37“A sword against their horses and against their chariots
         And against all the foreigners who are in the midst of her,
         And they will become women!
         A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!

38“A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!
         For it is a land of idols,
         And they are mad over fearsome idols.

39“Therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals;
         The ostriches also will live in it,
         And it will never again be inhabited
         Or dwelt in from generation to generation.

40“As when God overthrew Sodom
         And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the LORD,
         “No man will live there,
         Nor will any son of man reside in it.

41“Behold, a people is coming from the north,
         And a great nation and many kings
         Will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.

42“They seize their bow and javelin;
         They are cruel and have no mercy.
         Their voice roars like the sea;
         And they ride on horses,
         Marshalled like a man for the battle
         Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43“The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
         And his hands hang limp;
         Distress has gripped him,
         Agony like a woman in childbirth.

      44“Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand before Me?” 45Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Babylon, and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture desolate because of them. 46At the shout, “Babylon has been seized!” the earth is shaken, and an outcry is heard among the nations.

NASB ©1995