¹⁴ “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    ^(A)Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    ^(B)he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against ^(C)the Chaldeans.

²¹ “Go up against the land of Merathaim,^[a]
    and against the inhabitants of Pekod.^[b]
Kill, ^(A)and devote them to destruction,^[c]
declares the Lord,
    and do all that I have commanded you.
^22 (B)The noise of battle is in the land,
    and great destruction!
^23 (C)How the hammer of the whole earth
    is cut down and broken!
^(D)How Babylon ^(E)has become
    a horror among the nations!
^24 (F)I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon,
    and ^(G)you did not know it;
you were found and caught,
    because you opposed the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened his armory
    and brought out ^(H)the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do
    in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from every quarter;
    open her granaries;
^(I)pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction;
    let nothing be left of her.
²⁷ Kill all ^(J)her bulls;
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
    ^(K)the time of their punishment.

¹⁷ Behold, ^(A)I am stirring up the Medes against them,
    who have no regard for silver
    and do not delight in gold.
^18 (B)Their bows will slaughter^[a] the young men;
    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not pity children.

²⁰ “You are my hammer and weapon of war:
with you I ^(A)break nations in pieces;
    with you I destroy kingdoms;
²¹ with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
    with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;
²² with you I break in pieces man and woman;
    with you I break in pieces ^(B)the old man and the youth;
with you I break in pieces ^(C)the young man and the young woman;
²³     with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team;
    with you I break in pieces ^(D)governors and commanders.

^20 (A)“Assemble yourselves and come;
    draw near together,
    you survivors of the nations!
^(B)They have no knowledge
    who ^(C)carry about their wooden idols,
^(D)and keep on praying to a god
    that cannot save.
^21 (E)Declare and present your case;
    let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
    Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God ^(F)and a Savior;
    there is none besides me.

⁴ The sound ^(A)of a tumult is on the mountains
    as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
    of nations gathering together!
^(B)The Lord of hosts is mustering
    a host for battle.
^5 (C)They come from a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
    to destroy the whole land.^[a]