Chapter Overview
Summary
Oracle against Babylon (part 1). MT ch. 50 = LXX ch. 27. In LXX, the Babylon oracle is the 3rd OAN; in MT it is the last and longest. LXX is significantly shorter.
Notable Variants
LXX is approximately 15-20% shorter. Many of the expansive judgment descriptions and repeated phrases in MT are absent or condensed in LXX. The core message is the same: Babylon will fall, Israel will return.
Structural Notes
MT chs. 50-51 = LXX chs. 27-28. Babylon oracle is 3rd in LXX OAN order (after Elam and Egypt) but 9th (last) in MT.
The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Announce it among the nations, proclaim it, raise a signal; proclaim it and do not conceal it. Say: Babylon is captured! Bel is put to shame, Marduk is shattered. Her images are put to shame, her idols are broken to pieces.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
For a nation advances against her from the north — it will turn her land into a wasteland, and no one will live in it. Both human and animal will flee; they will be gone.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the people of Israel will come — they and the people of Judah together. They will walk along weeping, and they will seek the LORD their God.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
They will ask the way to Zion, their faces turned toward it: 'Come, let us bind ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.'
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds led them astray, turning them loose on the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill and forgot their resting place.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
All who found them devoured them, and their oppressors said, 'We bear no guilt, because they sinned against the LORD — the pasture of righteousness, the hope of their ancestors, the LORD.'
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Flee from the midst of Babylon, go out from the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the lead goats at the head of the flock.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
For I am about to stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will array themselves against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior — none returns empty-handed.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will have their fill, declares the LORD.
LXX shorter — some expansive MT phrases absent from Greek.
Because you rejoiced, because you exulted, you who plundered my inheritance — because you frolicked like a heifer treading grain and neighed like stallions —
LXX shorter — some expansive MT phrases absent from Greek.
Your mother will be utterly put to shame; she who bore you will be disgraced. Look — the last of the nations! A desert, a dry land, a wasteland.
LXX shorter — some expansive MT phrases absent from Greek.
Because of the wrath of the LORD she will not be inhabited; she will become an utter desolation. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds.
LXX shorter — some expansive MT phrases absent from Greek.
Take up your positions around Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her! Do not spare any arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.
LXX shorter — some expansive MT phrases absent from Greek.
Raise the war cry against her on every side! She has surrendered; her pillars have fallen, her walls are torn down. For this is the vengeance of the LORD — take vengeance on her! As she has done, do to her.
LXX shorter — some expansive MT phrases absent from Greek.
Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. Before the oppressing sword, each one will turn to his own people and each will flee to his own land.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Israel is a scattered sheep that lions have driven away. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria, and this last one, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, has gnawed his bones.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
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.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
And I will bring Israel back to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead his appetite will be satisfied.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the iniquity of Israel will be searched for — and there will be none. The sins of Judah — and they will not be found. For I will pardon the remnant I preserve.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Go up against the land of Merathaim — attack it — and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Put them to the sword and devote them to destruction, declares the LORD. Do everything I have commanded you.
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
The sound of war in the land — and great shattering!
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut down and shattered! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
I set a trap for you, and you were caught, Babylon — and you did not even know it. You were found and seized, because you provoked the LORD.
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
The LORD has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Lord GOD of Hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
Come against her from every direction. Open her granaries, pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to utter destruction. Let nothing of her remain.
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
Put all her young bulls to the sword; let them go down to slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come — the time of their reckoning.
LXX shorter in the judgment-on-Babylon descriptions.
The sound of fugitives and survivors from the land of Babylon, coming to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God — the vengeance for his temple.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Summon the archers against Babylon, all who draw the bow. Encamp against her on every side; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds — as she has done, do to her — for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Therefore her young men will fall in her public squares, and all her warriors will be silenced on that day, declares the LORD.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
I am against you, Arrogance — declares the Lord GOD of Hosts — for your day has come, the time when I will call you to account.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Arrogance will stumble and fall with no one to lift him up. I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The people of Israel and the people of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast and refuse to let them go.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Their Redeemer is strong — the LORD of Hosts is his name. He will surely champion their cause, so that he may give rest to the land but turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her officials, and against her wise men!
LXX shorter.
A sword against her diviners — they will become fools! A sword against her warriors — they will be shattered!
LXX shorter.
A sword against his horses and chariots, and against all the mixed peoples in her midst — they will become weak! A sword against her treasuries — they will be plundered!
LXX shorter.
A drought on her waters — they will dry up! For she is a land of carved images, and they go mad over terrifying idols.
LXX shorter.
Therefore desert creatures will dwell there with jackals, and ostriches will inhabit it. It will never again be settled; no one will live in it from generation to generation.
LXX shorter.
As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, declares the LORD, no one will live there; no human being will settle in it.
LXX shorter.
Look — a people is coming from the north! A great nation and many kings are stirring from the ends of the earth.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their roar is like the sea. They ride on horses, drawn up for battle like one man — against you, daughter of Babylon!
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands have gone limp. Anguish has seized him, pain like a woman in labor.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Look — like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan to a secure pasture, I will suddenly drive them from it. And who is the chosen one I will appoint over it? For who is like me? Who will summon me to court? And what shepherd can stand before me?
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Therefore hear the plan of the LORD that he has formed against Babylon, and the purposes he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Even the smallest of the flock will drag them off. Their own pasture will be devastated because of them.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
At the sound of Babylon's capture, the earth trembles; a cry is heard among the nations.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.