Jeremiah 49

1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? Why then has Milcom disinherited Gad, why have his people settled in Gad's cities?
2 But the days are coming, says the LORD, when against Rabbah of the Ammonites I will sound the battle alarm; She shall become a mound of ruins, and her daughter cities shall be destroyed by fire. Israel shall inherit those who disinherited her, says the LORD.
3 Howl, Heshbon, for the ravager approaches, shriek, daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn, run to and fro, gashing yourselves; For Milcom goes into exile along with his priests and captains.
4 Why do you glory in your strength, your ebbing strength, rebellious daughter? You who trust in your treasures, saying, Who can come against me?
5 I am bringing terror upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all round about you; You shall be scattered, each man in headlong flight, with no one to rally the fugitives.
6 But afterward I will change the lot of the Ammonites, says the LORD.
7 Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of hosts: Is there no more wisdom in Teman, has counsel perished from the prudent, has their wisdom become corrupt?
8 Flee, retreat, hide in deep holes, you who live in Dedan: For I will bring destruction upon Esau when I come to punish him.
9 If vintagers came upon you, they would leave no gleanings; If thieves by night, they would destroy as they pleased.
10 So I myself will strip Esau; I will uncover his retreats so that he cannot hide. He is ruined: sons, and brothers, and neighbors, so that he is no more.
11 Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them alive; your widows, let them trust in me.
12 For thus says the LORD: Even those not sentenced to drink the cup must drink it! Shall you then go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you shall surely drink it.
13 By my own self I have sworn, says the LORD: Bozrah shall become an object of horror and a disgrace, a desolation and a curse; she and all her cities shall become ruins forever.
14 I have heard a report from the LORD, a herald has been sent among the nations: Gather together, move against her, rise up for battle.
15 Small will I make you among the nations, despised among men!
16 The terror you spread beguiled you, and your presumption of heart; You that live in rocky crags, that hold the heights of the hill: Though you build your nest high as the eagle, from there I will drag you down, says the LORD.
17 Edom shall become an object of horror. Every passer-by shall be appalled and catch his breath at all her wounds.
18 As when Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors were overthrown, says the LORD, not a man shall dwell there: no one shall visit there.
19 As when a lion comes up from the thicket of Jordan to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in an instant, will drive men off; and whom I choose I will establish there! For who is like me? who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?
20 Therefore, hear the counsel of the LORD, which he has taken against Edom; Hear the plans he has made against those that live in Teman: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep, their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.
21 At the noise of their fall the earth quakes, to the Red Sea the outcry is heard!
22 See! like an eagle he soars aloft, and spreads his wings over Bozrah; On that day the hearts of Edom's heroes shall be like the heart of a woman in travail.Concerning Damascus:
23 Hamath and Arpad are covered with shame, they have heard bad news; Worried, they toss like the sea which cannot rest.
24 Damascus is weakened, she turns to flee, panic has seized her. Distress and pangs take hold of her, like those of a woman in travail.
25 How can the city of glory be forsaken, the town of delight!
26 But now her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her warriors shall be stilled. On that day, says the LORD of hosts,
27 I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
28 Of Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, thus says the LORD: Rise up, attack Kedar, ravage the Easterners.
29 Their tents and herds shall be taken away, their tent curtains and all their goods; Their camels they shall carry off for themselves, and shout from upon them, Terror on every side!
30 Flee! leave your homes, hide in deep holes, you that live in Hazor, says the LORD; For counsel has been taken against you, a plan has been formed against you (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).
31 Rise up! set out against a nation that is at peace, that lives secure, says the LORD, That has no gates or bars, and dwells alone.
32 Their camels shall be your booty, their many herds your spoil; I will scatter to the winds those who shave their temples, from all sides I will bring ruin upon them, says the LORD.
33 Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, a desert forever, Where no man lives, no human being stays.
34 The following word of the LORD against Elam came to the prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah:
35 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might.
36 I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of the heavens: I will scatter them to all these winds, till there is no nation to which the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
37 I will break Elam before their foes, before those who seek their life; I will bring evil upon them, my burning wrath, says the LORD. I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely made an end of them;
38 My throne I will set up in Elam and destroy from there king and princes, says the LORD.
39 But in the days to come I will change the lot of Elam, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 50

1 The word which the LORD spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2 Announce and publish it among the nations; publish it, hide it not, but say: Babylon is taken, Bel confounded, Merodach shattered; her images are put to shame, her idols shattered.
3 A people from the north advances against her to turn her land into a desert, So that no one shall live there, because man and beast have fled away.
