Her walls are thrown down—
This is the LORD’s vengeance.
Take vengeance on her,
Do to her as she has done!
16Make an end in Babylon of sowers,
And of wielders of the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the deadlye sword,
Each man shall turn back to his people,
They shall flee every one to his land.
17Israel are scattered sheep, harried by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured them, and in the end King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon crunched their bones. 18Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I will deal with the king of Babylon and his land as I dealt with the king of Assyria. 19And I will lead Israel back to his pasture, and he shall graze in Carmel and Bashan, and eat his fill in the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead.
20In those days and at that time
—declares the LORD—
The iniquity of Israel shall be sought,
And there shall be none;
The sins of Judah,
And none shall be found;
For I will pardon those I allow to survive.
21Advance against her—e- the land of Merathaim-e—
And against the inhabitants of Pekod;
Ruin and destroy after them to the last
—says the LORD—
Do just as I have commanded you.
22Hark! War in the land
And vast destruction!
23How the hammer of the whole earth
Has been hacked and shattered!
How Babylon has become
An appallment among the nations!
24I set a snare for you, O Babylon,
And you were trapped unawares;
You were found and caught,
Because you challenged the LORD.
25The LORD has opened His armory
And brought out the weapons of His wrath;
For that is the task
Of my Lord GOD of Hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26Come against her e-from every quarter;-e
Break open her granaries,
e-Pile her up like heaps of grain,-e
And destroy her, let her have no remnant!
27f-Destroy all-f her bulls,
Let them go down to slaughter.
Alas for them, their day is come,
The hour of their doom!
28Hark! fugitives are escaping
From the land of Babylon,
To tell in Zion of the vengeance of the LORD our God,
Vengeance for His Temple.
29Summon archers against Babylon,
All who draw the bow!
Encamp against her roundabout,
Let none of her people escape.
Pay her back for her actions,
Do to her just what she has done;
For she has acted insolently against the LORD,
The Holy One of Israel.
30Assuredly, her young men shall fall in her squares,
And all her warriors shall perish in that day
—declares the LORD.
31I am going to deal with you, O Insolence
—declares the LORD GOD of Hosts—
For your day is come, the time when I doom you:
32Insolence shall stumble and fall,
With none to raise her up.
I will set her cities on fire,
And it shall consume everything around her.
33Thus said the LORD of Hosts:
The people of Israel are oppressed,
And so too the people of Judah;
All their captors held them,
They refused to let them go.
34Their Redeemer is mighty,
His name is LORD of Hosts.
He will champion their cause—
So as to give rest to the earth,
And unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35A sword against the Chaldeans
—declares the LORD—
And against the inhabitants of Babylon,
Against its officials and its wise men!
36A sword against the diviners, that they be made fools of!
A sword against the warriors, that they be dismayed!
37A sword against its horses and chariots,
And against all the motley crowd in its midst,
That they become like women!
A sword against its treasuries, that they be pillaged!
38A droughtg against its waters, that they be dried up!
For it is a land of idols;
They are besotted by their e-dread images.-e
39Assuredly,
e-Wildcats and hyenas-e shall dwell [there],
And ostriches shall dwell there;
It shall never be settled again,
Nor inhabited throughout the ages.
40It shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors—declares the LORD; no man shall live there, no human shall sojourn there.
41Lo, a people comes from the northland;
A great nation and many kings are roused
From the remotest parts of the earth.
42They grasp the bow and javelin,
They are cruel, they show no mercy;
The sound of them is like the roaring sea.
They ride upon horses,
Accoutered like a man for battle,
Against you, O Fair Babylon!
43The king of Babylon has heard the report of them,
And his hands are weakened;
Anguish seizes him,
Pangs like a woman in childbirth.
44It shall be as when a lion comes out of the jungle of the Jordan against a secure pasture: in a moment h-I can harry them out of it and appoint over it anyone I choose.-h Then who is like Me? Who can summon Me? Who is the shepherd that can stand up against Me? 45Hear, then, the plan that the LORD has devised against Babylon, and has purposed against the land of Chaldea:
Surely the shepherd boys
Shall drag them away;
Surely the pasture shall be
Aghast because of them.
46At the sound of Babylon’s capture
The earth quakes,
And an outcry is heard among the nations.
51Thus said the LORD:
See, I am rousing a destructive wind
Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.a
2I will send strangersb against Babylon, and they shall winnow her.
And they shall strip her land bare;
They shall beset her on all sides
On the day of disaster.
