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Giovedi, 28 marzo 2024 - San Castore di Tarso ( Letture di oggi)

Jeremiah 51


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1Yahweh says this: Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-Kamai I shal rouse a destructive wind.2I shal send winnowers to Babylon to winnow her and leave her country bare, for she wil bebeleaguered on all sides, on the day of disaster.3Let no archer bend his bow! Let no man swagger in his breastplate!-No quarter for her young men!Curse her whole army with destruction!4In the country of the Chaldaeans the slaughtered wil fall, in the streets of Babylon, those run throughby the sword.5For Israel and Judah have not been bereft of their God, Yahweh Sabaoth, although their country wasful of sin against the Holy One of Israel.6Escape from Babylon (save your lives, each one of you); do not perish for her guilt, for now is the timefor Yahweh's vengeance: he wil pay her her reward!7Babylon was a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, she made the whole world drunk, the nations drank herwine and then went mad.8Babylon has suddenly fal en, is broken: wail for her! Fetch balm for her wounds, perhaps she can becured!9-'We tried to cure Babylon; she has got no better. Leave her alone and let us each go to his owncountry.' -Yes, her sentence reaches to the sky, rises to the very clouds.10Yahweh has shown the uprightness of our cause. Come, let us tell in Zion what Yahweh our God hasdone.11Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! Yahweh has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, becausehe has a plan against Babylon to destroy it; this is Yahweh's revenge, revenge for his Temple.12Against the wal s of Babylon raise the standard! Strengthen the guard! Post the sentries! Take upconcealed positions! For Yahweh has both planned and done what he promised he would to the inhabitants ofBabylon.13Enthroned beside abundant waters, rich in treasures, you now meet your end, the finish of yourpil aging.14By his own self Yahweh Sabaoth has sworn: I shal fil you with men as though with grasshoppers,and over you they wil raise the triumph-shout.15By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, by his discernment spread out theheavens.16When he thunders there is a roaring of waters in heaven; he raises clouds from the furthest limits ofthe earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.17At this everyone stands stupefied, uncomprehending, every goldsmith blushes for his idols; hiscastings are but delusion, with no breath in them.18They are futile, a laughable production, when the time comes for them to be punished, they wilvanish.19The Heritage of Jacob is not like these, for he is the maker of everything, and Israel is the tribe that ishis heritage; His name is Yahweh Sabaoth.20You were my mace, a weapon of war. With you I crushed nations, struck kingdoms down,21with you crushed horse and rider, with you crushed chariot and charioteer,22with you crushed man and woman, with you crushed old man and young, with you crushed youngman and girl,23with you crushed shepherd and flock, with you crushed ploughman and team, with you crushedgovernors and magistrates,24and I shal repay Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldaea, before your eyes, for al the wrongs theyhave done to Zion, Yahweh declares.25I am setting myself against you, mountain of destruction, Yahweh declares, destroyer of the wholeworld! I shall reach out my hand for you and send you tumbling from the crags and make you a burnt-outmountain.26No corner-stone wil be taken from you again and no foundation-stone, for you will be a desert forever, Yahweh declares.27Raise the standard throughout the world, sound the trumpet among the nations! Consecrate nationsto make war on her; summon kingdoms against her: Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz; appoint a recruiting-officer for herenemies, bring up the cavalry, bristling like locusts.28Consecrate nations to make war on her: the kings of Media, her governors, all her magistrates andthe whole territory under their rule.29Then the earth trembled and writhed, for Yahweh's plan against Babylon was being executed: tochange the country of Babylon into an unpopulated desert.30The warriors of Babylon have done with fighting, they have stayed inside their fortresses; theircourage exhausted, they are now like women. Her houses are on fire, her gates are shattered.31Courier fol ows close on courier, messenger on messenger, to tel the king of Babylon that his city hasbeen taken from al sides,32the fords occupied, the bastions burnt down and the fighting men seized with panic.33For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floorwhen it is being trodden: a little while, and then the time for harvesting her wil come.34He devoured me, consumed me, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, left me like an empty dish, like theDragon he has swal owed me whole, filled his belly with my titbits and threw me out.35'On Babylon be the wounds I suffered!' the daughter of Zion wil say. 'On the inhabitants of Chaldaeabe my blood!' Jerusalem wil say.36So, Yahweh says this: Look, I am taking up your cause to make sure you are avenged. I shal dry herriver up, make her springs run dry.37Babylon wil become a heap of stones, the lair of jackals, a thing of horror and of scorn, with no oneliving in it.38Like lions they roar together, they growl like lions' whelps.39Are they feverish? I wil prepare them a drink and make them drink until they are tipsy and fal into aneverlasting sleep, never to wake again, Yahweh declares.40I wil drag them away to the slaughterhouse like lambs, like rams and goats.41What! Has Sheshak been taken, been conquered, the pride of the whole world? What a thing of horrorBabylon has become throughout the nations!42The sea has risen over Babylon, she sinks beneath its boisterous waves.43Her towns have been turned into wasteland, a parched land, a desert, a country where no one livesand where nobody goes.44I shal punish Bel in Babylon and make him disgorge what he has swal owed. In future the nations wilstream to him no more. The very walls of Babylon wil fal .45Get out of her, my people; save your lives, each one of you, from Yahweh's furious anger.46But do not be faint-hearted! Do not take fright at rumours hawked round the country: one rumourspreads one year, next year another fol ows; violence rules on earth and one tyrant succeeds another.47So look, the days are coming when I shal punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire country wil behumbled, with all her slaughtered lying on home-soil.48The heaven and earth and all within them wil shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers from thenorth are coming to her, Yahweh declares.49Babylon in her turn must fal , you slaughtered ones of Israel, just as through Babylon there fel menslaughtered al over the world.50You who have escaped her sword, leave her, do not wait! Remember Yahweh from afar, letJerusalem come into your mind.51-'We were ashamed when we heard of the outrage, we were covered in confusion because foreignershad entered the Temple of Yahweh's holy places.'52-So look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall punish her idols, and the wounded willgroan throughout her country.53Were Babylon to scale the heavens or reinforce her towering citadel, destroyers would stil come to her on my orders, Yahweh declares.54The din of shouting from Babylon, of immense destruction, from the country of the Chaldaeans!55Yes, Yahweh is laying Babylon waste and silencing her monstrous din, whose waves used to roar likethe ocean and their tumultuous voices rang out.56For the destroyer has fal en on Babylon, her warriors are captured, their bows are broken. Yes,Yahweh is a God of retribution, he never fails to repay.57I shal make her princes and her sages drink, her governors, her magistrates, her warriors; they wilfal into an everlasting sleep, never to wake again, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth.58Yahweh Sabaoth says this: The wal s of Babylon the Great wil be rased to the ground, and her loftygates wil be burnt down. Thus peoples toil for nothing and nations wear themselves out, for the flames.59This is the order that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah whenSeraiah left for Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was lordchamberlain.60Now, on one sheet, Jeremiah had written down the entire disaster that was to befal Babylon, that is,al these words recorded here against Babylon.61Jeremiah then said to Seraiah, 'When you reach Babylon, see to it that you read al these wordsaloud.62Then say, "You, Yahweh, have promised to destroy this place, so that no one will live here ever again,neither human nor animal, and it wil be desolate for ever."63Then, when you have finished reading this sheet, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of theEuphrates,64with the words, "So shal Babylon sink, never to rise again from the disaster which I am going to bringon her." ' Thus far the words of Jeremiah.