耶利米書 第 27 章

The word of the Lord which he spoke against Babylon.

Announce among the nations and make it heard, and do not hide it; say: Babylon has been captured, Bel has been put to shame; the undaunted one, the dainty one, has been handed over — Marodach.

For a nation from the north has come up against her; it shall make her land a desolation, and there shall be no one dwelling in her, from human to beast.

In those days and at that time the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together; walking and weeping they shall go, seeking the Lord their God.

As far as Zion they shall ask the way, for here they shall set their face; and they shall come and take refuge with the Lord God, for an everlasting covenant shall not be forgotten.

My people became lost sheep; their shepherds drove them out and led them astray onto the mountains; from mountain to hill they went; they forgot their resting place.

All who found them were consuming them; their enemies said, 'Let us not spare them,' because they sinned against the Lord, the pasture of righteousness, against him who gathered their fathers.

Be separated from the midst of Babylon and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go out, and become like serpents before the sheep.

For behold, I am raising up against Babylon gatherings of nations from the land of the north, and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be captured. Like the arrow of a skilled warrior, it shall not return empty.

And Chaldea shall become plunder; all who plunder her shall be satisfied.

Because you rejoiced and boasted as you plundered my inheritance, because you skipped like little calves in the grass and gored like bulls.

Your mother has been utterly put to shame, the mother destined for good things; she is the last of the nations, a wilderness.

Because of the Lord's wrath she shall not be inhabited, and she shall become wholly a desolation; and everyone passing through Babylon shall be gloomy and shall hiss at all her wounds.

Array yourselves against Babylon round about, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, do not spare your arrows.

Clap in triumph over her. Her hands are slackened, her bulwarks have fallen and her wall has been razed, for it is vengeance from God. Take vengeance on her; as she did, so do to her.

Destroy utterly the seed from Babylon, and him who holds a sickle at harvest time. Before the Greek sword each shall turn back to his own people, and each shall flee to his own land.

Israel is a straying sheep; lions drove him away. The first to devour him was the king of Assur, and this latter one, the king of Babylon, gnawed his bones.

Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am punishing the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assur.

And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall graze on Carmel and on Mount Ephraim and in Gilead, and his soul shall be satisfied.

In those days and at that time they shall seek the wrongdoing of Israel, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will be merciful to those left upon the land, says the Lord.

Go up bitterly against her and against those who dwell upon her; take vengeance, O sword, and destroy, says the Lord, and do according to all that I command you.

A sound of war, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans.

How the hammer of all the earth has been broken and shattered! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

They shall set upon you and you shall be captured, O Babylon, and you shall not know it. You were found and taken, because you withstood the Lord.

The Lord has opened his treasury and brought out the vessels of his wrath, for the Lord God has a work in the land of the Chaldeans.

For her times have come. Open her storehouses, search her as one searches a cave, and destroy her utterly; let there be no remnant of her.

Dry up all her fruits, and let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come and the time of their punishment.

A sound of those fleeing and escaping from the land of Babylon, to announce in Zion the vengeance from the Lord our God.

Summon many against Babylon, everyone who bends a bow. Encamp against her round about; let there be no one of hers who escapes. Repay her according to her works; according to all that she did, do to her, because she withstood the Lord, the holy God of Israel.

Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be cast away, said the Lord.

Behold, I am against you, you insolent one, says the Lord, for your day has come and the time of your punishment.

And your insolence shall grow weak and fall, and there shall be no one to raise it up; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour everything around her.

Thus says the Lord: The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah alike have been oppressed; all who took them captive have oppressed them, for they refused to let them go.

But the one who redeems them is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will surely plead their case against his adversaries, so as to remove the land and to provoke those who dwell in Babylon.

A sword against the Chaldeans, and against those who dwell in Babylon, and against her nobles and against her wise men.

A sword against her warriors, and they shall be paralyzed.

A sword against their horses and against their chariots; a sword against their warriors and against the mixed people in her midst, and they shall be like women; a sword against her treasures, and they shall be scattered.

She had trusted in her water, and they shall be put to shame, for it is a land of carved images, and in the islands where they used to boast.

Therefore phantoms shall dwell in the islands, and daughters of sirens shall dwell in her; she shall never again be inhabited, forever.

Just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbours, said the Lord, so no one shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn there.

Behold, a people is coming from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be roused from the end of the earth.

They hold bow and dagger; he is ruthless and will show no mercy; their voice shall roar like the sea. They ride upon horses, equipped like fire for battle against you, O daughter of Babylon.

The king of Babylon heard the report of them, and his hands were slackened; anguish gripped him, pangs as of a woman in labour.

Behold, like a lion he shall come up from the Jordan to the place of Aitham; for I will swiftly drive them out from her, and I will appoint every young man against her. For who is like me? And who will withstand me? And who is this shepherd who will stand before my face?

Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord which he has purposed against Babylon, and his thoughts which he has thought against the Chaldean inhabitants: surely the lambs of their flock shall be destroyed; surely their pasture shall be laid waste.

For at the sound of Babylon's capture the earth shall quake, and a cry shall be heard among the nations.