God’s Wrath On Babylon

Jeremiah 50

Prophecies against Babylon
The word the Lord spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:  2 Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag;
proclaim, and hide nothing. Say: Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is devastated; her idols are put to shame; her false gods, devastated.
3 For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it— both man and beast will escape.
4 In those days and at that time— this is the Lord’s declaration—
the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come,
and will seek the Lord their God.
5 They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
6 My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray,
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.  They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them devoured them. Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord, their righteous grazing land,
the hope of their ancestors, the Lord.”
8 Escape from Babylon; depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
9 For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her;
from there she will be captured.  Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
10 The Chaldeans will become plunder; all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11 Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph— you who plundered My inheritance— because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,
12 your mother will be utterly humiliated; she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all the nations— a dry land, a wilderness, an Arabah.
13 Because of the Lord’s wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her.  Everyone who passes through Babylon will be horrified
and scoff because of all her wounds.
14 Line up in battle formation around Babylon, all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow, for she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished.  Since this is the Lord’s vengeance, take out your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people,
each will flee to his own land.

The Return of God’s People
17 Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last one who crushed his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
18 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.                19 I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.
20 In those days and at that time— this is the Lord’s declaration—
one will search for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.

The Invasion of Babylon
21 “Go against the land of Merathaim, and against those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword; completely destroy them—
this is the Lord’s declaration— do everything I have commanded you.
22 The sound of war is in the land— a great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
24 Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,
but you did not even know it.  You were found and captured
because you fought against the Lord.
25 The Lord opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath,
because it is a task of the Lord God of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the most distant places.  Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain and completely destroy her.  Leave her no survivors.
27 Put all her young bulls to the sword; let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, because their day has come, the time of their punishment.

The Humiliation of Babylon
28 “There is a voice of fugitives and those who escape from the land of Babylon
announcing in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for His temple.
29 Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.  Repay her according to her deeds;
just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.  This is the Lord’s declaration.
31 Look, I am against you, you arrogant one— this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Hosts— because your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
32 The arrogant will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him.”

The Desolation of Babylon
33 This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.  All their captors hold them fast;  they refuse to release them.
34 Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
He will fervently plead their case so that He might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.
35 A sword is over the Chaldeans — this is the Lord’s declaration—
against those who live in Babylon, against her officials, and against her sages.
36 A sword is against the diviners, and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors, and they will be terrified.
37 A sword is against his horses and chariots and against all the foreigners among them, and they will be like women.   A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
38 A drought will come on her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images, and they go mad because of terrifying things.
39 Therefore, desert creatures will live with hyenas, and ostriches will also live in her.
It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.
40 Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns—
this is the Lord’s declaration— so no one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.

The Conquest of Babylon
41 Look! A people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the remote regions of the earth.
42 They grasp bow and javelin.  They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands fall helpless.
Distress has seized him— pain, like a woman in labor.
44 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. Indeed, I will chase Babylon away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like Me? Who will summon Me? Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me?” 45 Therefore, hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them. 46 At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.

Revelation 14:8

8 A second angel followed, saying: “It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, who made all nations drink the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath.”

Revelation 16:19

19 The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great was remembered in God’s presence; He gave her the cup filled with the wine of His fierce anger.

Revelation 17:5

On her forehead a cryptic name was written:  BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE VILE THINGS OF THE EARTH.

Revelation 18:1-21

The Fall of Babylon the Great
After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 He cried in a mighty voice: It has fallen,
Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a dwelling for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird,
and a haunt for every unclean and despicable beast.
3 For all the nations have drunk the wine of her sexual immorality,
which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her excessive luxury.

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven: Come out of her, My people,
so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues.
5 For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Pay her back the way she also paid, and double it according to her works.
In the cup in which she mixed, mix a double portion for her.
7 As much as she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, give her that much torment and grief, for she says in her heart, “I sit as a queen; I am not a widow,
and I will never see grief.” 
8 For this reason her plagues will come in one day—
death and grief and famine.  She will be burned up with fire,
because the Lord God who judges her is mighty.

The World Mourns Babylon’s Fall
9 The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and lived luxuriously with her will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 10 They will stand far off in fear of her torment, saying: Woe, woe, the great city,
Babylon, the mighty city! For in a single hour your judgment has come.
11 The merchants of the earth will also weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their merchandise any longer— 12 merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; fine fabrics of linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; all kinds of fragrant wood products; objects of ivory; objects of expensive wood, brass, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine wheat flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and slaves and human lives.  14 The fruit you craved has left you. All your splendid and glamorous things are gone;
they will never find them again.
15 The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, 16 saying: Woe, woe, the great city,
dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls,  17 for in a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed!
And every shipmaster, seafarer, the sailors, and all who do business by sea, stood far off 18 as they watched the smoke from her burning and kept crying out: “Who is like the great city?” 19 They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping, and mourning: Woe, woe, the great city, where all those who have ships on the sea
became rich from her wealth, for in a single hour she was destroyed.
20 Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets,
because God has executed your judgment on her!

The Finality of Babylon’s Fall
21 Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying: In this way, Babylon the great city will be thrown down violently
and never be found again.

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“Blow The Trumpet In Zion”