Watch, I will stir up a destroying wind against Babylon
and against the people who live in Leb Kamai. ^[1]
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon
    to winnow her and empty her land.
They will oppose her on every side in the day of trouble.
³ Bend your bow against anyone who bends a bow
and against anyone who stands in armor. ^[2]
Do not spare the young men.
Completely destroy her army.
⁴ They fall down, slain in the land of Chaldea,
mortally wounded in her streets.
⁵ Israel and Judah are not forsaken by God, the Lord of Armies,
though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶ Flee from the midst of Babylon!
Everyone, save your lives!
Do not be cut off because of her guilt,
for it is the time for the Lord’s vengeance.
He will punish them as they deserve.
⁷ Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand.
She made the whole world drunk.
The nations have drunk her wine,
and now they have gone mad.
⁸ Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is broken.
Wail for her.
Take balm to her for her pain.
Perhaps she can be healed.

⁹ We would have healed Babylon,
but she cannot be healed.
Leave her! Everyone go to his own land,
because her judgment reaches to the heavens.
It rises up to the clouds.
¹⁰ The Lord has brought our vindication.
Come, let us declare in Zion what the Lord our God has done.

¹¹ Sharpen the arrows!
Hang on to the shields!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
This is the vengeance of the Lord,
vengeance for his temple.
¹² Raise a signal flag against the walls of Babylon!
Strengthen the guard!
Set the watch,
and prepare an ambush!
The Lord has done what he said he would do
    against the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³ You who live by many waters,
you who are rich in treasures,
your end has come,
the full measure ^[3] of your violence.
¹⁴ The Lord of Armies has sworn by himself:
Surely I will fill you with men,
as if I were filling you with locusts.
They will raise the shout of victory over you.

¹⁷ But as for mankind, they are all stupid.
Their knowledge has dried up.
Every goldsmith is embarrassed by his idols.
The images he makes are false.
There is no breath in them.
¹⁸ They are worthless,
an achievement to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment, they will perish.
¹⁹ He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
because he is the Maker of all things,
including the tribe that is his possession.
The Lord of Armies is his name.

You destroying mountain,
you destroy the whole world.
I will stretch out my hand against you.
I will roll you off the cliffs,
and I will make you a burned-out volcano.
²⁶ No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
nor as a foundation stone.
You will be desolate forever, declares the Lord.

²⁷ Raise a signal flag in the land!
Blow the ram’s horn among the nations!
Set apart the nations against her!
Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat,
    Minni, and Ashkenaz!
Appoint a field marshal against her!
Bring up horses like a thick swarm of locusts!
²⁸ Consecrate the nations against her—
the kings of the Medes, their governors, all their officials,
and all the land under their dominion.

³⁴ Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured us. ^[5]
He has crushed us
and made us like an empty jar.
Like a monster, he has swallowed us,
filled his stomach with our tastiest parts,
and spit out the rest.
³⁵ “May the violence done to us and to our children ^[6] be upon Babylon,”
says she who dwells in Zion.
“May our blood be on those who live in Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

³⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord says:
Watch! I will defend your cause
and take revenge for you.
I will dry up her sea
and make her springs dry.
³⁷ Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
a haunt for jackals,
a horror and a target of contempt, ^[7]
and no one will live there.
³⁸ They will all roar together like young lions.
They will growl like lion cubs.
³⁹ When they are ravenous, I will spread a feast.
I will make them drunk,
so that they will celebrate, ^[8]
and then they will go to sleep forever
and never wake up, declares the Lord.
⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats.

⁴¹ How Sheshak ^[9] is captured!
The pride of the whole earth is seized!
Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations.
⁴² The sea has come all the way up to Babylon,
and she is covered with its rolling waves.
⁴³ Her cities have become desolate,
a desert and a wasteland,
a land in which no one lives,
a land through which no man passes.
⁴⁴ I will punish Bel in Babylon
and make his mouth spit out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
The wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵ Come out of her, my people!
Save yourselves, every one of you,
    from the Lord’s fierce anger.
⁴⁶ Do not be faint of heart.
Do not fear the rumors you will hear in the land.
Rumors will come one year,
and the next year another rumor will come:
“Violence in the land!”
“Ruler against ruler!”
⁴⁷ For the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
and all her slain will fall within her.
⁴⁸ Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
    will rejoice over Babylon.
The destroyers will attack her from the north, declares the Lord.
⁴⁹ Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁷ I will make her officials and her wise men drunk,
and her governors, officers, and strong warriors as well.
They will sleep for a long time,
and they will not wake up,
declares the King, whose name is the Lord of Armies.
⁵⁸ This is what the Lord of Armies says.
The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled,
and her high gates will be set on fire.
The people will toil for nothing.
The work of the nations will be nothing but fuel for the fire.
They will be worn out.