⁹ Behold, ^(A)the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy ^(B)its sinners from it.

⁶ Who can stand before His indignation?
And ^(A)who can endure the fierceness of His anger?
His fury is poured out like fire,
And the rocks are thrown down by Him.

¹⁷ “Behold,^(C) 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.

“Behold, ^(A)I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
^(B)I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
^37 (C)Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
^(D)An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
³⁸ They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹ In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
^(E)I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
⁴⁰ “I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

⁴¹ “Oh, how ^(F)Sheshach^[a] is taken!
Oh, how ^(G)the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
^42 (H)The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
^43 (I)Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where ^(J)no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴ I will punish ^(K)Bel^[b] in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, ^(L)the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵ “My^(M) people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver ^[c]himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
⁴⁶ And lest your heart faint,
And you fear ^(N)for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
⁴⁷ Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
⁴⁸ Then ^(O)the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
^(P)For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.

⁴⁹ As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
^50 (Q)You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
^(R)Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

^51 (S)We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers ^(T)have come into the ^[d]sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.

⁵² “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
^53 (U)Though Babylon were to ^[e]mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.

^54 (V)The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
⁵⁵ Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
⁵⁶ Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
^(W)For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.

⁵⁷ “And I will make drunk
Her princes and ^(X)wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says ^(Y)the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly ^(Z)broken,^[f]
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
^(AA)The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”

⁴¹ “Behold,^(C) a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
^42 (D)They shall hold the bow and the lance;
^(E)They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
^(F)Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

“Behold, a people comes from the ^(A)north country,
And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.
²³ They will lay hold on bow and spear;
They are cruel and have no mercy;
Their voice ^(B)roars like the sea;
And they ride on horses,
As men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”