8. Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Sob over it! Get healing lotion for its pain. Perhaps it can be healed.
9. "The nations say, 'We would have healed Babylon. But it can't be healed. So let's leave it. Let's each go to our own land. Babylon 's sins reach all the way to the skies. They rise up as high as the clouds.'
10. "The people of Judah say, 'The Lord has made things right for us again. So come. Let's tell in Zion what the Lord our God has done.'
11. "I have stirred up you kings of the Medes. So sharpen your arrows! Get your shields! I plan to destroy Babylon. I will pay the Babylonians back. They have destroyed my temple.
12. Lift up a banner! Attack Babylon's walls! Put more guards on duty! Station more of them to watch over you! Hide and wait to attack them! I will do what I have planned. I will do what I have decided to do against the people of Babylon.
13. You who live by the rivers of Babylon, your end has come. You who are rich in treasures, it is time for you to be destroyed.
14. I am the Lord who rules over all. I have made a promise with an oath in my own name. I have said, 'I will certainly fill your land with soldiers. They will be as many as a huge number of locusts. They will win the battle over you. They will shout for joy.'
15. "I used my power to make the earth. I used my wisdom to set the world in place. I used my understanding to spread the heavens out.
16. When I thunder, the waters in the heavens roar. I make clouds rise from one end of the earth to the other. I send lightning with the rain. I bring out the wind from my storerooms.
17. "No one has any sense. No one knows anything. Everyone who works with gold is put to shame by his wooden gods. His metal gods are fakes. They can't even breathe.
18. They are worthless. People make fun of them. When I judge them, they will be destroyed.
19. I am not like them. I am the God of Jacob. I give my people everything they need. I can do it because I made everything, including Israel. It is the nation that belongs to me. My name is The Lord Who Rules Over All.
20. "Babylonia, you are my war club. You are my weapon for battle. I use you to destroy nations. I use you to wipe out kingdoms.
21. I use you to destroy horses and their riders. I use you to destroy chariots and their drivers.
22. I use you to destroy men and women. I use you to destroy old people and young people. I use you to destroy young men and young women.
23. I use you to destroy shepherds and their flocks. I use you to destroy farmers and their oxen. I use you to destroy governors and officials.