“How terrible, how terrible for you,
    O Babylon, you great city!
In a single moment
    God’s judgment came on you.”

“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
    The shipowners became wealthy
    by transporting her great wealth on the seas.
In a single moment it is all gone.”

⁸ Therefore, these plagues will overtake her in a single day—
    death and mourning and famine.
She will be completely consumed by fire,
    for the Lord God who judges her is mighty.”

¹⁶ “How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
    She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens,
    decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!
¹⁷ In a single moment
    all the wealth of the city is gone!”

“There will be crying in all the public squares
    and mourning in every street.
Call for the farmers to weep with you,
    and summon professional mourners to wail.

¹⁵ The day of the Lord is near,
    the day when destruction comes from the Almighty.
    How terrible that day will be!

⁸ But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen.
    Weep for her.
Give her medicine.
    Perhaps she can yet be healed.
⁹ We would have helped her if we could,
    but nothing can save her now.
Let her go; abandon her.
    Return now to your own land.
For her punishment reaches to the heavens;
    it is so great it cannot be measured.

⁷ In all history there has never been such a time of terror.
    It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel.^[a]
    Yet in the end they will be saved!