27. “Give the signal to attack! Blow the trumpet so that the nations can hear! Prepare the nations for war against Babylonia! Tell the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz to attack. Appoint an officer to lead the attack. Bring up the horses like a swarm of locusts.
28. Prepare the nations for war against Babylonia. Send for the kings of Media, their leaders and officials, and the armies of all the countries they control.
29. The earth trembles and shakes because the Lord is carrying out his plan to make Babylonia a desert, where no one lives.
30. The Babylonian soldiers have stopped fighting and remain in their forts. They have lost their courage and have become like women. The city gates are broken down, and the houses are on fire.
31. Messenger after messenger runs to tell the king of Babylonia that his city has been broken into from every side.
32. The enemy have captured the river crossing and have set the fortresses on fire. The Babylonian soldiers have panicked.
33. Soon the enemy will cut them down and trample them like corn on a threshing place. I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have spoken.”
34. The king of Babylonia cut Jerusalem upand ate it.He emptied the city like a jar;like a monster he swallowed it.He took what he wantedand threw the rest away.
35. Let the people of Zion say,“May Babylonia be held responsiblefor the violence done to us!”Let the people of Jerusalem say,“May Babylonia be held responsiblefor what we have suffered!”
36. And so the Lord said to the people of Jerusalem, “I will take up your cause and will make your enemies pay for what they did to you. I will dry up the source of Babylonia's water and make its rivers go dry.
37. That country will become a pile of ruins where wild animals live. It will be a horrible sight; no one will live there, and all who see it will be terrified.