4 In those days, at that time, says the LORD, the men of Israel and of Judah shall come, Weeping as they come, to seek the LORD, their God;
5 to their goal in Zion they shall ask the way. Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD with covenant everlasting, never to be forgotten.
6 Lost sheep were my people, their shepherds misled them, straggling on the mountains; From mountain to hill they wandered, losing the way to their fold.
7 Whoever came upon them devoured them, and their enemies said, We incur no guilt, Because they sinned against the LORD, the hope of their fathers, their abode of justice.
8 Flee from Babylon, leave the land of the Chaldeans, be like the rams at the head of the flock.
9 See, I am stirring up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north; from there they advance, and she shall be taken. Their arrows are arrows of the skilled warrior; none shall return without effect.
10 Chaldea shall be their plunder, and all her plunderers shall be enriched, says the LORD.
11 Yes, rejoice and exult, you that plunder my portion; Frisk like calves on the green, snort like stallions!
12 Your mother shall be sorely put to shame, she that bore you shall be abashed; See, the last of the nations, a desert, dry and waste.
13 Because of the LORD'S wrath she shall be empty, and become a total desert; Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and catch his breath, at all her wounds.
14 Take your posts encircling Babylon, you who bend the bow; Shoot at her, spare not your arrows,
15 raise the war cry against her on all sides. She surrenders, her bastions fall, her walls are torn down: Vengeance of the LORD is this! Take revenge on her, as she has done, do to her; for she sinned against the LORD.
16 Cut off from Babylon the sower and him who wields the sickle in harvest time! Before the destroying sword, each of them turns to his own people, everyone flees to his own land.
17 A stray sheep was Israel that lions pursued; Formerly the king of Assyria devoured her, now Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnaws her bones.
18 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as once I punished the king of Assyria;
19 But I will bring back Israel to her fold, to feed on Carmel and Bashan, And on Mount Ephraim and Gilead, till she has her fill.
20 In those days, at that time, says the LORD: They shall seek Israel's guilt, but it shall be no more, and Judah's sins, but these shall no longer be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
21 Attack the land of Merathaim, and those who live in Pekod; Slaughter and doom them, says the LORD, do all I have commanded you.
22 Battle alarm in the land, dire destruction!
23 How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and shattered! What an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations.
24 You ensnared yourself, and were caught, O Babylon, before you knew it! You were discovered and seized, because you challenged the LORD.
25 The LORD opens his armory and brings forth the weapons of his wrath; For the Lord GOD of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come upon her from every side, open her granaries, Pile up her goods in heaps and doom it, leave not a remnant.
27 Slay all her oxen, let them go down to the slaughter; Woe to them! their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28 Listen! the fugitives, the escaped from the land of Babylon: They announce in Zion the vengeance of the LORD, our God.
29 Call up against Babylon archers, all who bend the bow; Encamp around her, let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; as she has done, do to her, For she insulted the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, all her warriors shall perish on that day, says the LORD.
31 I am against you, man of insolence, says the Lord GOD of hosts; For your day has come, the time for me to punish you.
32 Insolence stumbles and falls; there is no one to raise him up. I will kindle in his cities a fire that shall devour everything around him.
33 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Oppressed are the men of Israel, and with them the men of Judah; All their captors hold them fast and refuse to let them go.
34 Strong is their avenger, whose name is LORD of hosts; He will defend their cause with success, and give rest to the earth, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.
35 A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the LORD, upon Babylon's people, her princes and wise men!
36 A sword upon the soothsayers, that they may become fools! A sword upon her warriors, that they may tremble;
37 A sword upon her motley throng, that they may become women! A sword upon her treasures, that they may be plundered;
38 A sword upon her waters, that they may dry up! For it is a land of idols, and they shall be made frantic by fearful things.
39 Hence, wildcats and desert beasts shall dwell there, and ostriches shall occupy it; Never again shall it be peopled, or lived in, from age to age.
40 As when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, with their neighbors, says the LORD, Not a man shall dwell there, no human being shall tarry there.
41 See! a people comes from the north, a great nation, and mighty kings roused from the ends of the earth.
42 Bow and javelin they wield, cruel and pitiless are they; They sound like the roaring sea, as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place for battle against you, daughter Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon hears news of them, and helpless fall his hands; Anguish seizes him, throes like a mother's in childbirth.
44 As when a lion comes up from the Jordan's thicket to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in one instant, will drive them off, and whom I choose I will establish there; For who is like me? who calls me to account? what shepherd can stand against me?
45 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD which he has taken against Babylon; Hear the plans he has made against the land of the Chaldeans: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep; their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.
46 At the cry Babylon is captured! the earth quakes; the outcry is heard among the nations.