28. Prepare the nations to do battle against her.Prepare the kings of the Medes.Prepare their governors and all their leaders.Prepare all the countries they rule to do battle against her.
29. The earth will tremble and writhe in agony.For the Lord will carry out his plan.He plans to make the land of Babyloniaa wasteland where no one lives.
30. The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting.They will remain in their fortified cities.They will lose their strength to do battle.They will be as frightened as women.The houses in her cities will be set on fire.The gates of her cities will be broken down.
31. One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon.One messenger after another will come bringing news.They will bring news to the king of Babylonthat his whole city has been captured.
32. They will report that the fords have been captured,the reed marshes have been burned,the soldiers are terrified.
33. For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says,‘Fair Babylon will be like a threshing floorwhich has been trampled flat for harvest.The time for her to be cut down and harvestedwill come very soon.’
34. “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylondevoured me and drove my people out.Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me.He filled his belly with my riches.He made me an empty dish.He completely cleaned me out.”
35. The person who lives in Zion says,“May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.”Jerusalem says,“May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.”
36. Therefore the Lord says,“I will stand up for your cause.I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you.I will dry up their sea.I will make their springs run dry.
37. Babylon will become a heap of ruins.Jackals will make their home there.It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn,a place where no one lives.
38. The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey.They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat.
39. When their appetites are all stirred up,I will set out a banquet for them.I will make them drunkso that they will pass out,they will fall asleep forever,they will never wake up,”says the Lord.
40. “I will lead them off to be slaughteredlike lambs, rams, and male goats.”
41. “See how Babylon has been captured!See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken!See what an object of horrorBabylon has become among the nations!
42. The sea has swept over Babylon.She has been covered by a multitude of its waves.
43. The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins.She has become a dry and barren desert.No one lives in those towns any more.No one even passes through them.