“Look around at the nations;
    look and be amazed!^[a]
For I am doing something in your own day,
    something you wouldn’t believe
    even if someone told you about it.
⁶ I am raising up the Babylonians,^[b]
    a cruel and violent people.
They will march across the world
    and conquer other lands.
⁷ They are notorious for their cruelty
    and do whatever they like.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than cheetahs^[c]
    and fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their charioteers charge from far away.
    Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.

⁹ “On they come, all bent on violence.
    Their hordes advance like a desert wind,
    sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
¹⁰ They scoff at kings and princes
    and scorn all their fortresses.
They simply pile ramps of earth
    against their walls and capture them!
¹¹ They sweep past like the wind
    and are gone.
But they are deeply guilty,
    for their own strength is their god.”