⁵ For neither Israel nor Judah has been ^[j]forsaken
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Although their land is full of guilt
^[k]Before the Holy One of Israel.
⁶ Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And each of you save his life!
Do not be ^[l]destroyed in her ^[m]punishment,
For this is the Lord’s time of vengeance;
He is going to render recompense to her.
⁷ Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The nations have drunk of her wine;
Therefore the nations are going mad.
⁸ Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
Wail over her!
Bring ^[n]balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
⁹ We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;
Forsake her and let us each go to his own country,
For her judgment has reached to heaven
And ^[o]towers up to the very skies.
¹⁰ The Lord has brought ^[p]about our vindication;
Come and let us recount in Zion
The work of the Lord our God!

¹¹ Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers!
The Lord has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
Because His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it;
For it is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance for His temple.
¹² Lift up a ^[q]signal against the walls of Babylon;
Post a strong guard,
Station ^[r]sentries,
Place men in ambush!
For the Lord has both purposed and performed
What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³ O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The ^[s]measure of your ^[t]end.
¹⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with a ^[u]population like locusts,
And they will cry out with ^[v]shouts of victory over you.”

¹⁵ It is He who made the earth by His power,
Who established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
¹⁶ When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth;
He makes lightning for the rain
And brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
¹⁷ All mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his ^[w]idols,
For his molten images are deceitful,
And there is no breath in them.
¹⁸ They are worthless, a work of mockery;
In the time of their punishment they will perish.
¹⁹ The portion of Jacob is not like these;
For the ^[x]Maker of all is He,
And of the ^[y]tribe of His inheritance;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
²⁰ He says, “You are My ^[z]war-club, My weapon of war;
And with you I shatter nations,
And with you I destroy kingdoms.
²¹ “With you I shatter the horse and his rider,
And with you I shatter the chariot and its rider,
²² And with you I shatter man and woman,
And with you I shatter old man and youth,
And with you I shatter young man and virgin,
²³ And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock,
And with you I shatter the farmer and his team,
And with you I shatter governors and prefects.

²⁷ Lift up a ^[aa]signal in the land,
Blow a trumpet among the nations!
Consecrate the nations against her,
Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz;
Appoint a marshal against her,
Bring up the horses like bristly locusts.
²⁸ Consecrate the nations against her,
The kings of the Medes,
^[ab]Their governors and all ^[ac]their ^[ad]prefects,
And every land of ^[ae]their dominion.
²⁹ So the land quakes and writhes,
For the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand,
To make the land of Babylon
^[af]A desolation without inhabitants.
³⁰ The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They stay in the strongholds;
Their strength is ^[ag]exhausted,
They are becoming like women;
Their dwelling places are set on fire,
The bars of her gates are broken.
³¹ One ^[ah]courier runs to meet ^[ai]another,
And one ^[aj]messenger to meet ^[ak]another,
To tell the king of Babylon
That his city has been captured from end to end;
³² The fords also have been seized,
And they have burned the marshes with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me,
He has set me down like an empty vessel;
He has swallowed me like a monster,
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
He has washed me away.
³⁵ “May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The ^[am]inhabitant of Zion will say;
And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
Jerusalem will say.

⁴¹ “How ^[ap]Sheshak has been captured,
And the praise of the whole earth been seized!
How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
⁴² “The ^[aq]sea has come up over Babylon;
She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.
⁴³ “Her cities have become an object of horror,
A parched land and a desert,
A land in which no man lives
And through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴ “I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth;
And the nations will no longer stream to him.
Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!

⁴⁵ “Come forth from her midst, My people,
And each of you save yourselves
From the fierce anger of the Lord.
⁴⁶ “Now so that your heart does not grow faint,
And you are not afraid at the report that will be heard in the land—
For the report will come ^[ar]one year,
And after that ^[as]another report in ^[at]another year,
And violence will be in the land
With ruler against ruler—
⁴⁷ Therefore behold, days are coming
When I will punish the idols of Babylon;
And her whole land will be put to shame
And all her slain will fall in her midst.
⁴⁸ “Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
Will shout for joy over Babylon,
For the destroyers will come to her from the north,”
Declares the Lord.

⁴⁹ Indeed Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel,
As also for Babylon the slain of all the earth have fallen.
⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword,
Depart! Do not stay!
Remember the Lord from afar,
And let Jerusalem ^[au]come to your mind.
⁵¹ We are ashamed because we have heard reproach;
Disgrace has covered our faces,
For aliens have entered
The holy places of the Lord’s house.

⁵² “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“When I will punish her idols,
And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.
⁵³ “Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens,
And though she should fortify ^[av]her lofty stronghold,
From Me destroyers will come to her,” declares the Lord.

⁵⁴ The sound of an outcry from Babylon,
And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵ For the Lord is going to destroy Babylon,
And He will make her loud ^[aw]noise vanish from her.
And their waves will roar like many waters;
The tumult of their voices ^[ax]sounds forth.
⁵⁶ For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men will be captured,
Their bows are shattered;
For the Lord is a God of recompense,
He will fully repay.
⁵⁷ “I will make her princes and her wise men drunk,
Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men,
That they may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,”
Declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.