¹⁵ O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you,”
    says the Lord.
“It is a mighty nation,
    an ancient nation,
a people whose language you do not know,
    whose speech you cannot understand.

¹⁶ “Warn the surrounding nations
    and announce this to Jerusalem:
The enemy is coming from a distant land,
    raising a battle cry against the towns of Judah.

¹¹ So now God will have to speak to his people
    through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language!

²⁶ He will send a signal to distant nations far away
    and whistle to those at the ends of the earth.
    They will come racing toward Jerusalem.

“They will set their thrones
    at the gates of the city.
They will attack its walls
    and all the other towns of Judah.

¹⁹ You will no longer see these fierce, violent people
    with their strange, unknown language.

“I will speak to my own people
    through strange languages
    and through the lips of foreigners.
But even then, they will not listen to me,”^[b]
    says the Lord.

“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!