16. Take from Babylon all those who plant crops;send all the harvesters away.Because of the sword of the enemy,everyone will run away and rush back to their own lands.
17. “The Israelites are like sheepthat have been scattered by lions.First the king of Assyria ate them up.Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cracked their bones.”
18. Therefore, this is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies,the God of Israel, says:“Now I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19. And I will bring Israel home again to its own land,to feed in the fields of Carmel and Bashan,and to be satisfied once morein the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.
20. In those days,” says the lord,“no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah,for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
21. “Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaimand against the people of Pekod.Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them,as I have commanded you,” says the lord.
22. “Let the battle cry be heard in the land,a shout of great destruction.
23. Babylon, the mightiest hammer in all the earth,lies broken and shattered.Babylon is desolate among the nations!
24. Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you.You are caught, for you have fought against the lord.
25. The lord has opened his armoryand brought out weapons to vent his fury.The terror that falls upon the Babylonianswill be the work of the Sovereign lord of Heaven’s Armies.
26. Yes, come against her from distant lands.Break open her granaries.Crush her walls and houses into heaps of rubble.Destroy her completely, and leave nothing!
27. Destroy even her young bulls—it will be terrible for them, too!Slaughter them all!For Babylon’s day of reckoning has come.
28. Listen to the people who have escaped from Babylon,as they tell in Jerusalemhow the lord our God has taken vengeanceagainst those who destroyed his Temple.
29. “Send out a call for archers to come to Babylon.Surround the city so none can escape.Do to her as she has done to others,for she has defied the lord, the Holy One of Israel.
30. Her young men will fall in the streets and die.Her soldiers will all be killed,”says the lord.