²¹ Go up against the land of ^[a]Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of ^[b]Pekod: slay and ^[c]utterly destroy after them, saith Jehovah, and do according to all that I have commanded thee. ²² A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. ²³ How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! ²⁴ I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against Jehovah. ²⁵ Jehovah hath opened his armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ Come against her ^[d]from the utmost border; open her ^[e]store-houses; cast her up as heaps, and ^[f]destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left. ²⁷ Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. ²⁸ The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of his temple.

²⁹ Call together ^[g]the archers against Babylon, all them that bend the bow; encamp against her round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her; for she hath been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, saith Jehovah.