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.^(A)
22 The sound of war is in the land^(B)—
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!^(C)
24 Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,^(D)
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,^(E)
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.^[a]
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.^(F)

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.^(G)
29 Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;^(H)
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.^(I)
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.^(J)