34-37 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
    chewed up my people and spit out the bones.
He wiped his dish clean, pushed back his chair,
    and belched—a huge gluttonous belch.
Lady Zion says,
    ‘The brutality done to me be done to Babylon!’
And Jerusalem says,
    ‘The blood spilled from me be charged to the Chaldeans!’
Then I, God, step in and say,
    ‘I’m on your side, taking up your cause.
I’m your Avenger. You’ll get your revenge.
    I’ll dry up her rivers, plug up her springs.
Babylon will be a pile of rubble,
    scavenged by stray dogs and cats,
A dumping ground for garbage,
    a godforsaken ghost town.’

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35 May the violence(A) done to our flesh[a] be on Babylon,”
    say the inhabitants of Zion.
“May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,”
    says Jerusalem.(B)

36 Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“See, I will defend your cause(C)
    and avenge(D) you;
I will dry up(E) her sea
    and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon will be a heap of ruins,
    a haunt(F) of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,(G)
    a place where no one lives.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 51:35 Or done to us and to our children