2. This is what the lord says:“Tell the whole world,and keep nothing back.Raise a signal flagto tell everyone that Babylon will fall!Her images and idols will be shattered.Her gods Bel and Marduk will be utterly disgraced.
3. For a nation will attack her from the northand bring such destruction that no one will live there again.Everything will be gone;both people and animals will flee.
4. “In those coming days,”says the lord,“the people of Israel will return hometogether with the people of Judah.They will come weepingand seeking the lord their God.
5. They will ask the way to Jerusalemand will start back home again.They will bind themselves to the lordwith an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.