⁶ Flee from the midst of Babylon;
    save your lives, each of you!
Do not perish because of her guilt,
    for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
    he is repaying her what is due.^(A)

⁴¹ Look, a people is coming from the north;
    a mighty nation and many kings
    are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.^(A)

“With such violence Babylon the great city
    will be thrown down
    and will be found no more;^(B)
22 and the sound of harpists and entertainers and of flutists and trumpeters
    will be heard in you no more,
and an artisan of any trade
    will be found in you no more,
and the sound of the millstone
    will be heard in you no more,^(C)
23 and the light of a lamp
    will shine in you no more,
and the voice of bridegroom and bride
    will be heard in you no more,
for your merchants were the magnates of the earth,
    and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.^(D)
24 And in you^[a] was found the blood of prophets and of saints
    and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.”^(E)

⁹ “Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
    setting your nest on high
    to be safe from the reach of harm!”^(B)
10 You have devised shame for your house
    by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.^(C)
11 The very stones will cry out from the wall,
    and the rafter will respond from the woodwork.

¹² “Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed
    and found a city on iniquity!”^(D)
13 Is it not from the Lord of hosts
    that peoples labor only to feed the flames
    and nations weary themselves for nothing?
¹⁴ But the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
    as the waters cover the sea.^(E)

¹⁵ “Alas for you who make your neighbors drink,
    pouring out your wrath until they are drunk,
    in order to gaze on their nakedness!”^(F)
16 You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
    Drink, you yourself, and stagger!^[a]
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
    will come around to you,
    and shame will come upon your glory!^(G)

³⁸ Like lions they shall roar together;
    they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹ When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink
    and make them drunk, until they become merry
and then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and never wake, says the Lord.^(D)
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats.^(E)

⁴¹ How Sheshach^[a] is taken;
    the pride of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    an object of horror among the nations!^(F)