26. No stone shall be taken from you for a cornerand no stone for a foundation,but you shall be a perpetual waste,declares the Lord.
27. “Set up a standard on the earth; blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her;summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28. Prepare the nations for war against her,the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,and every land under their dominion.
29. The land trembles and writhes in pain, for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand,to make the land of Babylon a desolation,without inhabitant.
30. The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;they remain in their strongholds;their strength has failed; they have become women; her dwellings are on fire; her bars are broken.
31. One runner runs to meet another,and one messenger to meet another,to tell the king of Babylonthat his city is taken on every side;
32. the fords have been seized,the marshes are burned with fire,and the soldiers are in panic.
33. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floorat the time when it is trodden;yet a little whileand 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 like a monster;he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;he has rinsed me out.
35. The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”let the inhabitant of Zion say.“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”let Jerusalem say.
36. Therefore thus says the Lord:“Behold, I will plead your causeand take vengeance for you. I will dry up her seaand make her fountain dry,
37. and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing,without inhabitant.
38. “They shall roar together like lions;they shall growl like lions’ cubs.
39. While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feastand make them drunk, that they may become merry, then sleep a perpetual sleepand not wake, declares the Lord.
40. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,like rams and male goats.
41. “How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth seized!How Babylon has becomea horror among the nations!
42. The sea has come up on Babylon;she is covered with its tumultuous waves.