Jeremiah 50: against Babylon

 In Jeremiah 50 we read a prophecy against Babylon. Jeremiah didn't see the fall of Babylon. Babylon treated Jeremiah well, but he was not in favor of Babylon.

1 The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2 “Declare and proclaim among the nations.
Proclaim it and lift up a flag,
Do not conceal it. Say,
‘Babylon has been captured,
Bel has been put to shame, [a]Marduk has been [b]shattered;
Her idols have been put to shame, her images have been shattered.’
3 For a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Whether people or animals, they have wandered off, they have gone!


The Lord used Babylon as an instrument to punish his people, but Babylon was evil. We read:

7 All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty,
Since they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness,
The Lord, the hope of their fathers.’

The adversaries of Israel and Judah thought that they were not guilty because they sinned against the Lord. However, the Lord doesn't think so:

9 For behold, I am going to rouse and bring up against Babylon
A contingent of great nations from the land of the north,
And they will draw up their battle lines against her;
From there she will be taken captive.
Their arrows will be like [h]an expert warrior
Who does not return empty-handed.
10 [i]Chaldea will become plunder;
All who plunder her will have enough,” declares the Lord.

11 “Because you are glad, because you are jubilant,
You who pillage My heritage,
Because you skip about [j]like a threshing heifer
And neigh like [k]stallions,
12 Your mother [l]will be greatly ashamed,
She who gave you birth [m]will be humiliated.
Behold, she will be the least of the nations,
A wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited,
But she will be completely desolate;
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified
And will hiss because of all her wounds.

The Lord says that his people should leave Babylon:

8 “Wander away from the midst of Babylon
And [f]go out from the land of the Chaldeans;
Be like male goats [g]at the head of the flock.

33 This is what the Lord of armies says:
“The sons of Israel are oppressed,
And the sons of Judah as well;
And all who took them captive have held them firmly,
They have refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of armies is His name;
He will vigorously plead their case
So that He may bring rest to their land,
But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.