Hurricane Persia
1-5
There’s more. God says more:
“Watch this: I’m whipping up
A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—’Hurricane Persia’—against all who live in that perverse land.
I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon. They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom.
When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her worth taking or talking about.
They won’t miss a thing. A total and final Doomsday!
Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got. It’s no-holds-barred.
They will spare nothing and no one. It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end!
Babylon littered with the wounded, streets piled with corpses.
It turns out that Israel and Judah are not widowed after all.
As their God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well, committed to them even though
They filled their land with sin against Israel’s most Holy God.
6-8
Get out of Babylon as fast as you can. Run for your lives! Save your necks!
Don’t linger and lose your lives to my vengeance on her as I pay her back for her sins.
Babylon was a fancy gold chalice held in my hand,
Filled with the wine of my anger to make the whole world drunk.
The nations drank the wine and they’ve all gone crazy.
Babylon herself will stagger and crash, senseless in a drunken stupor—tragic!
Get anointing balm for her wound. Maybe she can be cured.”
9
“We did our best, but she can’t be helped. Babylon is past fixing.
Give her up to her fate. Go home.
The judgement on her will be vast, a skyscraper-memorial of vengeance.
Your Lifeline Is Cut
10
“God has set everything right for us. Come! Let’s tell the good news Back home in Zion. Let’s tell what our God did to set things right.
11-13
“Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers!
God has stirred up the kings of the Medes, infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!’
God’s on the warpath. He’s out to avenge his Temple.
Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls. Station guards around the clock.
Bring in reinforcements. Set men in ambush.
God will do what he planned, what he said he’d do to the people of Babylon.
You have more water than you need, you have more money than you need—
But your life is over, your lifeline cut.”
14
God-of-the-Angel-Armies has solemnly sworn: “I’ll fill this place with soldiers.
They’ll swarm through here like locusts chanting victory songs over you.”
15-19
By his power he made earth. His wisdom gave shape to the world. He crafted the cosmos.
He thunders and rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring.
He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches the wind from his warehouse.
Stick-god worshipers look mighty foolish! god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!
Their gods are frauds, dead sticks—deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.
They’re nothing but stale smoke. When the smoke clears, they’re gone.
But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing; he put the whole universe together,
With special attention to Israel. His name? God-of-the-Ange-Armies!
They’ll Sleep and Never Wake Up
20-23
God says, “You, Babylon, are my hammer, my weapon of war.
I’ll use you to smash godless nations, use you to knock kingdoms to bits.
I’ll use you to smash horse and rider, use you to smash chariot and driver.
I’ll use you to smash man and woman, use you to smash the old man and the boy.
I’ll use you to smash the young man and young woman, use you to smash shepherd and sheep.
I’ll use you to smash farmer and yoked oxen, use you to smash governors and senators.
24
“Judeans, you’ll see it with your own eyes. I’ll pay Babylon and all the Chaldeans back for all the evil they did in Zion.” God’s Decree.
25-26
“I’m your enemy, Babylon, Mount Destroyer, you ravager of the whole earth.
I’ll reach out, I’ll take you in my hand, and I’ll crush you till there’s no mountain left.
I’ll turn you into a gravel pit—no more cornerstones cut from you,
No more foundation stones quarried from you! Nothing left of you but gravel.” God’s Decree.
27-28
“Raise the signal in the land, blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations.
Consecrate the nations for holy work against her. Call kingdoms into service against her. Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a field marshal against her, and round up horses, locust hordes of horses!
Consecrate the nations for holy work against her—the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.
29-33
“The very land trambles in terror, writhes in pain, terrorized by my plans against Babylon,
Plans to turn the country of Babylon into a lifeless moonscape—a wasteland.
Babylon’s soldiers have quit fighting. They hide out in ruins and caves—Cowards who’ve given up without a fight, exposed as cowering crybabies.
Babylon’s houses are going up in flames, the city gates torn off their hinges.
Runner after runner comes racing in, each on the heels of the last,
Bringing reports to the king of Babylon that his city is a lost cause.
The fords of the rivers are all taken. Wildfire rages through the swamp grass.
Soldiers desert left and right. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, said it would happen:
‘Daughter Babylon is a threshing floor at threshing time.
Soon, oh very soon, her harvest will come and then the chaff will fly!’
34-37
“Nnebuchadnezzar king of Babylon chewed up my people and spit out the bones.
He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair, and belched—a huge gluttonous belch.
Lady Zion says, ‘The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!’
And Jerusalem says, ‘the Blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!’
Then I, God, step in and say, ‘I’m on your side, taking up your cause.
I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge. I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs.
Babylon will be a pile of rubble, scavenged by stray dogs and cats,
A dumping ground for garbage, a godforsaken ghost town.’
38-40
“The Babylonians will be like lions and their cubs, ravenous, roaring for food.
I’ll fix them a meal, all right—a banquet, in fact. They’ll drink themselves falling-down drunk.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep, and sleep… and they’ll never wake up.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll haul these ‘lions’ off to the slaughterhouse like the lambs, rams, goats, never to be heard of again.
41-48
“Babylon is finished—the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face.
What a comedown for Babylon, to end up inglorious in the sewer!
Babylon drowned in chaos, battered by waves of enemy soldiers.
Her towns stink with decay and rot, the land empty and bare and sterile.
No one lives in these towns anymore. Travelers give them a wide berth.
I’ll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon. I’ll make him vomit up all he gulped down.
No more visitors streams into this place, admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon. The wonders of Babylon are no more.
Run for your lives, my dear people! Run, and don’t look back!
Get out of this place while you can, this place torched by God’s raging anger.
Don’t lose hope. Don’t ever give up when the rumors pour in hot and heavy.
One year it’s this, the next year it’s that—rumors of violence, rumors of war.
Trust me. the time is coming when I’ll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place.
I’ll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud, with dead bodies strewn all over the place.
Heaven and earth, angels and people, will throw a victory party over Babylon
Wen the avenging armies from the north descend on her.” God’s Decree!
Remember God in Your Long and Distant Exile
49-50
“Babylon must fall—compensation for the war dead in Israel.
Babylonians will be killed because of all that Babylonian killing.
But you exiles who have escaped a Babylonian death, get out! And fast!
Remember god in your long and distant exile. Keep Jerusalem alive in your memory.”
51
How we’ve been humiliated, taunted and abused, kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are!
And we hardly know what to think—our old Sanctuary, God’s house, desecrated by strangers.
52-53
“I know, but trust me: The time is coming”—God’s Decree—
“When I will bring doom on her no-god idols, and all over this land her wounded will groan.
Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moon and pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her,
That wouldn’t stop me. I’d make sure my avengers would reach her.” God’s Decree.
54-56
“But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon! An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!
God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon. WE’ll be hearing the last of her noise—
Death throes like the roar of cataracts.
The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon:
Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed.
Indeed, God is a God who evens things out. All end up with their just deserts.
57
“I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them—princes, sages, governors, soldiers.
Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep and sleep… and never wake up.” The King’s Decree. His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
58
God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“The city walls of Babylon—those massive walls!—will be flattened.
And those city gates—huge gates!—will be set on fire.
The harder you work at this empty life, the less you are.
Nothing comes of ambition like this but ashes.”
59
Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, Son of Mashseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon.
It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.
Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.
60-62
Jeremiah had written down in a little booklet all the bad things that would come down on Babylon. He told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, rad this out in public. Read. ‘You, O God, said that you would destroy this place so that nothing could live here, neither human or animal—a wasteland to top all wastelands, an eternal nothing.’
63-64
“When you’ve finished reading the page, tie a stone to it, throw it into the River Euphrates, and watch it sink. Then say, ‘That’s how Babylon will sink to the bottom and stay there after the disaster I’m going to bring upon her.’”
- perverse 성질이 비뚤어진, 변태적인
- no-holds-barred 수단과 방법을 가리지 않는
- litter 흩뜨리다
- linger 우물쭈물하다
- chalice 성찬배, 컵
- stagger 비틀거리게 하다
- senseless 의미 없는, 터무니없는
- stupor 혼미, 무감각
- vast 어마어마한, 막대한, 거대한
- memorial 기념물
- warpath 전쟁터
- avenge 복수하다
- Station guards 경비대
- around the clock 밤낮으로
- reinforcement 지원군
- ambush 매복
- solemnly 엄숙히
- swarm 떼거지로 몰려들다
- locust 메뚜기
- embellish 장식하다
- mighty 거대한
- stale 탁한, 신선하지 않은
- godless 타락한
- senator 상원의원
- ravager 파괴자
- gravel 자갈
- cornerstone 초석
- quarried from 에서 채굴된, 퍼낸
- shofar-trumpet 뿔나팔
- consecrate 신성하게 하다, 바치다
- marshal 사령관
- tramble 몸을 떨다
- writh 몸부림치다
- moonscape 달 표면
- wasteland 불모지, 황무지
- flame 불꽃
- hinge 경첩
- on the heels of 바로 직후에, 바짝
- a lost cause 가망 없는 것
- ford 나루터
- thresh 타작하다
- chaff 곡물의 겉껍질(겨)
- belch 트림하다
- gluttonous 게걸스러운
- take up one’s cause ~의 명분을 옹호하다
- plug up 막다, 메우다
- scavenge 찾아 헤매다
- stray 흩어진, 길 잃은
- godforsaken 황량한, 버려진
- cub 야수의 새끼
- ravenous 몸시 굶주린
- haul off 끌어내다
- slaughterhouse 도살장
- ram 숫양
- inglorious 수치스러운, 불명예스러운
- batter 쳐부수다
- sterile 불모의, 생산력이 없는
- give someone a wide berth 거리를 두다
- glutton 탐욕스러운
- gulp down 꿀꺽꿀꺽 삼키다
- stream into 계속해서 쏟아져 들어오다
- admire 감탄하다
- gawk 멍하니 바라보다
- sickening 역겨운
- strew 흩뿌리다
- descend 습격하다
- compensation 보상
- taunt 조롱하다
- Sanctuary 지성소
- groan 신음하다, 끙끙거리다
- unearthly 기분 나쁜, 기이한
- wail out 통곡하다
- wrecking bar 쇠지렛대
- throes 진통
- rattle 달그락거리다
- cataract 큰 폭포
- even out 평등을 이루다
- just deserts 마땅히 받을 벌
- sage 현인
Leave a Reply