Add parallel Print Page Options

36 Therefore thus says the Lord:
I am going to defend your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,(A)
37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    a den of jackals,
an object of horror and of hissing,
    without inhabitant.(B)

38 Like lions they shall roar together;
    they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
39 When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink
    and make them drunk, until they become merry
and then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and never wake, says the Lord.(C)
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats.(D)

41 How Sheshach[a] is taken;
    the pride of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    an object of horror among the nations!(E)
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;
    she has been covered by its tumultuous waves.(F)
43 Her cities have become an object of horror,
    a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one lives
    and through which no mortal passes.(G)
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon
    and make him disgorge what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer stream to him;
    the wall of Babylon has fallen.(H)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 51.41 That is, Babylon

The Lord’s Vengeance on Babylon

36 This is what the Lord says to Jerusalem:

“I will be your lawyer to plead your case,
    and I will avenge you.
I will dry up her river,
    as well as her springs,
37 and Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
    haunted by jackals.
She will be an object of horror and contempt,
    a place where no one lives.
38 Her people will roar together like strong lions.
    They will growl like lion cubs.
39 And while they lie inflamed with all their wine,
    I will prepare a different kind of feast for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
    and they will never wake up again,”
    says the Lord.
40 “I will bring them down
    like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats to be sacrificed.

41 “How Babylon[a] is fallen—
    great Babylon, praised throughout the earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
    among the nations.
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;
    she is covered by its crashing waves.
43 Her cities now lie in ruins;
    she is a dry wasteland
    where no one lives or even passes by.
44 And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon,
    and make him vomit up all he has eaten.
The nations will no longer come and worship him.
    The wall of Babylon has fallen!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 51:41 Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon.