⁵ Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
    daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
    the mistress of kingdoms.^(D)
6 I was angry with my people;
    I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
    you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke
    exceedingly heavy.^(E)
7 You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
    so that you did not lay these things to heart
    or remember their end.^(F)

⁸ Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
    who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
    “I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
    or know the loss of children”—^(G)
9 both these things shall come upon you
    in a moment, in one day:
the loss of children and widowhood
    shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
    and the great power of your enchantments.^(H)

¹⁰ You felt secure in your wickedness;
    you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge
    led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
    “I am, and there is no one besides me.”^(I)
11 But evil shall come upon you,
    which you cannot charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
    which you will not be able to ward off,
and ruin shall come on you suddenly,
    of which you know nothing.^(J)

¹² Stand fast in your enchantments
    and your many sorceries,
    with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
    perhaps you may inspire terror.^(K)
13 You are wearied with your many consultations;
    let those who study^[b] the heavens
stand up and save you,
    those who gaze at the stars
and at each new moon predict
    what^[c] shall befall you.^(L)

¹⁴ See, they are like stubble;
    the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
    from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
    no fire to sit before!^(M)
15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
    who have trafficked with you from your youth;
they all wander about in their own paths;
    there is no one to save you.^(N)

² Declare among the nations and proclaim;
    set up a banner and proclaim;
    do not conceal it, say:
“Babylon is taken;
    Bel is put to shame;
    Merodach is dismayed.
Her images are put to shame;
    her idols are dismayed.”^(B)

¹¹ Though you rejoice, though you exult,
    O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass
    and neigh like stallions,^(I)
12 your mother shall be utterly shamed,
    and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
She shall be the last of the nations,
    a wilderness, dry land, and a desert.^(J)
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord, she shall not be inhabited
    but shall be an utter desolation;
everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled
    and hiss because of all her wounds.^(K)
14 Take up your positions around Babylon,
    all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her; spare no arrows,
    for she has sinned against the Lord.^(L)
15 Raise a shout against her from all sides,
    “She has surrendered;
her bulwarks have fallen;
    her walls are thrown down.”
For this is the vengeance of the Lord:
    take vengeance on her;
    do to her as she has done.^(M)
16 Cut off from Babylon the sower
    and the wielder of the sickle in time of harvest;
because of the destroying sword,
    all of them shall return to their own people,
    and all of them shall flee to their own land.^(N)

²¹ Go up to the land of Merathaim;^[a]
    go up against her,
and attack the inhabitants of Pekod^[b]
    and utterly destroy the last of them,^[c]
            says the Lord;
    do all that I have commanded you.^(R)
22 The noise of battle is in the land
    and great destruction!^(S)
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
    is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!^(T)
24 I set a snare for you, and you were caught, O Babylon,
    but you did not know it;
you were discovered and seized
    because you challenged the Lord.^(U)
25 The Lord has opened his armory
    and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a task
    in the land of the Chaldeans.^(V)
26 Come against her from every quarter;
    open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly;
    let nothing be left of her.^(W)
27 Kill all her bulls;
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Alas for them, their day has come,
    the time of their punishment!^(X)

³¹ I am against you, O arrogant one,
    says the Lord God of hosts,
for your day has come,
    the time when I will punish you.^(AB)
32 The arrogant one shall stumble and fall,
    with no one to raise him up,
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
    and it will devour everything around him.^(AC)

³⁵ A sword against the Chaldeans, says the Lord,
    and against the inhabitants of Babylon
    and against her officials and her sages!^(AF)
36 A sword against the diviners,
    so that they may become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
    so that they may be dismayed!^(AG)
37 A sword against her^[d] horses and against her^[e] chariots
    and against all the foreign troops in her midst,
    so that they may become women!
A sword against her treasures,
    that they may be plundered!^(AH)
38 A drought against her waters,
    that they may be dried up!
For it is a land of images,
    and they go mad over idols.^(AI)

⁴¹ Look, a people is coming from the north;
    a mighty nation and many kings
    are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.^(AL)
42 They wield bow and spear;
    they are cruel and have no mercy.
The sound of them is like the roaring sea;
    they ride upon horses,
set in array as a warrior for battle,
    against you, O daughter Babylon!^(AM)

⁴³ The king of Babylon heard news of them,
    and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
    pain like that of a woman in labor.^(AN)

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
    it comes from the desert,
    from a terrible land.^(A)
2 A stern vision is told to me;
    the betrayer betrays,
    and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
    lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
    I bring to an end.^(B)
3 Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
    pangs have seized me
    like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
    I am dismayed so that I cannot see.^(C)
4 My mind reels; horror has appalled me;
    the twilight I longed for
    has been turned for me into trembling.^(D)
5 They prepare the table;
    they spread the rugs;
    they eat; they drink.
Rise up, commanders;
    oil the shield!^(E)
6 For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, post a lookout;
    let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
    riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him watch closely,
    very closely.”^(F)
8 Then the watcher^[a] called out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
    continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
    throughout the night.^(G)
9 Look, there they come, riders,
    horsemen in pairs!”
Then he responded,
    “Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
    lie shattered on the ground.”^(H)
10 O my threshed and winnowed one,
    what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel, I announce to you.^(I)