2. I will send to Babylon strangers, who will winnow her. They will empty her land; for in the day of trouble they will be against her all around.
3. Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army!
4. They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.
5. For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6. “Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance. He will render to her a recompense.
7. Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.
8. Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed.
9. “We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10. ‘Yahweh has produced our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.’
11. “Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.
12. Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the watchmen, and prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
13. You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.
14. Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they will lift up a shout against you.’
15. “He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens.
16. When he utters his voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
17. “Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18. They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.
19. The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things; including the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
20. “You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.