3Letc the archer draw his bow,
And let him stand ready in his coat of mail!
Show no pity to her young men,
Wipe out all her host!
4Let them fall slain in the land of Chaldea,
Pierced through in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah were not bereftd
Of their God the LORD of Hosts,
But their land was filled with guilt
Before the Holy One of Israel.
6Flee from the midst of Babylon
And save your lives, each of you!
Do not perish for her iniquity;
For this is a time of vengeance for the LORD,
He will deal retribution to her.
7Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,
It made the whole earth drunk;
The nations drank of her wine—
That is why the nations are mad.
8Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is shattered;
Howl over her!
Get balm for her wounds:
Perhaps she can be healed.
9We tried to cure Babylon
But she was incurable.
Let us leave her and go,
Each to his own land;
For her punishment reaches to heaven,
It is as high as the sky.
10The LORD has proclaimed our vindication;
Come, let us recount in Zion
The deeds of the LORD our God.
11Polish the arrows,
Fill the quivers!
The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of Media,
For His plan against Babylon is to destroy her.
This is the vengeance of the LORD,
Vengeance for His Temple.
12Raise a standard against the walls of Babylon!
Set up a blockade; station watchmen;
Prepare those in ambush.
For the LORD has both planned and performed
What He decreed against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13O you who dwell by great waters,
With vast storehouses,
Your time is come, e-the hour of your end.-e
14The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself:
I will fill you with men like a locust swarm,
They will raise a shout against you.
15He made the earth by His might,
Established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding stretched out the skies.
16f-When He makes His voice heard,-f
There is a rumbling of waters in the skies;
He makes vapors rise from the end of the earth,
He makes lightning for the rain,
And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
17Every man is proved dull, without knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame because of the idol,
For his molten image is a deceit—
There is no breath in them.
18They are delusion, a work of mockery;
In their hour of doom, they shall perish.
19Not like these in the Portion of Jacob,
For it is He who formed all things;
And [Israel is] His very own tribe.
LORD of Hosts is His name.
20You are My war club, [My] weapons of battle;
With you I clubbed nations,
With you I destroyed kingdoms;
21With you I clubbed horse and rider,
With you I clubbed chariot and driver,
22With you I clubbed man and woman,
With you I clubbed graybeard and boy,
With you I clubbed youth and maiden;
23With you I clubbed shepherd and flock,
With you I clubbed plowman and team,
With you I clubbed governors and prefects.
24But I will requite Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the wicked things they did to Zion before your eyes
—declares the LORD.
25See, I will deal with you, O mountain of the destroyer
—declares the LORD—
Destroyer of the whole earth!
I will stretch out My hand against you
And roll you down from the crags,
And make you a burnt-out mountain.
26They shall never take from you
A cornerstone or foundation stone;
You shall be a desolation for all time
—declares the LORD.
27Raise a standard on earth,
Sound a horn among the nations,
Appoint nations against her,
Assemble kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz—
Designate a marshal against her,
Bring up horses like swarminge locusts!
28Appoint nations for war against her—
The kings of Media,
Her governors and all her perfects,
And all the lands they rule!
29Then the earth quakes and writhes,
For the LORD’s purpose is fulfilled against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon
A waste without inhabitant.
30The warriors of Babylon stop fighting,
They sit in the strongholds,
Their might is dried up,
They become women.
Her dwellings are set afire,
Her bars are broken.
31Runner dashes to meet runner,
Messenger to meet messenger,
To report to the king of Babylon
That his city is captured, from end to end.
32The fords are captured,
And the swamp thicketse are consumed in fire;
And the fighting men are in panic.
33For thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel:
Fair Babylon is like a threshing floor
Ready to be trodden;
In a little while her harvesttime will come.
34“Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon
Devoured me and discomfited me;
He swallowed me like a dragon,
He filled his belly with my dainties,
And set me down like an empty dish;
Then he e-rinsed me out.-e
35Let the violence done me and my kindred
Be upon Babylon,”
Says the inhabitant of Zion;
“And let my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Says Jerusalem.
36Assuredly, thus said the LORD:
I am going to uphold your cause
And take vengeance for you;
I will dry up her sea
And make her fountain run dry.
37Babylon shall become rubble,
A den for jackals,
An object of horror and hissing,g
Without inhabitant.
38Like lions, they roar together,
They growl like lion cubs.
39h-When they are heated, I will set out their drink
And get them drunk, that they may become hilarious-h
And then sleep an endless sleep,
Never to awake
—declares
