12. I will make people scarcer than gold, even than the pure gold of Ophir.
13. Therefore I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of Adonai-Tzva’ot, in the day of His fierce fury.
14. It will be like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one gathering. Each will return to his own people, each will flee to his own country.
15. Everyone found will be thrust through. Everyone caught will fall by the sword.
16. Their babes will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished.
17. Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who will not value silver and will take no delight in gold.
18. Their bows will cut down the young men, with no pity on the fruit of the womb, nor will their eye spare children.
19. So Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of Chaldean pride, will be just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20. It will never be inhabited, nor will it be dwelt in from generation to generation, nor will an Arab pitch a tent there, nor will shepherds let flocks lie there.
21. But desert creatures will lie there. Their houses will be full of owls. Ostriches will dwell there, and goat-demons will dance there.
22. Hyenas will howl in their citadels and jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come— her days will not drag on long.