50:2 “Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it!
Signal for people to pay attention!
Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say:
‘Babylon will be captured.
Bel will be put to shame.
Marduk will be dismayed.
Babylon’s idols will be put to shame.
Her disgusting images will be dismayed.
50:3 For a nation from the north will attack Babylon.
It will lay her land waste.
People and animals will flee out of it.
No one will inhabit it.’
50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord,
“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.
They will come back with tears of repentance
as they seek the Lord their God.
50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;
they will turn their faces toward it.
They will come and bind themselves to the Lord
in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
50:6 “My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have allow them to go astray.
They have wandered around in the mountains.
They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another.
They have forgotten their resting place.
50:7 All who encountered them devoured them.
Their enemies who did this said, ‘We are not liable for punishment!
For those people have sinned against the Lord, their true pasture.
They have sinned against the Lord in whom their ancestors trusted.’
50:8 “People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly!
Leave the land of Babylonia!
Be the first to depart!
Be like the male goats that lead the herd.
50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon
a host of mighty nations from the land of the north.
They will set up their battle lines against her.
They will come from the north and capture her.
Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier
who does not return from the battle empty-handed.
50:10 Babylonia will be plundered.
Those who plunder it will take all they want,”
says the Lord.
50:11 “People of Babylonia, you plundered my people.
That made you happy and glad.
You frolic about like calves in a pasture.
Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion.
50:17 “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep
which lions have chased away.
First the king of Assyria devoured them.
Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones.
50:18 So I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say:
‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land
just as I punished the king of Assyria.
50:27 Kill all her soldiers!
Let them be slaughtered!
They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come,
the time for them to be punished.”
50:28 Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon.
They are coming to Zion to declare there
how the Lord our God is getting revenge,
getting revenge for what they have done to his temple.
50:29 “Call for archers to come against Babylon!
Summon against her all who draw the bow!
Set up camp all around the city!
Do not allow anyone to escape!
Pay her back for what she has done.
Do to her what she has done to others.
For she has proudly defied me,
the Holy One of Israel.
50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares.
All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”
says the Lord.
50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,”
says the Lord God who rules over all.
“Indeed, your day of reckoning has come,
the time when I will punish you.
50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;
no one will help you get up.
I will set fire to your towns;
it will burn up everything that surrounds you.”
50:33 The Lord who rules over all says,
“The people of Israel are oppressed.
So too are the people of Judah.
All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners.
They refuse to set them free.
50:34 But the one who will rescue them is strong.
He is known as the Lord who rules over all.
He will strongly champion their cause.
As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth,
but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia.