Babylon Taken, and a People Going Home Weeping
1 The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. 2 “Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal; say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’ 3 For a nation comes up out of the north against her, which will make her land desolate, and no one will dwell in it. They have fled. They are gone, both man and animal. 4 “In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God. 5 They will inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.’ 6 My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. 7 All who found them have devoured them. Their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.’ 8 “Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks. 9 For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they will set themselves in array against her. She will be taken from there. Their arrows will be as of an expert mighty man. None of them will return in vain. 10 Chaldea will be a prey. All who prey on her will be satisfied,” says Yahweh. 11 “Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses, 12 your mother will be utterly disappointed. She who bore you will be confounded. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 13 Because of Yahweh’s wrath she won’t be inhabited, but she will be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. 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 Yahweh. 15 Shout against her all around. She has submitted herself. Her bulwarks have fallen. Her walls have been thrown down, for it is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do to her. 16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword, they will each return to their own people, and they will each flee to their own land. 17 “Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.” 18 Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 19 I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan. His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. 20 In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none, also the sins of Judah, and they won’t be found; for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.
The empire that was God's servant is sentenced, and the exiles come home weeping and looking for a covenant, with their guilt sought for and not found.
The announcement is to be made as loudly as possible — declare among the nations, publish, do not conceal — and its content is the fall of the gods before the fall of the city: Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed. The empire's chief deities are named and reported humiliated. That is how the ancient world read a defeat, and the oracle turns the convention against the power that had used it on Judah.
What happens to the exiles is described in an unexpected register. They do not march home in triumph. They go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God, asking the road to Zion with their faces turned toward it. What they say when they arrive is a proposal rather than a celebration: Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. The last clause is aimed at the whole history behind them. The first covenant was not forgotten by God. It was forgotten by them.
The hardest verse in the section is the one that quotes Babylon's defense. Their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh. It is a real argument, and the book has spent forty-nine chapters supplying its premise. The answer is not that the premise is false. It is that being an instrument is not innocence — the same point made when Nebuchadnezzar was first called a servant and sentenced in the same paragraph Jeremiah 25:9–12. The precedent is then named. God will punish the king of Babylon as he punished the king of Assyria. An empire that watched its predecessor fall for the same behavior cannot claim it did not know.
The section ends on the strongest statement of forgiveness the book has made since the new covenant. In those days, and in that time... the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none, also the sins of Judah, and they won't be found; for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant. The picture is of a search conducted and coming back empty. A book that has documented the sins of this people in exhaustive detail ends its account of them with a file that cannot be found.
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