¹¹ Because you rejoice,
because you celebrate—
you who plundered my inheritance—
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions,^(A)
12 your mother^(B) will be utterly humiliated;
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all^[a] the nations—
an arid wilderness, a desert.^(C)
13 Because of the Lord’s wrath,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be appalled
and scoff because of all her wounds.^(D)
14 Line up in battle formation around Babylon,
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ Raise a war cry against her on every side!
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.^(E)
Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,^(F)
take your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,^(G)
each will turn to his own people,^(H)
each will flee to his own land.

¹⁷ Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions.^(I)
The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last who crushed his bones
was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.^(J)

¹⁹ I will return Israel to his grazing land,^(L)
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.^(M)
20 In those days and at that time—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
one will search for Israel’s iniquity,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive^(N) those I leave as a remnant.^(O)

²¹ Attack the land of Merathaim,
and those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
completely destroy them—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
do everything I have commanded you.^(P)
22 The sound of war is in the land^(Q)—
a crushing blow!
²³ How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!^(R)
24 Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,^(S)
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you pitted yourself against the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord opened his armory
and brought out his weapons of wrath,^(T)
because it is a task of the Lord God of Armies
in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from the most distant places.^[b]
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
²⁷ Put all her young bulls to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.^(U)

²⁸ There is a voice of fugitives and refugees
from the land of Babylon.
The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
the vengeance for his temple.^(V)
29 Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;^(W)
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.^(X)
30 Therefore, her young men will fall
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the Lord’s declaration.^(Y)
31 Look, I am against you, you arrogant one—
this is the declaration of
the Lord God of Armies—
for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
³² The arrogant will stumble and fall^(Z)
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.^(AA)

Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast;^(AB)
they refuse to release them.
³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong;
the Lord of Armies is his name.
He will fervently champion their cause^(AC)
so that he might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.^(AD)
35 A sword is over the Chaldeans—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
³⁶ A sword is against the diviners,
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
³⁷ A sword is against his horses and chariots
and against all the foreigners among them,^(AE)
and they will be like women.^(AF)
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
³⁸ A drought will come on her waters,
and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images,
and they go mad because of terrifying things.^[c](AG)

⁴¹ Look! A people comes from the north.^(AK)
A great nation and many kings will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.^(AL)
42 They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,^(AM)
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Babylon.
⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard about them;
his hands have become weak.
Distress has seized him—
pain, like a woman in labor.^(AN)

I am about to rouse the spirit of a destroyer^[a] against Babylon^(A)
and against the population of Leb-qamai.^[b][c]
2 I will send strangers to Babylon
who will scatter her and strip her land bare,^(B)
for they will come against her
from every side in the day of disaster.
³ Don’t let the archer string his bow;
don’t let him put on^[d] his armor.^(C)
Don’t spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!
⁴ Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
those who were pierced through, in her streets.^(D)
5 For Israel and Judah are not left widowed
by their God, the Lord of Armies,
though their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.^(E)

I will fill you up with men as with locusts,
and they will sing the victory song over you.