4. In those days and at that time,says the Lord,the sons of Israel will come,they and the children of Judah together.They will go along weeping as they go,and seek the Lord their God.
5. They will ask for the way to Zionwith their faces in its direction.They will come that they may join themselves to the Lordin a perpetual covenantthat will not be forgotten.
6. My people have been lost sheep.Their shepherds have caused them to go astray;they have turned them away on the mountains.They have gone from mountain to hilland have forgotten their resting place.
7. All who found them have devoured them,and their adversaries said, “We are not guilty,because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”
8. Wander away out of the midst of Babylon,and go out of the land of the Chaldeans,and be as the male goats before the flocks.
9. For I will raise and cause to come up against Babylonan assembly of great nations from the north country.And they shall set themselves in array against her;from there she shall be taken captive.Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior;no one shall return empty-handed.
10. Chaldea will become plunder;all who destroy her will be satisfied,says the Lord.
11. Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,O you destroyers of My heritage,because you have grown fat as the heifer at the grass,and bellow as bulls,
12. your mother will be sorely humiliated;she who bore you will be ashamed.She will be the least of the nations,a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13. Because of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited,but shall be wholly desolate.Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonishedand hiss at all her wounds.
14. Put yourselves in battle array against Babylon all around,all you who bend the bow;shoot at her, spare no arrows,for she has sinned against the Lord.
15. Shout against her all around;she has given herself up, her foundations have fallen,her walls have been thrown down.For this is the vengeance of the Lord.Take vengeance on her;as she has done, do to her.
16. Cut off the sower from Babylon,and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest.For fear of the oppressing swordeveryone will turn to his people,and everyone will flee to his own land.