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¹⁵Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
 Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
  because they are no more."

¹⁶Thus says the LORD:"Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the LORD,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ There is hope for your future,
declares the LORD,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
¹⁸I have heard Ephraim grieving,'You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
 bring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the LORD my God.
¹⁹For after I had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
 I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.'
²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son?
  Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
 Therefore my heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,

declares the LORD.

²¹ "Set up road markers for yourself;
make yourself guideposts;
 consider well the highway,
the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
return to these your cities.
²² How long will you waver,
  O faithless daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth:
a woman encircles a man."

²³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:

  "'The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
  O holy hill!'

²⁴ And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. ²⁵For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish."

²⁶At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

²⁷ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD. ²⁹In those days they shall no longer say:

  "'The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.'

³⁰ But everyone shall die for his own sin. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

³⁷Thus says the LORD:"If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
 then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,

declares the LORD."

³⁸ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹ And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰ The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be uprooted or overthrown anymore forever."

Judgment on Elam

³⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might. ³⁶And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will scatter them to all those winds, and there shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not come. ³⁷I will terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, declares the LORD. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them, ³⁸and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the LORD.

³⁹"But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the LORD."

Jeremiah 50

Judgment on Babylon

³"For out of the north a nation has come up against her, which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both man and beast shall flee away.

⁴ "In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the LORD their God. ⁵ They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, 'Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.'

⁶ "My people have been lost sheep.  Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold. ⁷All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, 'We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their habitation of righteousness, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'

⁸ "Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as male goats before the flock. ⁹For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations, from the north country. And they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed. ¹⁰ Chaldea shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be sated, declares the LORD.
¹¹ "Though you rejoice, though you exult,
O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frolic like a heifer in the pasture,
and neigh like stallions,
¹²your mother shall be utterly shamed,
and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
Behold, she shall be the last of the nations,
  a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
¹³ Because of the wrath of the LORD she shall not be inhabited
but shall be an utter desolation;
 everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled,
and hiss because of all her wounds.
¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
  all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her, spare no arrows,
  for she has sinned against the LORD.
¹⁵ Raise a shout against her all around;
she has surrendered;
her bulwarks have fallen;
  her walls are thrown down.
For this is the vengeance of the LORD:
take vengeance on her;
  do to her as she has done.
¹⁶Cut off from Babylon the sower,
and the one who handles the sickle in time of harvest;
 because of the sword of the oppressor,
  every one shall turn to his own people,
and every one shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷ "Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones. ¹⁸Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. ²⁰In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
²¹"Go up against the land of Merathaim,
and against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Kill, and devote them to destruction,
declares the LORD,
and do all that I have commanded you.
²² The noise of battle is in the land,
and great destruction!
²³ How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and broken!
 How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations!
²⁴ I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon,
and you did not know it;
you were found and caught,
because you opposed the LORD.
²⁵The LORD has opened his armory
and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord GOD of hosts has a work to do
in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶Come against her from every quarter;
open her granaries;
 pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction;
let nothing be left of her.
²⁷Kill all her bulls;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
  the time of their punishment.

²⁸"A voice! They flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his temple.

²⁹ "Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, declares the LORD.
³¹"Behold, I am against you, O proud one,
declares the Lord GOD of hosts,
 for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
³² The proud one shall stumble and fall,
with none to raise him up,
 and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
and it will devour all that is around him.

³³"Thus says the LORD of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. All who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go. ³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
³⁵"A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD,
and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
and against her officials and her wise men!
³⁶A sword against the diviners,
that they may become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
that they may be destroyed!
³⁷A sword against her horses and against her chariots,
and against all the foreign troops in her midst,
that they may become women!
 A sword against all her treasures,
that they may be plundered!
³⁸ A drought against her waters,
that they may be dried up!
 For it is a land of images,
and they are mad over idols.

³⁹ "Therefore wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations. ⁴⁰ As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares the LORD, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.
⁴¹ "Behold, a people comes from the north;
a mighty nation and many kings
are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
⁴²They lay hold of bow and spear;
they are cruel and have no mercy.
The sound of them is like the roaring of the sea;
they ride on horses,
arrayed as a man for battle
against you, O daughter of Babylon!

⁴³"The king of Babylon heard the report of them,
and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
pain as of a woman in labor.

⁴⁴ "Behold, like a lion coming up from the thicket of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make them run away from her, and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me? ⁴⁵Therefore hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the purposes that he has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of their flock shall be dragged away; surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate. ⁴⁶ At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations."

Jeremiah 51

The Utter Destruction of Babylon

⁶ "Flee from the midst of Babylon;
let every one save his life!
 Be not cut off in her punishment,
  for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance,
the repayment he is rendering her.
⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,
  making all the earth drunken;
 the nations drank of her wine;
therefore the nations went mad.
⁸ Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
  wail for her!
 Take balm for her pain;
perhaps she may be healed.
⁹We would have healed Babylon,
but she was not healed.
 Forsake her, and let us go
each to his own country,
for her judgment has reached up to heaven
and has been lifted up even to the skies.
¹⁰ The LORD has brought about our vindication;
  come, let us declare in Zion
the work of the LORD our God.

¹¹ "Sharpen the arrows!
Take up the shields!

 The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.
¹² "Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon;
  make the watch strong;
set up watchmen;
prepare the ambushes;
 for the LORD has both planned and done
what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³ O you who dwell by many waters,
rich in treasures,
your end has come;
the thread of your life is cut.
¹⁴ The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:Surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts,
  and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.