What does Jeremias Chapter 50 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Babylon’s gods and northern invasion precede a returning flock. Reciprocal judgment stands beside mercy for the remnant. A strong Redeemer and desolation imagery conclude the oracle.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 50 commands proclamation of Babylon’s capture, Bel’s confusion and Merodach’s overthrow; the edition identifies worshipped gods and the northern nation as Medes. Israel and Juda come weeping, seek the Lord and ask Sion’s way for an everlasting covenant. A lost flock’s misguiding shepherds and enemies claiming innocence precede commanded departure like kids heading a flock and a northern assembly whose arrows do not return vainly. Babylon’s rejoicing in plunder like calves and bulls ends in the mother’s humiliation and dry desolation.

Archers encircle Babylon, fallen foundations and walls meet reciprocal vengeance, and sowers and harvesters are destroyed. The sword of the dove leads people home; the edition permits dove or destroyer, not a fixed military emblem. Assyria first devours Israel and Nabuchodonosor breaks bones; Babylon’s visitation precedes promised feeding on Carmel, Bason, Ephraim and Galaad and mercy to the remnant whose sins are not found. Commands to waste the rulers’ land, a broken earth-hammer, an unsuspected snare, opened armoury, removed stones and heaps precede valiant men’s slaughter and escaped voices declaring the temple’s revenge in Sion.

Repayment for pride, young men’s fall and fire surround captors refusing Israel and Juda release. Their strong Redeemer defends their cause to terrify the land and disquiet Babylon. Sword addresses princes, wise men, diviners, warriors, horses, chariots, people and treasures; drought dries waters amid idols. Dragons, fig fauns and ostriches inhabit ruins; the edition separately describes monsters or demons and ancient imagined wild-fig diet. Sodom comparison, northern kings with bow and shield, cruel horsemen and a king’s feeble hands precede lion imagery, counsel, little flock-members pulling down and an earth-moving capture. Rest to the earth, canals, unquenchable fire and a specified messianic era are not added.

The story inside

Opening: Babylon’s gods and northern invasion precede a returning flock. Development: Reciprocal judgment stands beside mercy for the remnant. Conclusion: A strong Redeemer and desolation imagery conclude the oracle.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Babylon’s gods and northern invasion precede a returning flock.
2
Reciprocal judgment stands beside mercy for the remnant.
3
A strong Redeemer and desolation imagery conclude the oracle.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 89293–89305
50:2. Declare ye among the nations, and publish it, lift up a standard: proclaim, and conceal it not: say: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is overthrown, their graven things are confounded, their idols are overthrown. Bel, etc.... Bel and Merodach were worshipped for gods by the men of Babylon. 50:3. For a nation is come up against her out of the north, which shall make her land desolate: and there shall be none to dwell therein, from man even to beast: yea they are removed, and gone away. A nation, etc.... Viz., the Medes.
Lines 89307–89313
50:4. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together: going and weeping they shall make haste, and shall seek the Lord their God. 50:5. They shall ask the way to Sion, their faces are hitherward. They shall come, and shall be joined to the Lord by an everlasting covenant, which shall never be forgotten.
Lines 89377–89380
50:20. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sin of Juda, and there shall none be found: for I will be merciful to them, whom I shall leave.
Lines 89388–89397
50:23. How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed! how is Babylon turned into a desert among the nations! 50:24. I have caused thee to fall into a snare, and thou art taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware of it: thou art found and caught, because thou hast provoked the Lord. 50:25. The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his wrath: for the Lord the God of hosts hath a work to be done in the land of the Chaldeans.
Lines 89430–89433
50:34. Their redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name: he will defend their cause in judgment, to terrify the land, and to disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
Lines 89447–89453
50:39. Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig fauns: and ostriches shall dwell therein, and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be built up from generation to generation. Fig fauns.... Monsters of the desert, or demons in monstrous shapes: such as the ancients called fauns and satyrs; and as they imagined them to live upon wild figs, they called them fauni ficarii or fig fauns.