10. The exiles from Judah will say, ‘The Lord has brought about a great deliverance for us!Come on, let’s go and proclaim in Zionwhat the Lord our God has done!’
11. “Sharpen your arrows!Fill your quivers!The Lord will arouse a spirit of hostility in the kings of Media.For he intends to destroy Babylonia.For that is how the Lord will get his revenge – how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians’ destruction of his temple.
12. Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall!Bring more guards!Post them all around the city!Put men in ambush!For the Lord will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon.
13. “You who live along the rivers of Babylon,the time of your end has come.You who are rich in plundered treasure,it is time for your lives to be cut off.
14. The Lord who rules over all has solemnly sworn,‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers.They will swarm over it like locusts.They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’
15. He is the one who by his power made the earth.He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place,by his understanding he spread out the heavens.
16. When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar.He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons.He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.
17. All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant.Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.For the image he forges is merely a sham.There is no breath in any of those idols.
18. They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed.When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
19. The Lord, who is the portion of the descendants of Jacob, is not like them.For he is the one who created everything,including the people of Israel whom he claims as his own.He is known as the Lord who rules over all.
20. “Babylon, you are my war club,my weapon for battle.I used you to smash nations.I used you to destroy kingdoms.
21. I used you to smash horses and their riders.I used you to smash chariots and their drivers.
22. I used you to smash men and women.I used you to smash old men and young men.I used you to smash young men and young women.
23. I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks.I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen.I used you to smash governors and leaders.”
24. “But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babyloniafor all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” says the Lord.