Judah and Jerusalem, likened to us: paired names bring the covenant warning home. Artistic illustration of one of the pairs explored in this article.
CFM-08 · Jeremiah 30–52 and Lamentations
Jacob and Israel, Babylon and Chaldea, Zion and Jerusalem, Judah and Jerusalem: where Isaiah’s paired names show up in Jeremiah and Lamentations, the one verse that holds two pairs on opposite sides, and the two armies that come from the north
Near the end of Jeremiah, inside the long prophecy against Babylon, there’s a verse that reads like a courtroom:
"The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say." (Jeremiah 51:35)
Read it twice. Zion and Jerusalem on one side. Babylon and Chaldea on the other. Two of Isaiah’s paired names, facing each other across a single verse.
It’s the only verse in all the standard works that holds both pairs. We ran the search on the full text of all five volumes to be sure.
That verse didn’t happen by accident. Jeremiah learned to name God’s people the way Isaiah did, in pairs. Once you see the pairs, you can’t stop seeing them.
Isaiah writes in pairs
Again and again, Isaiah names God’s people with two names, side by side in the same verse: Jacob and Israel. Zion and Jerusalem. Babylon and the Chaldeans.
Avraham Gileadi showed that these three pairs are not decoration. Each pair marks a different place on a ladder that runs from the world up toward God. In our own words:
- Babylon and Chaldea name people who belong to the world, even if they once knew better.
- Jacob and Israel name the covenant people, still climbing. They’d better climb faster. Jeremiah heard what it sounds like when the season runs out: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:20).
- Zion and Jerusalem name the Lord’s people at their best.
- Above them, Isaiah’s sons and servants stand closer still.
These three pairs, and the sons and servants above them, are adapted from Avraham Gileadi’s ladder framework in his flagship book, Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven. It is the decoder ring itself, the codex for Isaiah. I’ve received many witnesses about Isaiah, but the most powerful came when I asked my Father in Heaven whether the patterns this magnificent book lays out, complex as they are, are true and real. I’m happy to report that they are. Our research adds "Briars and Thorns" as a separate rung of its own.
One rule keeps the ladder honest: a pair names where a people stands, not where they live. Height is a state of the heart, never a spot on a map. The pairs are in the text; reading them as rungs is how we read Isaiah.
Now watch what Jeremiah does with them.
Jacob and Israel come back when the book turns
Through most of Jeremiah’s tearing-down chapters, Isaiah’s covenant pair is hard to find. Then the book turns at chapter 30, and the first word of comfort is Isaiah’s pair, in Isaiah’s words:
"Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel." (Jeremiah 30:10)
Isaiah had said it first: "But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen" (Isaiah 41:8), and "Fear not, O Jacob, my servant" (Isaiah 44:2).
Jeremiah says it again, nearly word for word, in the middle of the prophecy against Egypt (46:27). When the Lord starts building again, He calls His people by Isaiah’s covenant names.
Babylon and Chaldea: from the Lord’s rod to the Lord’s target
For most of Jeremiah, Babylon is the discipline the Lord sent. "Serve the king of Babylon, and live" (27:17). Jeremiah even tells the captives to "seek the peace of the city" where they’ve been carried (29:7).
Then the book reaches Babylon’s own judgment, and Jeremiah heads the whole prophecy with Isaiah’s pair:
"The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet." (50:1)
And when he tells God’s people to leave, he uses Isaiah’s exit, almost word for word:
"Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans." (Jeremiah 50:8)
"Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans." (Isaiah 48:20)
Same pair. Same command. Isaiah first, Jeremiah after. And the Lord said it a third time, to us: "Go ye out from Babylon. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord" (D&C 133:5), "from the midst of wickedness, which is spiritual Babylon" (133:14).
Zion and Jerusalem: rare in Jeremiah, and grieving in Lamentations
Jeremiah almost never puts Zion and Jerusalem together. Once he quotes the prophet Micah: "Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps" (26:18). The other time is the courtroom verse, 51:35.
Lamentations uses it more, and every time, Zion and Jerusalem are mourning:
"The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads… the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground." (Lamentations 2:10)
Now open Isaiah. He saw that exact picture and already wrote the answer, in the same pair:
"Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." (Isaiah 52:2)
Lamentations has Zion and Jerusalem sitting in the dust. Isaiah tells Zion and Jerusalem to shake it off and rise. We read it as the answer, written first.
