Beginning

Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does Milcom^[a] possess Gad?
Why do his people live in Israel’s cities?
² Watch, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will sound a battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites,
and it will become a desolate heap.
Her villages will be burned down,
and then Israel will possess those who possessed him,
declares the Lord.
³ Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste!
Cry, you daughters of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth and mourn.
Run back and forth behind the walls,
because Milcom is about to go into captivity,
with his priests and his officials.
⁴ Why do you boast about your valleys,
your flowing valley, you backsliding daughter?
You trusted in your treasures, saying,
“Who will come against me?”
⁵ Look out! I will bring terror upon you,
says the Lord God of Armies,
terror from every side.
All of you will be completely driven out,
and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives.

⁶ But afterward I will restore the captives of the Ammonites,
declares the Lord.

Is there no more wisdom in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?^[b]
Has their wisdom vanished?
⁸ Flee! Turn back!
Dwell in the depths, you who live in Dedan,
for I will bring the disaster of Esau on him when I punish him.
⁹ If grape pickers came to you,
wouldn’t they leave some grapes for gleaning?
If thieves came by night,
wouldn’t they stop when they had stolen enough?
¹⁰ But I have stripped Esau bare.
I have uncovered his secret places,
and he will not be able to hide himself.
His offspring are destroyed,
along with his brothers and his neighbors,
and he is no more.
¹¹ Leave your fatherless children.
I will preserve their lives.
Let your widows trust in me.

¹⁴ I have heard news from the Lord,
and a messenger has been sent to the nations:
“Gather yourselves together,
and come against her!
Rise up for the battle!”

¹⁵ Look, I have made you small among the nations
and despised among mankind.
¹⁶ The terror you instill has deceived you,
the pride of your heart.
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
who occupy the high point of the hill,
even though you make your nest as high as the eagle’s nest,
I will bring you down from there, declares the Lord.
¹⁷ Edom will become a horror.
Everyone who passes by it will be shocked,
and they will hiss because of all its disasters.
¹⁸ As Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring cities were overthrown,
says the Lord,
no one will live there.
Not one person will dwell in it.

¹⁹ Watch this.
Like a lion coming out of the thickets of the Jordan
    into the pastures that are always green,
I will suddenly chase Edom away from its land,
and I will appoint whomever I choose over it.
For who is like me?
Who can challenge me?
What shepherd can stand before me?
²⁰ Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned for Edom,
what he intends to do against the people of Teman.
Even the little ones of the flock will be dragged away.
He will make their pasture desolate because of them.
²¹ The earth will tremble at the noise of their fall.
Their cry will be heard all the way to the Red Sea.
²² Watch, he will come up and fly like an eagle.
He will spread out his wings against Bozrah.
In that day the hearts of the strong warriors of Edom
    will be like the heart of a woman during her labor pains.

Hamath and Arpad are troubled,
for they have heard bad news.
They melt in fear.
Like a troubled sea,
they cannot find rest.
²⁴ Damascus has become feeble.
She turns to flee.
Panic has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,
    like those of a woman in labor.
²⁵ Why is this famous city not yet forsaken,^[c]
the joyful city?^[d]
26 Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets,
and all her warriors will be destroyed on that day,
declares the Lord of Armies.
²⁷ I will set fire to the walls of Damascus,
and it will devour the citadels of Ben Hadad.

Arise, go up to Kedar,
and destroy the people of the East.
²⁹ Their tents and their flocks will be taken,
their tent curtains and everything in their tents.
Their camels will be taken away from them,
and men will shout to them, “Terror on every side!”
³⁰ Quick, fly away!
Hide in deep caves, you who live in Hazor,
declares the Lord,
because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has plotted against you,
and he has made plans to defeat you.
³¹ Arise! Attack a nation at ease, that lives without care,
declares the Lord,
a nation that has neither gates nor bars, that lives by itself.
³² Their camels will be plunder,
and their vast herds of livestock a prize.
I will scatter to all the winds those who live in distant places,^[e]
and I will bring disaster on them from every side,
declares the Lord.
³³ Hazor will be a place where jackals live,
a desolate place forever.
No man will live there.
No one will live in that place even as a temporary resident.

³⁵ This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Look, I will break the bow of Elam,^[f]
the main source of its power.
³⁶ I will bring against Elam the four winds,
from the four corners of the sky.
I will scatter its people to the four winds.
There will not be a nation
    where the outcasts of Elam do not go.
³⁷ I will make Elam terrified of their enemies,
those who seek their lives.
I will bring disaster on them,
namely, my fierce anger, declares the Lord,
and I will send the sword after them,
until I have consumed them.
³⁸ I will set up my throne in Elam,
and there I will destroy their king and officials,
declares the Lord.

³⁹ Yet I will reverse the captivity of Elam in days to come,
declares the Lord.

² Declare and proclaim this among the nations.
Set up a signal flag.
Proclaim and do not hide it.
Say this:
Babylon has been taken.
Bel has been put to shame.
Marduk is terrified.
Babylon’s images have been put to shame.
Her filthy idols are terrified.
³ A nation has come up against her out of the north.
It will make her land desolate,
and no one will dwell in it.
Both man and animal have wandered away.
They are gone.

