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)

² On a bare hill raise a signal;
    cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
    the gates of the nobles.^(B)
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
    have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
    to execute my anger.^[a](C)

⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains
    as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
    of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
    an army for battle.^(D)
5 They come from a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
    to destroy the whole earth.^(E)

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty!^[b](F)
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
    and every human heart will melt,^(G)
8     and they will be terrified.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
    they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
    their faces will be aflame.^(H)
9 See, the day of the Lord is coming,
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
    and to destroy its sinners from it.^(I)
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
    and the moon will not shed its light.^(J)
11 I will punish the world for its evil
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
    and lay low the insolence of tyrants.^(K)
12 I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
    and humans than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.^(L)
14 Like a gazelle on the run
    or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn back to their own people,
    and all will flee to their own lands.^(M)