1. This is the message that the Lord gave me about the city of Babylon and its people:
2. “Tell the news to the nations! Proclaim it!Give the signal and announce the news!Do not keep it a secret!Babylon has fallen!Her god Marduk has been shattered!Babylon's idols are put to shame,her disgusting images are crushed!
3. “A nation from the north has come to attack Babylonia and will make it a desert. People and animals will run away, and no one will live there.”
4. The Lord says, “When that time comes, the people of both Israel and Judah will come weeping, looking for me, their God.
5. They will ask the way to Zion and then go in that direction. They will make an eternal covenant with me and never break it.
6. “My people are like sheep whose shepherds have let them get lost in the mountains. They have wandered like sheep from one mountain to another, and they have forgotten where their home is.