⁹ “‘We would have healed Babylon,
    but she cannot be healed;
let us leave^(A) her and each go to our own land,
    for her judgment^(B) reaches to the skies,
    it rises as high as the heavens.’

⁵ for her sins are piled up to heaven,^(A)
    and God has remembered^(B) her crimes.

¹⁶ Cut off from Babylon the sower,
    and the reaper with his sickle at harvest.
Because of the sword^(A) of the oppressor
    let everyone return to their own people,^(B)
    let everyone flee to their own land.^(C)

¹⁴ Like a hunted^(A) gazelle,
    like sheep without a shepherd,^(B)
they will all return to their own people,
    they will flee^(C) to their native land.^(D)

¹⁶ They will stumble^(A) repeatedly;
    they will fall^(B) over each other.
They will say, ‘Get up, let us go back
    to our own people^(C) and our native lands,
    away from the sword of the oppressor.’^(D)

²¹ The mercenaries^(A) in her ranks
    are like fattened calves.^(B)
They too will turn and flee^(C) together,
    they will not stand their ground,
for the day^(D) of disaster is coming upon them,
    the time^(E) for them to be punished.