19. I will bring the people of Israel back to their pastures.They will eat on Mount Carmel and Mount Bashan.They will eat until they are fullon the mountains of Ephraim and Gilead.
20. In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord,“people will look for Israel’s crimes, but they will find none.They will look for Judah’s sins, but none will be found.I will forgive the faithful few whom I have spared.
21. Attack the land of Merathaimand the people who live in Pekod.Claim them for me by killing them with a sword,”declares the Lord.“Do everything I commanded you.
22. The noise of battle and great destruction fills the land.
23. The hammer of the whole earth is broken and shattered.See how desolate Babylon is of all the nations!
24. I will set traps for you, Babylon.You will be caught, but you won’t know it.You will be found and capturedbecause you have opposed the Lord.
25. The Lord will open his armoryand bring out the weapons of his fury,because the Almighty Lord of Armieshas a job to do in the land of the Babylonians.
26. Attack them from a distance,open their storehouses,pile up their corpses like piles of grain,claim them for me by destroying them,and don’t leave anyone behind.
27. Kill all their young bulls.Let them go to be slaughtered.How horrible it will be for them when their time has come,the time for them to be punished.
28. Listen! Fugitives and refugees from Babylonare coming to Zion to tell aboutthe vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for his temple.
29. “Call together the archers, the soldiers with bows, against Babylon.Set up blockades around it. Don’t let anyone escape.Pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done.Do to them what they did to others.They have disobeyed the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
30. That is why their young men will die in the streets,and all their soldiers will be silenced that day,”declares the Lord.
31. “I’m against you, you arrogant city,”declares the Almighty Lord of Armies.“Your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
32. Those arrogant people will stumble and fall,and there will be no one to help them get up.I will light a fire in their citiesthat will burn up everything around them.”
33. This is what the Lord of Armies says:All the people of Israel and Judah are oppressed.All their enemies have captured them.They refuse to let them go.
34. Their defender is strong.His name is the Lord of Armies.He will certainly take up their causein order to bring rest to the land of Israeland unrest to the people who live in Babylon.
35. “A sword will kill the Babylonians and everyone who lives in Babylon,”declares the Lord.“A sword will kill their officials and their wise men.
36. A sword will kill the false prophets.They will become fools.A sword will kill their soldiers and defeat them.
37. A sword will kill their horses, their chariots,and all the foreigners within their ranks.They will become women.A sword will destroy their treasures, and they will be looted.
38. A drought will diminish their water supply, and it will dry up.Babylon is a land of idols, statues that will go crazy with fear.
39. That is why desert animals will live with hyenas.Desert owls will also live there.It will no longer be inhabited or lived in for generations.