Jeremiah 50

God announces through Jeremiah that Babylon, the great power that crushed Judah, will itself be captured and left desolate. Tied to this is a promise of mercy: scattered Israel and Judah will return weeping, seek the LORD, and be forgiven. The chapter shows a God who judges proud oppressors and gathers and pardons his wandering people.

Jeremiah 50:1

This long message is introduced as the LORD’s own word, spoken through Jeremiah. Its target is Babylon, the empire that had overthrown Jerusalem. God is Lord over every nation, not only his own people, and he speaks about the fate of the world’s great powers.

BSA: Chaldeans (“inhabitants of Chaldea, known for wisdom and astrology”): Babylon’s people prided themselves on learning and star-lore, yet this word shows that their wisdom cannot save them.

Jeremiah 50:2

Heralds are told to spread the news openly, with no hiding of it: Babylon has fallen. Its gods, Bel and Marduk, are shamed because they could not protect their city. The idols are powerless before the LORD.

BSA: banner (“standard, ensign”): A raised standard was a signal that gathered people and carried news, so this announcement is meant to be seen and heard everywhere.

Hebrew: גִּלּוּלֶיהָ (gillulehā, H1544) — “her idols.” This word for idols is often linked to a word for dung. It is a deliberately scornful name for the gods Babylon trusted.

Jeremiah 50:3

The conqueror comes from the north, the direction from which invaders usually entered Mesopotamia. The land will be emptied of both people and animals. A city that emptied other lands will itself be left empty.

See also: Isaiah 13:17-20.

Jeremiah 50:4-5

In a striking turn, Israel and Judah, divided for centuries, come back together. They return in tears of repentance, asking the road to Zion. Their goal is more than a place. It is a covenant with the LORD that will last forever.

BSA: weeping (“in sorrow, with tears”): Their return begins in repentance and sorrow, not triumph. everlasting (“perpetual, age-during”): This covenant is not like the old one they broke. It lasts through every age.

Hebrew: בְּרִית עוֹלָם (berît ʿôlām, H1285) — “everlasting covenant.” The words mean a binding agreement stretching to the farthest horizon of time. They echo the new covenant promised elsewhere in Jeremiah.

See also: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hosea 3:5.

Jeremiah 50:6

God describes his people as sheep who have wandered. Faithless leaders led them astray onto the hills, where false worship was practiced, and they forgot the one safe place of rest. The picture is sad but tender: the Shepherd still calls them his own.

BSA: shepherds (“leaders, rulers”): The blame falls on kings, priests and prophets who should have guarded the flock but misled it.

Hebrew: אֹבְדוֹת (ʾōvedôt, H6) — “perishing, lost.” The word means more than being a little off course. It describes sheep in danger of dying.

See also: Ezekiel 34:1-6; Isaiah 53:6.

Jeremiah 50:7

Israel’s enemies tore them apart and then excused themselves, saying the people had brought it on themselves by sinning against God. There was a grain of truth in that. But it gave no right to cruelty, and God holds the devourers to account.

BSA: pasture (“dwelling place, habitation of justice”): The LORD himself is the right and safe place for his people to live, and leaving him left them exposed.

Hebrew: נְוֵה צֶדֶק (nəwēh ṣedeq, H5116) — “pasture of righteousness.” God is pictured as a green meadow where righteousness lives. To leave him is to leave the only safe grazing.

See also: Psalm 23:2-3.

Jeremiah 50:8

God’s people still living in Babylon are urged to leave before the judgment falls. The he-goat leading the flock out pictures a bold, early departure. It is a call to separate from a doomed city.

BSA: he-goats (“male goats, leaders”): Those who go out first show the rest the way, and they are to lead rather than linger.

See also: Revelation 18:4; Jeremiah 51:6.

Jeremiah 50:9-10

God himself rouses a gathering of nations from the north to strike Babylon. Their arrows are like trained soldiers who never come back with nothing. The plunderers will take their fill, so the great plunderer becomes the plundered.

BSA: stir up (“rouse, awaken”): The invaders think they act for themselves, but it is God who awakens them and sends them.

Jeremiah 50:11

Babylon celebrated when it plundered God’s people. It leaped like a well-fed heifer in the grain and neighed like a stallion in its strength. God calls this pride and joy over another’s ruin the reason for what follows.

BSA: inheritance (“heritage, special people”): Israel was God’s own treasured possession, so harming them was harming what was precious to him.

Jeremiah 50:12-13

The city is pictured as a mother, who will be ashamed of her children’s ruin. Once the greatest of nations, she will become the least, a dry and empty land. Travelers will stand shocked at her wounds, and the sight will teach what God’s wrath means.

BSA: wrath (“anger, fierce indignation”): This is God’s settled, just anger against pride and cruelty, not a loss of temper.

See also: Isaiah 47:1-5.

Jeremiah 50:14

The archers are told to surround the city and fire freely. The reason is plain: Babylon sinned against the LORD. The attackers serve as the tool of a just judgment, though they have their own accountability too.

BSA: sinned (“gone wrong, missed the mark”): Sin is falling short of God’s target, and Babylon had missed it badly.

Jeremiah 50:15

The war cry rises and the city gives in. Towers fall and walls are torn down. God’s justice repays like for like: what Babylon did to others is done to her. This is the LORD’s action, not simple human revenge.

BSA: vengeance (“punishment, retribution”): The word means justice being set right by God, not private spite.

See also: Romans 12:19.

Jeremiah 50:16

Sowers and harvesters will be cut off, so the city’s food supply fails. Foreigners living in Babylon will run home before the sword. The great city that gathered peoples will be left to itself.

See also: Isaiah 13:14.

Jeremiah 50:17

Israel is a scattered flock hunted by lions. Assyria first ate the flock, and Babylon last crunched the bones. The sheep seem to have been left with nothing, and yet the next verses show the LORD has not finished with them.

See also: 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 25:1-7.

Jeremiah 50:18

God promises to punish Babylon’s king and land just as he punished Assyria, whose capital Nineveh had already fallen. Past judgment becomes a pledge for the future. The God who humbled one empire can humble the next.

BSA: punish (“visit, reckon with”): God comes in person to deal with the matter, and nothing slips past him.

Jeremiah 50:19

Now the shepherd brings his flock home to rich pasture. Carmel, Bashan, Ephraim and Gilead were among the best grazing lands of Israel. The scattered people will eat and be fully satisfied.

BSA: satisfied (“filled, content”): God does not just return them to the land but fills them with real contentment.

See also: Psalm 23:1-2.

Jeremiah 50:20

In that day even a thorough search will find no guilt in Israel and Judah. This is not because they were never sinful, but because God has forgiven them. It is a promise of complete pardon for the remnant he has kept.

BSA: forgive (“pardon, show mercy to”): The sins are not found because God has dealt with them mercifully. remnant (“the remaining ones, those who survive”): God keeps a surviving people through the judgment, and they are the ones he forgives.

Hebrew: אֶסְלַח (ʾeslaḥ, H5545) — “I will forgive.” This Hebrew verb for forgiving is used only of God. Forgiveness of this kind is something only he can give.

See also: Micah 7:18-19; Psalm 103:12.

Jeremiah 50:21

The invaders are told to attack Merathaim and Pekod, which are names for Babylonian territory and people. The names sound like words meaning double rebellion and punishment, so they work as a play on words. The command is to carry out fully what God has ordered.

BSA: devote (“utterly destroy, dedicate to destruction”): The thing is set apart wholly for God’s judgment, with nothing kept back.

Hebrew: הַחֲרֵם (haḥărēm, H2763) — “devote to destruction.” This is the old term for putting something under God’s ban, handing it over completely to his judgment.

Jeremiah 50:22-23

News of battle and ruin sounds across the land. Babylon had been the hammer that smashed the whole earth, and now the hammer is itself broken. The nations look at what the city has become with horror.

BSA: hammer (“tool of power, instrument of destruction”): Babylon was a tool God used, and tools can be laid aside when their work is done.

Hebrew: פַּטִּישׁ (paṭṭîš, H6360) — “hammer.” The word is a heavy smashing hammer. It shows how heavily Babylon had struck the nations.

See also: Jeremiah 51:20-24.

Jeremiah 50:24

God set a trap, and Babylon walked into it without knowing. Its fall came from the LORD, because the city set itself against him. This fits the night when the city was taken, apparently with little warning.

BSA: snare (“to trap, using cunning”): The proud city was caught as an animal is, unaware until it was too late. challenged (“stirred up, striven against”): Babylon’s real fault was taking on God himself.

See also: Daniel 5:30-31.

Jeremiah 50:25

God is pictured opening his armory and bringing out weapons of wrath. The judgment on Babylon is his own work, planned and prepared, with the invaders as his instruments.

BSA: armory (“storehouse, treasury”): God has resources of judgment stored up, and he brings them out at the right time.

Jeremiah 50:26-27

The attackers are told to come from every side, break open the granaries, and leave none surviving. The young bulls stand for her strong leaders and warriors, who are marked for slaughter. Their day has come.

BSA: granaries (“storehouses”): Even the city’s stored wealth and food will be broken open and taken.

Jeremiah 50:28

Escapees from Babylon reach Zion and tell what God has done. They proclaim that the vengeance is for his temple, which Babylon burned. The news is a message of God’s faithfulness to his house and people.

BSA: fugitives (“those who have escaped, refugees”): Those who survive are the ones who now carry the news home.

See also: 2 Kings 25:9.

Jeremiah 50:29-30

The archers are called again, with the command that none escape. Babylon is to be repaid as she has treated others. Her young men and warriors will fall. Her root offense was defying the Holy One of Israel.

BSA: Repay (“give back, reward”): God gives back to Babylon what she gave out, which is fair and just.

See also: Revelation 18:6.

Jeremiah 50:31-32

The Lord says directly that he is against the arrogant one. Pride goes before a fall, and here the proud falls with no one to lift him. A fire from God will burn through his cities and those around them.

See also: Proverbs 16:18.

Jeremiah 50:33

Both Israel and Judah are oppressed, held firmly by captors who will not let them go. Human power cannot free them. The next verse shows who can.

BSA: captors (“those who took them captive, prisoners of war”): They are held by force, so only a stronger power can set them free.

Jeremiah 50:34

The people have a strong Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts. A redeemer was a family protector who stood up for a relative in trouble. God will argue their case, bringing rest to the earth and turmoil to Babylon.

BSA: Redeemer (“strong Savior, powerful Deliverer”): God is not only willing to help but strong enough to win. rest (“peace, settlement”): His rescue of his people brings quiet to the wider world.

Hebrew: גֹּאֲלָם (gōʾălām, H1350) — “their redeemer.” This is the kinsman who buys back a relative and defends him in court. God takes on that role for his people.

See also: Proverbs 23:10-11; Isaiah 54:5.

Jeremiah 50:35-37

The sword falls on every pillar of Babylon: officials and wise men, false prophets, warriors, horses and chariots, hired foreigners, and treasuries. Everything the city leaned on fails. Its prophets turn out to be fools, and its soldiers turn timid.

BSA: false prophets (“liars, boasters, soothsayers”): Those who claimed to see the future are proved empty by what actually happens. foreigners (“mixed people, diverse crowd”): Babylon’s army and trade included many outsiders, and they have no loyalty strong enough to hold when the city falls.

Jeremiah 50:38

A drought will dry up her waters, which probably points to the rivers and canals that watered the land. The cause is stated: a land of idols that has gone mad over them. Trust in what human hands make ends in emptiness.

BSA: drought (“severe dryness, desolation”): The land that depended on water will find the source gone.

Hebrew: חֹרֶב (ḥōrev, H2719) — “drought.” In Hebrew this word is spelled just like the word for sword in the verses before. The sound-play ties the sword and the drought together as one judgment.

See also: Isaiah 44:27.

Jeremiah 50:39-40

Wild creatures will take over where people once lived, and the city will never be settled again. God compares it to the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, a standing picture of complete ruin.

See also: Genesis 19:24-25; Isaiah 13:19-20.

Jeremiah 50:41-42

A great army and many kings stir far away and come with bow and spear. They are fierce and without pity. Their noise is like the roaring sea, and they come in ranks against Babylon, who is called Daughter of Babylon.

BSA: Daughter (“a female child, a woman, or a city personified”): The city is pictured as a woman now facing violent men, which stresses how helpless she has become.

See also: Jeremiah 6:22-23.

Jeremiah 50:43

The king hears the report and his hands hang limp, since fear has drained his strength. Pain grips him like a woman in labor. The mighty ruler is reduced to helpless dread.

BSA: limp (“have become feeble, weakened”): Even a king’s hands, the symbol of power, lose their strength before God’s judgment.

Jeremiah 50:44

A lion bursts from the Jordan thickets on the herds. In an instant God will drive Babylon from her land. He asks who is like him, and who can stand against him. No ruler or shepherd can rival God.

BSA: thickets (“dense, overgrown areas”): The lion springs from hidden cover, a picture of sudden, unstoppable attack.

See also: Jeremiah 49:19.

Jeremiah 50:45

God invites everyone to hear his plans. The plan is not left to chance. Even the weakest of Babylon’s people will be dragged off, and their home will be laid waste because of what they have done.

BSA: plans (“counsel, advice”): God’s judgment is the result of deliberate counsel, not sudden anger.

Jeremiah 50:46

When Babylon’s capture is announced, the earth will quake and cries will be heard among the nations. The fall of the greatest empire shakes the whole world. It reminds the reader that God is above every power.

BSA: quake (“shake, tremble”): Babylon’s fall is so large that the whole earth seems to shake.

See also: Revelation 18:9-10.