^26 (A)Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares,
    and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day,
declares the Lord of hosts.

²¹ Therefore ^(A)deliver up their children to famine;
    give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^(B)and widowed.
    May their men meet death by pestilence,
    their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

²¹ For death has come up into our windows;
    it has entered our palaces,
^(A)cutting off the children from the streets
    and the young men from the squares.

⁵⁶ for a destroyer has come upon her,
    upon Babylon;
her warriors are taken;
    their bows are broken in pieces,
^(A)for the Lord is a God of recompense;
    he will surely repay.
^57 (B)I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
    ^(C)her governors, her commanders, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
    declares ^(D)the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

^3 (A)Let not the archer bend his bow,
    and let him not stand up in his armor.
Spare not her young men;
    ^(B)devote to destruction^[a] all her army.
⁴ They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
    ^(C)and wounded in her streets.

³⁶ A sword against the diviners,
    that they may become fools!
A sword against her ^(A)warriors,
    that they may be destroyed!