⁴¹ Then the Israelites counterattacked,^(A) and the Benjamites were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come^(B) on them.

Threefold Woe Over Babylon’s Fall

⁹ “When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her^(C) and shared her luxury^(D) see the smoke of her burning,^(E) they will weep and mourn over her.^{(F) 10} Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off^(G) and cry:

¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free,^(A) hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.^{(B) 16} They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us^(C) and hide us^[a] from the face of him who sits on the throne^(D) and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the great day^(E) of their^[b] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”^(F)

¹² But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.^(A)

³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,”^(A) destruction will come on them suddenly,^(B) as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.^(C)

²⁶ People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.^(A)

²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot.^(A) People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.