23. Babylon was called ‘The Hammer of the Whole Earth.’ But now the ‘Hammer’ is shattered. Babylon is the most ruined of the nations.
24. Babylon, I set a trap for you, and you were caught before you knew it. You fought against the Lord, so you were found and captured.
25. The Lord has opened up his storeroom and brought out the weapons of his anger. The Lord GOD All-Powerful brought out those weapons, because he has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
26. “Come against Babylon from far away. Break open the storehouses where she keeps her grain. Destroy Babylon completely. Don’t leave anyone alive. Pile up her dead bodies like big piles of grain.
27. Kill all the young men in Babylon. Let them be slaughtered like bulls. How terrible for them that their day of defeat has come! It is time for them to be punished.
28. People are running out of Babylon. They are escaping from that country and coming to Zion. They are telling everyone the good news about what the Lord is doing. The Lord our God is giving Babylon the punishment it deserves. The Lord is destroying Babylon, because it destroyed his Temple!
29. “Call for the archers. Tell them to attack Babylon. Tell them to surround the city. Don’t let anyone escape. Pay her back for the bad things she has done. Do to her what she has done to other nations. Babylon did not respect the Lord. Babylon was very rude to the Holy One of Israel. So punish Babylon.
30. Babylon’s young men will be killed in the streets. All her soldiers will die on that day.” This is what the Lord says.
31. “Babylon, you are too proud, and I am against you,” says the Lord GOD All-Powerful. “I am against you, and the time has come for you to be punished.
32. Proud Babylon will stumble and fall, and no one will help her get up. I will start a fire in her towns. That fire will completely burn up everyone around her.”
33. This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “The people of Israel and Judah are slaves. The enemy took them, and the enemy will not let Israel go.
34. But God will get them back. His name is the Lord God All-Powerful. He will defend them very strongly. He will argue their case so that he can let their land rest. But there will be no rest for those living in Babylon.”
35. The Lord says, “Sword, kill the people living in Babylon. Sword, kill the king’s officials and the wise men of Babylon.