Jeremiah 50-52

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

50:2-3 - "Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, do not conceal it, say: Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed. For out of the north a nation has come up against her; it shall make her land a desolation, and no one shall live in it; both human beings and animals shall flee away."
50:9-10 - "For I am going to stir up and bring against Babylon a company of great nations from the land of the north; and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like arrows of a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed. Chaldea shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be sated, says the Lord."
50:12-16 - "You mother shall be utterly shamed, and she who bore you shall be disgraced. Lo, she shall be the last of the nations, a wilderness, dry land, and a desert. Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited, but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss because of all her wounds. Take up your positions around Babylon, all you that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. Raise a shout against her from all sides, 'She has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen, her walls are thrown down.' For this is the vengeance of the Lord; take vengeance on her, do to her as she has done. Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the wielder of the sickle in time of harvest; because of the destroying sword all of them shall return to their own people, and all of them shall flee to their own land."
50:21 - "Go up to the land of Merathaim; go up against her, and attack to inhabitants of Pekod and utterly destroy the last of them, says the Lord; do all that I have commanded you."
50:26-27 - "Come against her [the Chaldeans] from every quarter; open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly; let nothing be left of her. Kill all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter. Alas for them, their day has come, the time of their punishment."
50:29-30 - "Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp all around her; let no on escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her - for she has arrogantly defiled the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord."
50:35-40 - "A sword against the Chaldeans, says the Lord, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her sages! A sword against the diviners, so that they may become fools! A sword against her warriors, so that they may be destroyed! A sword against her horses and against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst, so that they may become women! A sword against all her treasures, that they may be plundered! A drought against her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images , and they go mad over idols.

"Therefore wild animals shall live with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall inhabit her; she shall never again be peopled or inhabited for all generations. As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord, so no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in her."
50:42-44 - "They wield bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy. The sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride upon horses, set in array as a warrior for battle, against you, O daughter Babylon!

"The king of Babylon heard news of them, and his hands fell helpless; anguish seized him, pain like that of a woman in labor.

"Like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly chase them away from her; and I will appoint over how whomever I choose."
50:46 - "At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations."

51:2-4 - "and I will send winnowers in Babylon, and they shall winnow her. They shall empty her land when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble.Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not array himself in his coat of mail. Do not spare her young men; utterly destroy her entire army. They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and wounded in her street."
51:6-9 - "Flee from the midst of Babylon, save your lives, each of you! Do not perish because of her guilt, for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he is repaying her what is due. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, and so the nations went mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered; wail for her! Bring balm for her wound; perhaps she may be healed. We tried to heal Babylon, but she shall not be healed. Forsake her, and let each of us go to our own country; for her judgement has reached up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies."
51:22 - "Go up to the land of Merathaim; go up against her, and attack the inhabitants of Pekod and utterly destroyed the last of them, says the Lord, do all that I have commanded you."
51:27-28 - "Raise a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her, summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a marshal against her, bring up horses like bristling locusts. Prepare the nations for war against her, the kings of Medes, with their governors and deputies, and every land under their dominion."
51:30 - "The warriors of Babylon have given up fighting, they remain in their strongholds; their strength has failed, they have become women; her buildings are set on fire, her bars are broken."
51:33 - "Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come."
51:36-37 - "Therefore thus says the lord: I am going to defend your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry; and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, an object of horror and of hissing, without inhabitant."
51:43 - "Her cities have become an object of horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no mortal passes."
51:45 - "Come out of her, my people! save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the Lord!"
51:47 - "Assuredly, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst."
51:52-53 - "Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, from me destroyers would come upon her, says the Lord."
51:55-58 - "For the Lord is laying Babylon waste, and stilling her loud clamor. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the sound of their clamor resounds; for a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are taken, their bows are broken; for the Lord is a God of recompense, he will repay in full. I will make her officials and her sages drunk, also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

"Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The people's exhaust themselves for nothing,and the nations weary themselves only for fire."
51:63 - "'Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disasters that I am bringing on her.' Thus far are the words of Jeremiah."

52:1 - "Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah."

My Comments

Finally we come to the end of the madness. I hope everyone has enjoyed this wonderful look into the mind of the One True God (tm). A God who, when shunned or not loved as much as he wishes to be, will utterly destroy and torment his own people. But the Bible is supposed to be the Good Book, a guide on how to live life and be a good person, right? A place to go to to get your morals and to also see the proof of God's wonder and wisdom?

Bah, I've mentioned this ad naseum already, I don't feel like going into the same rant I've done several times already. Long rant short, The Bible as a moral guide book argument is ridiculous because the only moral God is trying to teach you throughout most of it is to never, ever, EVER stop loving him in the exact way in which he demands you love him or else God will make your life a living hell. No real rules on how to treat your fellow man or anything (unless, you know, it's letting you know when the appropriate moments are the STONE or OUTCAST you fellow man) or how to live your life so that you and those around you will be as happy as possible. Nope! It's all about God, God, God, God. And the second it isn't all about God you can expect to get hit with a plague or to have your city captured and ransacked by an enemy tribe. Hell, even God's warnings against adultery with other men's wives is basically just God whining about how women are evil and lead men away FROM GOD. That's not even some halfhearted attempt to promote monogamy or anything. Everything in this book so far (aside from the Ten Commandments, which I don't even really count because most of those are jealous God rules too) is just one long warning on exactly how God will fuck your day up if you dare cheat on him with another God or dare to forget to say thanks to him before you go to bed.

The only new thing we really get here is the addition of God making the men "like women" as a punishment for their "sins." So we've got death and war and whatnot and to top that all off suddenly God/Jeremiah bring out the added insult of making the men like women. And how does he make them like women? By making them weak, helpless, conquerable, passive, and under the complete control of men. So, we can conclude that to be a woman is to naturally be weak, helpless, conquerable, passive, and under the complete control of men. (for further notes on women's inferior status see posts under the topic "Men Rule")

I'm mostly just glad this is finally over. It was like big, long God temper tantrum. Really could have been only half as long and it could have gotten the same ideas across and still have been really obnoxious. Here's hoping the next book brings us something different.

Wednesday: