The Skeptics Annotated Bible (609 page)

(49.37)
“I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.”
God plans to “bring evil upon” the people of Elam. He says he’ll kill them all with a sword.

38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD.

39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.

50
The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

4 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.

5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.

8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.

9 For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.

10 And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.

11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.

15 Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.

20 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

(50.21-32)

21
Go up against the land of Merathaim
, even against it
, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

(50.21)
“Go up against the land of Merathaim … and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.”
God says to do the usual thing to the inhabitants of “the land of Merathaim”: kill them all.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24
I have laid a snare for thee
, and thou art also taken,
O Babylon, and thou wast not aware
: thou art found, and also caught,
because thou hast striven against the LORD.

(50.24)
“I have laid a snare for thee … O Babylon, and thou wast not aware … because thou hast striven against the LORD.”

25
The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord
GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

(50.25)
“The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord.”

26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and
destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

(50.26)
“Destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.”

27
Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them!
for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

(50.27)
“Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them!”

28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29
Call together the archers against Babylon
: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about;
let none thereof escape
: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

(50.29)
“Call together the archers against Babylon … let none thereof escape.”

30 Therefore shall
her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD
.

(50.30)
“Her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD.”

31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.

32 And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and
I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.

(50.32)
“I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.”
God, the pyromaniac, will personally set the fires that will burn to death the inhabitants of entire cities.