²¹ ¶ Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod; waste and utterly destroy after them, said the LORD, 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 Gentiles!

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 provoked the LORD.

²⁵ The LORD has opened his treasury and has brought forth the vessels of his indignation; for this is the work of the Lord GOD of the hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ Come against her from the ends of the earth, open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps and 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 those that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.

²⁹ Call together the archers against Babylon; all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her; for she has become proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰ Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, said the LORD.