21. “Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill and utterly destroy after them,” says Yahweh, “and do according to all that I have commanded you.
22. A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
23. How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
24. I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware. You are found, and also caught, because you have fought against Yahweh.
25. Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought out the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
26. Come against her from the farthest border. Open her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps. Destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left.
27. Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.
28. Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.
29. “Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Recompense her according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.
30. Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says Yahweh.
31. “Behold, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; “for your day has come, the time that I will visit you.
32. The proud one will stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are around him.”
33. Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go.
34. Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35. “A sword is on the Chaldeans,” says Yahweh, “and on the inhabitants of Babylon, on her princes, and on her wise men.
36. A sword is on the boasters, and they will become fools. A sword is on her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
37. A sword is on their horses, on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they will become as women. A sword is on her treasures, and they will be robbed.
38. A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.