15. Whoever is found will be stabbed to death.Whoever is captured will be executed.
16. Their little children will be smashed to death right before their eyes.Their houses will be looted and their wives raped.
17. I’m going to stir up the Medes against them.They don’t care for silver and aren’t happy with gold.
18. But their bows will smash the youth.They’ll have no compassion for babies,nor will they look with pity on children.
19. Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,the proud beauty of the Chaldeans,will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them.
20. It will never be inhabited again,and no one will live in it for generations.Arabs won’t pitch their tents there.Shepherds won’t let their flocks rest there.
21. Desert animals will lie down there.Their homes will be full of owls.Ostriches will live there,and wild goats will skip about.
22. Hyenas will howl in Babylon’s strongholds,and jackals will howl in its luxurious palaces.Its time has almost come.Its days will not be extended.