Three verses later Lamentations asks, "thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?" (2:13). Jeremiah’s book of hope had the answer waiting: "I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds" (Jeremiah 30:17).
Judah and Jerusalem: Jeremiah’s address
There’s one more pair, and it’s Jeremiah’s favorite. Isaiah uses it in his very first verse: his vision "which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem" (Isaiah 1:1). Jeremiah uses it more than any other book of scripture.
Watch where it shows up.
- In the conspiracy. "A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 11:9).
- In the people’s own defense of idolatry. In Egypt, they told Jeremiah they would keep burning incense to the queen of heaven, "as we have done… in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty" (44:17).
- In the promise. "In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely" (33:16).
The same pair is accused, then defends itself, then is saved. Judah and Jerusalem isn’t a rung on the ladder. It names a particular people of the Lord and the place where their headquarters stands, and the people under that name can be found at every level of the ladder, from the conspiracy to the promise.
And in the latter days, we read that address as ours. Judah is the Lord’s covenant people. Jerusalem is the place where His house stands. Nephi gave us the license to read it that way: "I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning" (1 Nephi 19:23). Read Jeremiah that way and the book stops being history. The conspiracy, the excuses, and the promise all have our address on them. The full case is its own article, coming soon.
This pair isn’t from Avraham’s ladder. Reading it as an address is our own.
Now read 51:35 again. Zion and Jerusalem, crying out against Babylon and Chaldea. That’s not only a verse about a city that burned twenty-six centuries ago. It’s a verse about which side of the courtroom we’ll be standing on.
Two armies from the north
Jeremiah and Isaiah both see armies coming from the north. Here is the rule we hold to: the direction is shared; the armies are not.
The army of the Assyrian. Isaiah calls him "the rod of mine anger" (Isaiah 10:5), sent against a hypocritical people. But he doesn’t know whom he serves: "Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so" (10:7). Jeremiah sees him coming for God’s own people: "Behold, a people cometh from the north country… set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion" (Jeremiah 6:22–23). His end is written too. Joel calls him by name: "I will remove far off from you the northern army" (Joel 2:20).
The armies of the Lord’s host. Isaiah’s other army knows exactly whom it serves: "I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness" (Isaiah 13:3). Its target, in the chapter’s first verse, is Babylon. Jeremiah sees it too: "I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country" (Jeremiah 50:9). And the great company of returning Israel: "Behold, I will bring them from the north country… a great company shall return thither" (31:8). The Lord told Joseph Smith what happens when they arrive: they are "crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim" (D&C 133:32).
How to tell them apart. Three questions the text lets us ask:
- Do they know whom they serve? The Assyrian "meaneth not so." The host "rejoice in my highness."
- Whom do they strike? The Assyrian comes against "the daughter of Zion." The host comes against Babylon.
- How do they end? The northern army is driven out. The returning host is crowned in Zion.
One trap to watch. Jeremiah 50:41–42 repeats 6:22–23 almost word for word, with one change: the army now comes "against thee, O daughter of Babylon." Same words, opposite target. It’s easy to read them as one army. They’re not.
Where this lands
Put the pairs in order and they trace a path.
God’s people start in Babylon, under the Lord’s discipline, told to "seek the peace of the city" (29:7) and to search for Him there "with all your heart" (29:13). They’re told not to run to the strong nation for safety: "Go ye not into Egypt" (42:19). Then the call comes to leave: "Remove out of the midst of Babylon" (50:8). And the last picture is a people on the road:
"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." (Jeremiah 50:5)
From Babylon to Zion, by way of a covenant. That’s the climb Isaiah’s pairs describe, and, as we read it, Jeremiah walked his people through it.
Zion isn’t a city you reach by walking. It’s where His people stand when they know Him. And the covenant that gets them there runs through Christ, "the LORD our righteousness" (33:16), all the way home to the Father.
I’ve lived in Babylon. Most of us have, more than once. I know what it’s like to hear the call to leave, and I know what it’s like to finally turn my face toward Zion and start asking the way. I know the Lord keeps His covenant with people on that road. And I know the road ends at His Father’s house.
"They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward." — Jeremiah 50:5
Ken Krogue is a co-founder of The Covenant Project and has been deeply searching Isaiah for more than ten years. He writes with two AI research partners, Orson (Claude) and Nathan (ChatGPT), and approves every word.
Search alongside this article: Seven Ways People Read Isaiah · The Rest of the Book: Jeremiah & Lamentations.
