²⁶ O daughter of my people,
^(A)Dress in sackcloth
^(B)And roll about in ashes!
^(C)Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation;
For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.

⁸ Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them ^(A)suddenly.

⁷ I will prepare destroyers against you,
Everyone with his weapons;
They shall cut down ^(A)your choice cedars
^(B)And cast them into the fire.

⁸ And ^(A)the plunderer shall come against every city;
No one shall escape.
The valley also shall perish,
And the plain shall be destroyed,
As the Lord has spoken.

^53 (A)Though Babylon were to ^[a]mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.

³¹ I will ^(A)pour out My indignation on you;
I will ^(B)blow against you with the fire of My wrath,
And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to ^(C)destroy.