land of idols, and they glory in monstrous things.
50:39. Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig fauns: and
ostriches shall dwell therein, and it shall be no more inhabited for
ever, neither shall it be built up from generation to generation.
Fig fauns.... Monsters of the desert, or demons in monstrous shapes:
such as the ancients called fauns and satyrs; and as they imagined them
to live upon wild figs, they called them fauni ficarii or fig fauns.
50:40. As the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and their neighbour
cities, saith the Lord: no man shall dwell there, neither shall the son
of man inhabit it.
50:41. Behold a people cometh from the north, and a great nation, and
many kings shall rise from the ends of the earth.
50:42. They shall take the bow and the shield: they are cruel and
unmerciful: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride
upon horses: like a man prepared for battle against thee, O daughter of
Babylon.
50:43. The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands
are grown feeble: anguish hath taken hold of him, pangs as a woman in
labour.
50:44. Behold he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the
Jordan to the strong and beautiful: for I will make him run suddenly
upon her: and who shall be the chosen one whom I may appoint over her?
for who is like to me? and who shall bear up against me? and who is
that shepherd that can withstand my countenance?
50:45. Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he hath taken
against Babylon: and his thoughts which he hath thought against the
land of the Chaldeans: surely the little ones of the flocks shall pull
them down, of a truth their habitation shall be destroyed with them.
50:46. At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and
the cry is heard amongst the nations.