2. “Announce this to the nations.Lift up a banner and tell them.Speak the whole message and say:‘Babylon will be captured.The god Bel will be put to shame.The god Marduk will be very afraid.Babylon’s idols will be put to shame.Her idols will be filled with terror!’
3. A nation from the north will attack Babylon.That nation will make Babylon like an empty desert.No people will live there.Both men and animals will run away from there.”
4. The Lord says, “At that timethe people of Israel and Judah will be together.They will cry and look for the Lord their God.
5. Those people will ask how to go to Jerusalem.They will start to go in that direction.They will come and join themselves to the Lord.They will make an agreement that will last forever.It will be an agreement that will never be forgotten.
6. “My people have been like lost sheep.Their leaders have led them in the wrong way.Their leaders made them wander around in the mountains and hills.They forgot where their resting place was.
7. Whoever found my people hurt them.And those enemies said, ‘We did nothing wrong.Those people sinned against the Lord, their true resting place.He was the God their fathers trusted.’
8. “Run away from Babylon.Leave the land of the Babylonians.Be like the goats that lead the flock.
9. I will bring against Babylonmany nations from the north.This group of nations will take their places for war against Babylon.Babylon will be captured by people from the north.Their arrows are like trained soldierswho do not return from war with empty hands.
10. The enemy will take all the wealth from the Babylonians.Those enemy soldiers will get all they want!” says the Lord.
11. “Babylon, you are excited and happy.You took my land.You dance around like a young cow in the grain.Your laughter is like the neighing of male horses.
12. Your mother will be very ashamed.The woman who gave you birth will be disgraced.Babylonia will be the least important of all the nations.She will be an empty, dry desert.
13. The Lord will show his anger.No people will live there.Babylon will be completely empty.Everyone who passes by Babylon will be afraid.They will shake their heads when they see how it has been destroyed.
14. “Take your positions for war against Babylon,all you soldiers with bows.Shoot your arrows at Babylon! Do not save any of them.This is because Babylon has sinned against the Lord.
15. Soldiers around Babylon, shout the war cry!Babylon has surrendered. Her towers have fallen.Her walls have been torn down.The Lord is giving them the punishment they deserve.You nations should give Babylon what she deserves.Do to her what she has done to others.
16. Don’t let the people from Babylon plant their crops.Don’t let them gather the harvest.The soldiers of Babylon treated their captives cruelly.Now, let everyone go back home!Let everyone run to his own country.
17. “The people of Israel are like a flock of sheep that are scattered.They are like sheep that have been chased away by lions.The first lion to eat them upwas the king of Assyria.The last lion to crush their boneswas Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
18. So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says:“I will punish the king of Babylon and his country.I will punish him as I punished the king of Assyria.
19. But I will bring the people of Israel back to their own pasture.They will eat on Mount Carmel and in Bashan.They will eat and be full.They will eat on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.”