17
Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.
18
They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
19
The Portion of Jacob is not like them, For He is the Maker of all things; And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of hosts is His name.
20
"You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms;
21
With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22
With you also I will break in pieces man and woman; With you I will break in pieces old and young; With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23
With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
24
"And I will repay Babylon And all the inhabitants of Chaldea For all the evil they have done In Zion in your sight," says the Lord.
25
"Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, Who destroys all the earth," says the Lord. "And I will stretch out My hand against you, Roll you down from the rocks, And make you a burnt mountain.
26
They shall not take from you a stone for a corner Nor a stone for a foundation, But you shall be desolate forever," says the Lord.
27
Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
28
Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land of his dominion.
29
And the land will tremble and sorrow; For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30
The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They have remained in their strongholds; Their might has failed, They became like women; They have burned her dwelling places, The bars of her gate 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 all sides;
32
The passages are blocked, The reeds they have burned with fire, And the men of war are terrified.
33
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor When it is time to thresh her; Yet a little while And the time of her harvest will come."
34
"Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon Has devoured me, he has crushed me; He has made me an empty vessel, He has swallowed me up like a monster; He has filled his stomach with my delicacies, He has spit me out.
35
Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon," The inhabitant of Zion will say; "And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!" Jerusalem will say.
36
Therefore thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
37
Babylon shall become a heap, A dwelling place for jackals, An astonishment and a hissing, Without an inhabitant.
38
They shall roar together like lions, They shall growl like lions' whelps.
39
In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, That they may rejoice, And sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake," says the Lord.
40
"I will bring them down Like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams with male goats.
41
"Oh, how Sheshach is taken! Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
42
The sea has come up over Babylon; She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43
Her cities are a desolation, A dry land and a wilderness, A land where no one dwells, Through which no son of man passes.
44
I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; And the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45
"My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
46
And lest your heart faint, And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land (A rumor will come one year, And after that, in another year A rumor will come, And violence in the land, Ruler against ruler),
47
Therefore behold, the days are coming That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; Her whole land shall be ashamed, And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48
Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them Shall sing joyously over Babylon; For the plunderers shall come to her from the north," says the Lord.
49
As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50
You who have escaped the sword, Get away! Do not stand still! Remember the Lord afar off, And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51
We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house.
52
"Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "That I will bring judgment on her carved images, And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
53
Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, And though she were to fortify the height of her strength, Yet from Me plunderers would come to her," says the Lord.
54
The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
55
Because the Lord is plundering Babylon And silencing her loud voice, Though her waves roar like great waters, And the noise of their voice is uttered,
56
Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men are taken. Every one of their bows is broken; For the Lord is the God of recompense, He will surely repay.
57
"And I will make drunk Her princes and wise men, Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake," says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts.