33 For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says:

Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor

at the time it is trampled.m

In just a little while her harvest time will come.n

34 “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me;

he has crushed me.

He has set me aside like an empty dish;

he has swallowed me like a sea monster;o

he filled his belly with my delicacies;

he has vomited me out.C

35 Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon,”

says the inhabitant of Zion.

“Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

says Jerusalem.

36 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

I am about to champion your causep

and take vengeance on your behalf;

I will dry up her seaq

and make her fountain run dry.

37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble,

a jackals’ den,

a desolation and an object of scorn,r

without inhabitant.s

38 They will roar together like young lions;

they will growl like lion cubs.

39 While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast,

and I will make them drunk so that they celebrate.A,a

Then they will fall asleep forever

and never wake up.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

like rams together with male goats.b

41 How SheshakB,c has been captured,d

the praisee of the whole earth seized.

What a horror Babylon has become

among the nations!f

42 The sea has risen over Babylon;g

she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

43 Her cities have become a desolation,h

an arid desert,

a land where no one lives,

where no human being even passes through.

44 I will punish Beli in Babylon.

I will make him vomit what he swallowed.j

The nations will no longer stream to him;k

even Babylon’s wall will fall.

45 Come out from among her, my people!l

Save your lives, each of you,m

from the Lord’s burning anger.

46 May you not become cowardly and fearful

when the report is proclaimed in the land,

for the report will come one year,

and then another the next year.

There will be violence in the land

with ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore, look, the days are comingn

when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.o

Her entire land will suffer shame,

and all her slain will lie fallen within her.p

48 Heaven and earth and everything in them

will shout for joyq over Babylon

because the destroyers from the northr

will come against her.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

49 Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel,

even as the slain of the whole earth fell

because of Babylon.

50 You who have escaped the sword,s

go and do not stand still!

Remember the Lord from far away,

and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

51 We are ashamed

because we have heard insults.t

Humiliation covers our faces

because foreigners have entered

the holy places of the Lord’s temple.u

52 Therefore, look, the days are coming—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

when I will punish her carved images,

and the wounded will groan

throughout her land.

53 Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavensv

and fortify her tall fortresses,

destroyers will come against her from me.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

54 The sound of a cry from Babylon!w

The sound of terrible destructionx

from the land of the Chaldeans!

55 For the Lord is going to devastate Babylon;

he will silence her mighty voice.

Their waves roar like a huge torrent;

the tumult of their voice resounds,

56 for a destroyer is coming against her,

against Babylon.

Her warriors will be captured,

their bows shattered,

for the Lord is a God of retribution;

he will certainly repay.

57 I will make her princes and sages drunk,

along with her governors, officials, and warriors.

Then they will fall asleep forever

and never wake up.y

This is the King’s declaration;

the Lord of Armies is his name.a

58 This is what the Lord of Armies says:

Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,b

and her high gates set ablaze.

The peoples will have labored for nothing;c

the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire.