48:20 Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Babylonians!
Announce it with a shout of joy!
Make this known!
Proclaim it throughout the earth! 6
Say, ‘The Lord protects 7 his servant Jacob.
52:11 Leave! Leave! Get out of there!
Don’t touch anything unclean!
Get out of it!
Stay pure, you who carry the Lord’s holy items! 8
52:12 Yet do not depart quickly
or leave in a panic. 9
For the Lord goes before you;
the God of Israel is your rear guard.
31:8 Then I will reply, 14 ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.
I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.
Blind and lame people will come with them,
so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.
A vast throng of people will come back here.
50:8 “People of Judah, 15 get out of Babylon quickly!
Leave the land of Babylonia! 16
Be the first to depart! 17
Be like the male goats that lead the herd.
51:6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. 18
Flee to save your lives.
Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins.
For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge.
He will pay Babylonia 19 back for what she has done. 20
51:45 “Get out of Babylon, my people!
Flee to save your lives
from the fierce anger of the Lord! 21
51:50 You who have escaped the sword, 22
go, do not delay. 23
Remember the Lord in a faraway land.
Think about Jerusalem. 24
51:2 I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. 25
They will winnow her and strip her land bare. 26
This will happen when 27 they come against her from every direction,
when it is time to destroy her. 28
1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, 29 whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.
1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together 30 in him.
18:4 Then 31 I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues,
1 tn Heb “live in [or “with” (cf. NASB), i.e., “among”] the daughter of Babylon” (so NIV; NAB “dwell in daughter Babylon”).
2 tn Or “one of them”; Heb “he.” Several ancient versions (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac) read the plural “they.” See also the note on “your” in v. 19.
3 tn Heb “escape.”
4 tn The Hebrew verb translated “look” signifies an intense gaze, not a passing glance. This same verb is used later in v. 26 to describe Lot’s wife’s self-destructive look back at the city.
5 tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.
6 tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).
7 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
8 tn Heb “the vessels of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).
9 tn Heb “or go in flight”; NAB “leave in headlong flight.”
10 tn There is nothing in the Hebrew text for these words but it is implicit in the connection. Once again the significance of the vision is spelled out. Compare the translator’s note on v. 12.
11 tn Heb “In those days.”
12 tn Heb “the house of Judah will walk together with the house of Israel.”
13 tn Heb “the land that I gave your [fore]fathers as an inheritance.”
14 tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
15 tn The words “People of Judah” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the subject of the address.
16 tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
17 tn The words “Be the first to leave” are not in the text but spell out the significance of the simile that follows. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
18 tn The words “you foreign people” are not in the text and many think the referent is the exiles of Judah. While this is clearly the case in v. 45 the referent seems broader here where the context speaks of every man going to his own country (v. 9).
19 tn Heb “her.”
20 tn Heb “paying to her a recompense [i.e., a payment in kind].”
21 tn Heb “Go out from her [Babylon’s] midst, my people. Save each man his life from the fierce anger of the
22 sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).
23 tn Heb “don’t stand.”
24 tn Heb “let Jerusalem go up upon your heart.” The “heart” is often viewed as the seat of one’s mental faculties and thought life.
25 tn Or “I will send foreign people against Babylonia.” The translation follows the reading of the Greek recensions of Aquila and Symmachus and the Latin version (the Vulgate). That reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and several of the modern versions (e.g., NRSV, REB, NAB, and God’s Word). It fits better with the verb that follows it than the reading of the Hebrew text and the rest of the versions. The difference in the two readings is again only the difference in vocalization, the Hebrew text reading זָרִים (zarim) and the versions cited reading זֹרִים (zorim). If the Hebrew text is followed, there is a wordplay between the two words, “foreigners” and “winnow.” The words “like a wind blowing away chaff” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the reader what “winnow” means.
26 tn Or “They will strip her land bare like a wind blowing away chaff.” The alternate translation would be necessary if one were to adopt the alternate reading of the first line (the reading of the Hebrew text). The explanation of “winnow” would then be necessary in the second line. The verb translated “strip…bare” means literally “to empty out” (see BDB 132 s.v. בָּקַק Polel). It has been used in 19:7 in the Qal of “making void” Judah’s plans in a wordplay on the word for “bottle.” See the study note on 19:7 for further details.
27 tn This assumes that the particle כִּי (ki) is temporal (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). This is the interpretation adopted also by NRSV and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 349. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 345) and J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 747, n. 3) interpret it as asseverative or emphatic, “Truly, indeed.” Many of the modern English versions merely ignore it. Reading it as temporal makes it unnecessary to emend the following verb as Bright and Thompson do (from הָיוּ [hayu] to יִהְיוּ [yihyu]).
28 tn Heb “in the day of disaster.”
29 tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.
30 tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.
31 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.