¹ Thus says Jehovah: "Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind.

² I will send to Babylon foreigners who shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her around.

³ Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army.

⁴ They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.

⁵ "For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶ Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; do not be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.

⁷ Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

⁸ Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

⁹ 'We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.'

¹⁰ 'Jehovah has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.'

¹¹ Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.

¹² Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³ You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.

¹⁴ Jehovah of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, "Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you."

¹⁵ He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.

¹⁶ When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.

¹⁷ Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸ They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁹ The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

²⁰ "You are my battle axe and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms;

²¹ and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

²² and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein; and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;

²³ and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies.

²⁴ I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight," says Jehovah.

²⁵ "Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain," says Jehovah, "which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.

²⁶ They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever," says Jehovah.

²⁷ Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm.

²⁸ Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion.

²⁹ The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

³⁰ The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are broken.

³¹ One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:

³² and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.

³³ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

³⁴ 'Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out.

³⁵ The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon,' shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, 'My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,' shall Jerusalem say.

³⁶ Therefore thus says Jehovah: "Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

³⁷ Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

³⁸ They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' cubs.

³⁹ When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake," says Jehovah.

⁴⁰ "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

⁴¹ How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

⁴² The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

⁴³ Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.

⁴⁴ I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall."

⁴⁵ "My people, go away from the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah.

⁴⁶ Do not let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.