⁵ They come from distant countries,
    from beyond the farthest horizons.
They are the Lord’s weapons to carry out his anger.
    With them he will destroy the whole land.

²⁴ “I will repay Babylon
    and the people of Babylonia^[b]
for all the wrong they have done
    to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.

²⁵ “Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth!
    I am your enemy,” says the Lord.
“I will raise my fist against you,
    to knock you down from the heights.
When I am finished,
    you will be nothing but a heap of burnt rubble.
²⁶ You will be desolate forever.
    Even your stones will never again be used for building.
You will be completely wiped out,”
    says the Lord.

²⁷ Raise a signal flag to the nations.
    Sound the battle cry!
Mobilize them all against Babylon.
    Prepare them to fight against her!
Bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
    Appoint a commander,
    and bring a multitude of horses like swarming locusts!
²⁸ Bring against her the armies of the nations—
    led by the kings of the Medes
    and all their captains and officers.

²⁹ The earth trembles and writhes in pain,
    for everything the Lord has planned against Babylon stands unchanged.
Babylon will be left desolate without a single inhabitant.
³⁰     Her mightiest warriors no longer fight.
They stay in their barracks, their courage gone.
    They have become like women.
The invaders have burned the houses
    and broken down the city gates.
³¹ The news is passed from one runner to the next
    as the messengers hurry to tell the king
    that his city has been captured.
³² All the escape routes are blocked.
    The marshes have been set aflame,
    and the army is in a panic.

³³ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    the God of Israel, says:
“Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor,
    about to be trampled.
In just a little while
    her harvest will begin.”

³⁴ “King Nebuchadnezzar^[c] of Babylon has eaten and crushed us
    and drained us of strength.
He has swallowed us like a great monster
    and filled his belly with our riches.
    He has thrown us out of our own country.
³⁵ Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,”
    say the people of Zion.
“Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,”
    says Jerusalem.

“I will be your lawyer to plead your case,
    and I will avenge you.
I will dry up her river,
    as well as her springs,
³⁷ and Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
    haunted by jackals.
She will be an object of horror and contempt,
    a place where no one lives.
³⁸ Her people will roar together like strong lions.
    They will growl like lion cubs.
³⁹ And while they lie inflamed with all their wine,
    I will prepare a different kind of feast for them.
I will make them drink until they fall asleep,
    and they will never wake up again,”
    says the Lord.
⁴⁰ “I will bring them down
    like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats to be sacrificed.

⁴¹ “How Babylon^[d] is fallen—
    great Babylon, praised throughout the earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
    among the nations.
⁴² The sea has risen over Babylon;
    she is covered by its crashing waves.
⁴³ Her cities now lie in ruins;
    she is a dry wasteland
    where no one lives or even passes by.
⁴⁴ And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon,
    and make him vomit up all he has eaten.
The nations will no longer come and worship him.
    The wall of Babylon has fallen!

¹¹ Sharpen the arrows!
    Lift up the shields!^[a]
For the Lord has inspired the kings of the Medes
    to march against Babylon and destroy her.
This is his vengeance against those
    who desecrated his Temple.

⁹ For I am raising up an army
    of great nations from the north.
They will join forces to attack Babylon,
    and she will be captured.
The enemies’ arrows will go straight to the mark;
    they will not miss!

³ For a nation will attack her from the north
    and bring such destruction that no one will live there again.
Everything will be gone;
    both people and animals will flee.

¹⁷ “Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon.
    They cannot be tempted by silver
    or bribed with gold.

²⁶ He will send a signal to distant nations far away
    and whistle to those at the ends of the earth.
    They will come racing toward Jerusalem.