¹⁵ He made the earth by His power,
established the world^(A) by His wisdom,^(B)
and spread out the heavens by His understanding.^(C)
16 When He thunders,^[a]
the waters in the heavens are in turmoil,^(D)
and He causes the clouds
to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from His storehouses.^(E)

¹⁷ Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image,^(F)
for his cast images are a lie;^(G)
there is no breath in them.^(H)
18 They are worthless,^(I) a work to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.^(J)
19 Jacob’s Portion^[b] is not like these
because He is the One who formed all things.^(K)
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;^(L)
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.^(M)

²⁰ You are My battle club,
My weapons of war.
With you I will smash nations;
with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
²¹ With you I will smash the horse and its rider;
with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.
²² With you I will smash man and woman;^(N)
with you I will smash the old man and the youth;
with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.
²³ With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock;
with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team.^[c]
With you I will smash governors and officials.

²⁵ Look, I am against you, devastating mountain—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you devastate the whole earth.
I will stretch out My hand against you,^(P)
roll you down from the cliffs,
and turn you into a charred mountain.
²⁶ No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone
or a foundation stone from you,
because you will become desolate forever.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

²⁷ Raise a signal flag^(Q) in the land;
blow a ram’s horn among the nations;
set apart the nations against her.^(R)
Summon kingdoms against her—
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a marshal against her;
bring up horses like a swarm^[d] of locusts.
²⁸ Set apart the nations for battle against her—
the kings of Media,
her governors and all her officials,
and all the lands they rule.
²⁹ The earth quakes^(S) and trembles
because the Lord’s intentions against Babylon stand:
to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited desolation.
³⁰ Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;^(T)
they sit in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,
her gate bars are shattered.^(U)
31 Messenger races to meet messenger,^(V)
and herald to meet herald,
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his city has been captured
from end to end.
³² The fords have been seized,^(W)
the marshes set on fire,
and the soldiers are terrified.

Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled.^(X)
In just a little while her harvest time will come.^(Y)

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me.
He has set me aside like an empty dish;
he has swallowed me like a sea monster;^(Z)
he filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has vomited me out,”^[e]
35 says the inhabitant of Zion;
“Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon.
Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.

I am about to plead your case^(AA)
and take vengeance on your behalf;
I will dry up her sea^(AB)
and make her fountain run dry.
³⁷ Babylon will become a heap of rubble,
a jackals’ den,
a desolation and an object of scorn,^(AC)
without inhabitant.
³⁸ They will roar together like young lions;
they will growl like lion cubs.
³⁹ While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast,
and I will make them drunk so that they revel.^[f](AD)
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams together with male goats.^(AE)

⁴¹ How Sheshach has been captured,
the praise^(AF) of the whole earth seized.
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!^(AG)
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;^(AH)
she is covered with its turbulent waves.
⁴³ Her cities have become a desolation,^(AI)
a dry and arid land,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being passes through.
⁴⁴ I will punish Bel^(AJ) in Babylon.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon’s wall will fall.

⁴⁵ Come out from among her, My people!^(AK)
Save your lives, each of you,
from the Lord’s burning anger.
⁴⁶ May you not become cowardly and fearful
when the report is proclaimed in the land,
for the report will come one year,
and then another the next year.
There will be violence in the land
with ruler against ruler.
⁴⁷ Therefore, look, the days are coming
when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.^(AL)
Her entire land will suffer shame,
and all her slain will lie fallen within her.^(AM)
48 Heaven and earth and everything in them
will shout for joy^(AN) over Babylon
because the destroyers from the north
will come against her.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁴⁹ Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of all the earth fell
because of Babylon.
⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword,^(AO)
go and do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹ We are ashamed
because we have heard insults.^(AP)
Humiliation covers our faces
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the Lord’s temple.^(AQ)

⁵² Therefore, look, the days are coming—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
⁵³ Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens^(AR)
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁵⁴ The sound of a cry from Babylon!^(AS)
The sound of great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵ For the Lord is going to devastate Babylon;
He will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like abundant waters;
the tumult of their voice resounds,
⁵⁶ for a destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors will be captured,
their bows shattered,
for the Lord is a God of retribution;
He will certainly repay.
⁵⁷ I will make her princes and sages drunk,
along with her governors, officials, and warriors.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.^(AT)
This is the King’s declaration;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.^(AU)

Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates consumed by fire.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;^(AV)
the nations will exhaust themselves only to feed the fire.