20. You will not join them in burial,because you destroyed your landand slaughtered your own people.The offspring of evildoerswill never be remembered.
21. Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,because of the iniquity of their fathers.They will never rise up to possess a landor fill the surface of the earth with cities.
22. “I will rise up against them” — this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts — “and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity” — this is the Lord’s declaration.
23. “I will make her a swampland and a region for screech owls, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction.”This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
24. The Lord of Hosts has sworn:As I have purposed, so it will be;as I have planned it, so it will happen.
25. I will break Assyria in My land;I will tread him down on My mountain.Then his yoke will be taken from them,and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.
26. This is the plan preparedfor the whole earth,and this is the hand stretched outagainst all the nations.
27. The Lord of Hosts Himself has planned it;therefore, who can stand in its way?It is His hand that is outstretched,so who can turn it back?
28. In the year that King Ahaz died, this oracle came:
29. Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia,because the rod of the one who struck you is broken.For a viper will come from the root of a snake,and from its egg comes a flying serpent.
30. Then the firstborn of the poor will be well fed,and the impoverished will lie down in safety,but I will kill your root with hunger,and your remnant will be slain.
31. Wail, you gates! Cry out, city!Tremble with fear, all Philistia!For a cloud of dust is coming from the north, and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.
32. What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?The Lord has founded Zion, and His afflicted people find refuge in her.