29. And the earth will be shaken and will be disturbed. For the plan of the Lord against Babylon will awaken, so that he may make the land of Babylon desolate and uninhabitable.
30. The strong ones of Babylon have ceased to do battle. They have lived in fortresses. Their health has been devoured, and they have become like women. Her tabernacles have been set ablaze; her bars have been broken.
31. Runner will go forth to meet runner, and messenger will meet messenger, so as to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, from one end to the other,
32. and that the fords were seized in advance, and that the marshes have been burned with fire, and that the men of war have been set in disarray.
33. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. This is the time of her threshing. A little while longer, and the time of her harvest will arrive."
34. "Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has consumed me, has devoured me. He has made me like an empty vessel. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my tender ones, and he has cast me out.
35. This iniquity is against me, and so my flesh is upon Babylon," says the habitation of Zion. "And my blood is upon the inhabitants of Chaldea," says Jerusalem.
36. Because of this, thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will judge your case, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will make her sea into a desert, and I will dry up her spring.
37. And Babylon will become a tumult, the habitation of dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.
38. They will roar together, like lions, they will shake their manes, like young lions.
39. In their heat, I will give them a drink, and I will inebriate them, so that they become drowsy, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and do not rise up, says the Lord.
40. I will lead them away, like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with young goats.
41. How was Sesac captured, and how was the renowned one of all the earth seized? How has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations?