²¹ “Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of ^(A)Pekod.
^[a]Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord,
“And do ^(B)according to all that I have commanded you.
^22 (C)A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
²³ How ^(D)the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
²⁴ I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been ^(E)trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have ^(F)contended against the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened His armory,
And has brought out ^(G)the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
²⁷ Slay all her ^(H)bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of ^(I)their punishment.
²⁸ The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
^(J)Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance of His temple.

²⁹ “Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them ^[b]escape.
^(K)Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
^(L)For she has been proud against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
^30 (M)Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord.