2Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing. Say, "Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is terrified." Her idols are put to shame; her false gods, devastated.
4In those days and at that time--this is the LORD's declaration--the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God.
5They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.
6My people were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.
7Whoever found them devoured them. Their adversaries said, "We're not guilty; instead, they have sinned against the LORD, their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the LORD."
9For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.
11Because you rejoice, because you celebrate--you who plundered my inheritance--because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,
12your mother will be utterly humiliated; she who bore you will be put to shame. Look! She will lag behind all the nations--an arid wilderness, a desert.
13Because of the LORD's wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds.
15Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished. Since this is the LORD's vengeance, take your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.
16Cut off the sower from Babylon as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor's sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.
17Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last who crushed his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
18Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
20In those days and at that time--this is the LORD's declaration--one will search for Israel's iniquity, but there will be none, and for Judah's sins, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.
21Attack the land of Merathaim, and those living in Pekod. Put them to the sword; completely destroy them--this is the LORD's declaration--do everything I have commanded you.
24Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught, but you did not even know it. You were found and captured because you pitted yourself against the LORD.
26Come against her from the most distant places. Open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain and completely destroy her. Leave her no survivors.
28There is a voice of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon. The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for his temple.
29Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow; camp all around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.
33This is what the LORD of Armies says: Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed. All their captors hold them fast; they refuse to release them.
34Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Armies is his name. He will fervently champion their cause so that he might bring rest to the earth but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.
37A sword is against his horses and chariots and against all the foreigners among them, and they will be like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
39Therefore, desert creatures will live with hyenas, and ostriches will also live in her. It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.
40Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns--this is the LORD's declaration--so no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily as a temporary resident.
42They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Babylon.
44"Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Babylon away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?"
45Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock's little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them.
