In The Word
Read: Jeremiah 49:34-50:46
Prophecy against Elam
34 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying:
35 “This is what the Lord of armies says:
‘Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam,
The finest of their might.
36 I will bring upon Elam the four winds
From the four ends of heaven,
And will scatter them to all these winds;
And there will be no nation
To which the outcasts of Elam will not go.
37 So I will shatter Elam before their enemies
And before those who seek their lives;
And I will bring disaster upon them,
Even My fierce anger,’ declares the Lord,
‘And I will send the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.
38 Then I will set My throne in Elam,
And eliminate from there the king and officials,’
Declares the Lord.
39 ‘But it will come about in the last days
That I will restore the fortunes of Elam,’”
Declares the Lord.
Prophecy against Babylon
50 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, Marduk has been 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!
4 “In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the sons of Israel will come, they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the Lord their God whom they will seek. 5 They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come so that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
6 “My people have become lost sheep;
Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have made them turn aside on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill,
They have forgotten their resting place.
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.’
8 “Wander away from the midst of Babylon
And go out from the land of the Chaldeans;
Be like male goats at the head of the flock.
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 an expert warrior
Who does not return empty-handed.
10 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 like a threshing heifer
And neigh like stallions,
12 Your mother will be greatly ashamed,
She who gave you birth 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.
14 Draw up your battle lines against Babylon on every side,
All of you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, do not spare your arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Raise your battle cry against her on every side!
She has given herself up, her towers have fallen,
Her walls have been torn down.
For this is the vengeance of the Lord:
Take vengeance on her;
As she has done to others, so do to her.
16 Eliminate the sower from Babylon
And the one who wields the sickle at the time of harvest;
From the sword of the oppressor
Each of them will turn back to his own people
And each of them will flee to his own land.
17 “Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away. The first one whodevoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has gnawed his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 18 Therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. 19 And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. 20 In those days and at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the wrongdoing of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will forgive those whom I leave as a remnant.’
21 “Against the land of Merathaim, go up against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Kill and completely destroy them,” declares the Lord,
“And do according to everything 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
Has been cut off and broken!
How Babylon has become
An object of horror among the nations!
24 I set a trap for you and you were also caught, Babylon,
While you yourself were not aware;
You have been found and also seized
Because you have engaged in conflict with the Lord.”
25 The Lord has opened His armory
And has brought out the weapons of His indignation,
For it is a work of the Lord God of armies
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come to her from the farthest border;
Open up her barns,
Pile her up like heaps of grain
And completely destroy her,
Let nothing be left to her.
27 Put all her bulls to the sword;
Let them go down to the slaughter!
Woe be upon them, for their day has come,
The time of their punishment.
28 There is a sound of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon,
To declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
Vengeance for His temple.
29 “Summon many against Babylon,
All those who bend the bow:
Encamp against her on every side,
Let there be no escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all that she has done, so do to her;
For she has become arrogant against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men will fall in her streets,
And all her men of war will perish on that day,” declares the Lord.
31 “Behold, I am against you, arrogant one,”
Declares the Lord God of armies,
“For your day has come,
The time when I will punish you.
32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall
With no one to raise him up;
And I will set fire to his cities,
And it will devour all his surroundings.”
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.
35 A sword against the Chaldeans,” declares the Lord,
“And against the inhabitants of Babylon
And against her leaders and her wise men!
36 A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become fools!
A sword against her warriors, and they will be shattered!
37 A sword against their horses, against their chariots,
And against all the foreigners who are in the midst of her,
And they will become women!
A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!
38 A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!
For it is a land of idols,
And they go insane at frightful images.
39 “Therefore the desert creatures will live there with the jackals;
The ostriches also will live in it.
It will never again be inhabited
Nor lived in from generation to generation.
40 As when God overthrew Sodom
And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord,
“No one will live there,
Nor will anyone of mankind reside in it.
41 “Behold, a people is coming from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Will be roused from the remote parts of the earth.
42 They seize their bow and javelin;
They are cruel and have no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea;
And they ride on horses,
Drawn up like a man for the battle
Against you, daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands hang limp;
Distress has gripped him,
Agony like a woman in childbirth.
44 “Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will chase them away from it, and I will appoint over it whoever is chosen. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”45 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has planned against Babylon, and His purposes which He has in mind against the land of the Chaldeans: they will certainly drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; He will certainly make their pasture desolate because of them. 46 At the shout, “Babylon has been conquered!” the earth quakes, and an outcry is heard among the nations.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
In addition to God’s judgment on the nations around Israel, He reflects on the poor condition of His people because their leadership did not perform its God-given role to lead people in the ways of God. “My people have become lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray (Jeremiah 50:6).” The political and religious leaders had not only tolerated sin, but also sinned themselves. The people imitated them, which opened the door for Israel to be oppressed by enemy nations and to be taken captive to Babylon. This shows how important leadership is because it directly influences assemblies of people such as: churches, companies, nations, etc. God rightly describes people as sheep because they often blindly follow the leader in front of them, even if the leader is taking them down a dangerous path.
God says every leader “must give an account” of how they lead people (Hebrews 13:17). Similarly, God will also hold us accountable for how we behave. In other words, we cannot use any person’s wrong behavior as our excuse to behave outside of God’s holy standard. “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God…So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:10, 12).”
God places leaders in our lives to guide us, but ultimately it is God’s Word that is to direct our lives. Thus, if any person directs us to behave outside of God’s biblical guidelines then we are to turn away from their teaching, and instead, follow God.