⁴ In those days, and in that time, declares the Lord,
the people of Israel will come,
they and the people of Judah together with them.
They will come weeping,
and they will seek the Lord their God.
⁵ They will ask the way to Zion and turn toward it,
saying, “Come, join yourselves to the Lord
    in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.”
⁶ My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have turned them aside on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill.
They have forgotten their resting place.
⁷ All who found them have devoured them.
Their enemies said, “We are not guilty,
because they sinned against the Lord,
who is their rightful pasture,
the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”

⁸ Flee from Babylon!
Leave the land of the Chaldeans.
Be like the male goats that lead the flock.
⁹ Watch, I will stir up and bring against Babylon
    an assembly of great nations from the land of the north.
They will array themselves against her,
and she will be taken away captive from there.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior
    who does not return empty-handed.
¹⁰ Chaldea will be plundered.
All who prey on her will have their fill, declares the Lord.

¹¹ Because you are glad and rejoice,
you who plunder my inheritance,
because you leap like a heifer that treads out the grain,
and you neigh like strong horses,
¹² your mother will be completely put to shame.
She who gave birth to you will be humiliated.
Watch, she will become the least of the nations,
a wilderness, a desert, a wasteland.
¹³ Because of the Lord’s wrath she will not be inhabited.
She will be completely desolate.
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be astonished.
Everyone will mock her because of all her wounds.
¹⁴ Line up for battle against Babylon and surround her.
All you who bend the bow, shoot at her.
Don’t save any arrows,
because she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ Shout against her from all sides.
She surrenders!
Her fortifications^[g] have fallen.
Her walls have been thrown down.
This is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her!
Do to her as she has done to others!
¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon,
and the one who swings the sickle at harvest time.
They will each return to their own people.
They will each flee to their own land
    because they fear the sword of the oppressor.

¹⁷ Israel is a scattered flock of sheep that lions have chased away.
First, the king of Assyria devoured him.
Now, the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
¹⁸ Therefore this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
I will certainly punish the king of Babylon and his land,
as I punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹ I will restore Israel to his pasture.
He will feed on Carmel and in Bashan.
His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
²⁰ In those days and at that time, declares the Lord,
the guilt of Israel will be sought,
but there will be none.
The sins of Judah will be sought,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive the survivors whom I spare.

²¹ Go up against the land of Merathaim
and against those who live in Pekod.
Kill them and destroy them, declares the Lord.
Do everything I have commanded you.
²² The noise of battle is in the land,
the noise of great destruction.
²³ How the hammer of the whole earth
    is smashed and broken to pieces!
How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
²⁴ I set a trap for you, Babylon,
and you were caught before you knew it.
You were found and captured,
because you fought against the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened his arsenal
and brought out his weapons of wrath,
for the Lord God of Armies has work to do
    in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from far away.
Open up her granaries,
and pile her up like heaps of grain.
Destroy her completely.
Let nothing be left.
²⁷ Kill all her young bulls.^[h]
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
the time for their punishment.
²⁸ Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon!
They proclaim in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
vengeance for what was done to his temple.

²⁹ Call the archers to Babylon,
all those who bend the bow.
Set up camp all around her.
Don’t let her escape.
Pay her back for her deeds.
Do to her what she has done,
because she has defied the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
³⁰ Therefore her young men will fall in the streets.
All her soldiers will be silenced in that day, declares the Lord.
³¹ Look, I am against you, you proud one, declares the Lord God of Armies.
Your day has come,
the time for your punishment.
³² The proud king^[i] will stumble and fall,
and no one will help him up.
In his cities I will start a fire
    that will consume everyone around him.

³³ This is what the Lord of Armies says.
The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast.
They refuse to let them go.
³⁴ But their Redeemer is strong.
The Lord of Armies is his name.
He himself will take up their cause
    so that he may bring rest to the earth,
    and unrest to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵ A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord,
and against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials and her wise men!
³⁶ A sword against her empty boasters!
They will become fools.
A sword against her strong warriors!
They will be filled with terror.
³⁷ A sword against their horses and chariots!
All the foreigners in her ranks will become as weak as women.
A sword against her treasures!
They will be looted.
³⁸ A sword against her waters!
They will be dried up,
because it is a land of idols,
and they are driven mad by those dreadful images.
³⁹ That is why desert animals and hyenas^[j] will live there,
and shrieking ostriches will dwell there.
It will never again be inhabited.
It will never be lived in from generation to generation.
⁴⁰ Just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord,
no one will dwell there.
No one will live there even as a temporary resident.

⁴¹ Look! A people comes from the north!
A great nation and many kings are being stirred up
    from the ends of the earth.
⁴² They take up bow and spear.
They are cruel and merciless.
Their roar sounds like the sea.
They ride on horses,
arrayed in battle formation against you, daughter of Babylon.
⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
and his hands hang limp.
Anguish grips him,
pains like a woman in labor.
⁴⁴ Watch this!
Like a lion coming out of the thickets of the Jordan
    into the pastures that are always green,
I will suddenly chase Babylon away from its land,
and I will appoint whomever I choose over it.
For who is like me?
Who can challenge me?
    What shepherd can stand before me?

⁴⁵ Therefore hear what the Lord has planned for Babylon,
and what he intends to do against the land of the Chaldeans:
Even the little ones of the flock will be dragged away.
He will make their pasture desolate because of them.
⁴⁶ The earth will tremble at the noise of Babylon’s fall.
Their cry will be heard among the nations.