This is what the Lord says: “Look! A great army coming from the north! A great nation is rising against you from far-off lands.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh says, “Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
- KJV Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
- BSB This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth.
- NKJV Thus says the Lord: “Behold, a people comes from the north country, And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.
- NASB ¶This is what the Lord says: “Behold, there is a people coming from the north land, And a great nation will be stirred up from the remote parts of the earth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God announces a great and fearsome nation advancing from the distant north. The instrument of judgment is identified as a powerful foreign army.
Overview
This 'people from the north' points to Babylon, the empire God would use to discipline Judah. Calling them stirred up 'from the uttermost parts of the earth' stresses their reach and might. God's sovereignty over the nations means even pagan empires serve His purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Jer 10:22The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.
- Jer 50:41–43“Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
- Jer 1:14–15Then Yahweh said to me, “Out of the north, evil will break out on all the inhabitants of the land.
- Jer 5:15Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel,” says Yahweh. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know, neither understand what they say.
- Jer 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Jer 6:1“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks out from the north, and a great destruction.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 6:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.