37. Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots.Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her;they will be as frightened as women!Destructive forces will come against her treasures;they will be taken away as plunder!
38. A drought will come upon her land;her rivers and canals will be dried up.All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols.Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear.
39. Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there.Ostriches will dwell in it too.But no people will ever live there again.No one will dwell there for all time to come.
40. I will destroy Babylonia just like I didSodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.No one will live there.No human being will settle in it,”says the Lord.
41. “Look! An army is about to come from the north.A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.
42. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.They are cruel and show no mercy.They sound like the roaring seaas they ride forth on their horses.Lined up in formation like men going into battle,they are coming against you, fair Babylon!
43. The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fearwhen he hears news of their coming.Anguish will grip him,agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.
44. “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordanscatters the sheep in the pastureland around it.So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land.Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose.For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account.There is no ruler that can stand up against me.
45. So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon,what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia.Their little ones will be dragged off.I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.
46. The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured.Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.”