⁸ Nineveh is like a pool
    whose water is draining away.
“Stop! Stop!” they cry,
    but no one turns back.

¹⁷ Your guards are like locusts,^(A)
    your officials like swarms of locusts
    that settle in the walls on a cold day—
but when the sun appears they fly away,
    and no one knows where.

³⁰ Babylon’s warriors^(A) have stopped fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength is exhausted;
    they have become weaklings.^(B)
Her dwellings are set on fire;^(C)
    the bars^(D) of her gates are broken.

¹⁶ Cut off from Babylon the sower,
    and the reaper with his sickle at harvest.
Because of the sword^(A) of the oppressor
    let everyone return to their own people,^(B)
    let everyone flee to their own land.^(C)

⁵ What do I see?
    They are terrified,
they are retreating,
    their warriors are defeated.
They flee^(A) in haste
    without looking back,
    and there is terror^(B) on every side,”
declares the Lord.

²⁰ Leave Babylon,
    flee^(A) from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy^(B)
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;^(C)
    say, “The Lord has redeemed^(D) his servant Jacob.”

¹³ All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!^(A)
    Let your astrologers^(B) come forward,
those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
    let them save^(C) you from what is coming upon you.