¹⁷ “Behold,^(A) I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not ^[a]regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
^19 (B)And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew ^(C)Sodom and Gomorrah.
^20 (D)It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.
^21 (E)But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of ^[b]owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.
²² The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
^(F)Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”