1 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 Lordin 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.”