“How it is broken down! How they have wailed! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab will become a laughingstock and a [horrifying] terror to all who are around him.”

Prophecy against Damascus

Concerning Damascus [in Syria]. “Hamath and Arpad are perplexed and shamed, For they have heard bad news; They are disheartened; Troubled and anxious like a [storm-tossed] sea Which cannot be calmed.

“Declare among the nations. Lift up a signal [to spread the news]—publish and proclaim it, Do not conceal it; say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel [the patron god] has been shamed, Marduk (Bel) has been shattered. Babylon’s images have been shamed, her [worthless] idols have been thrown down.’

Your mother [Babylon] shall be greatly shamed; She who gave you birth will be ashamed. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, A wilderness, a parched land and a desert.

Every man has become stupid and brutelike, without knowledge [of God]; Every goldsmith is shamed by the cast images he has made; For his molten idols are a lie, And there is no breath [of life] or spirit in them.

“Therefore behold (listen carefully), the days are coming When I will judge and punish the idols of Babylon; Her whole land will be perplexed and shamed, And all her slain will fall in her midst.