30  The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;

they remain in their strongholds;

their strength has failed;

pthey have become women;

qher dwellings are on fire;

rher bars are broken.

31  One srunner runs to meet another,

and one messenger to meet another,

to tell the king of Babylon

that his city is taken on every side;

32  the fords have been tseized,

the marshes are burned with fire,

and the soldiers are in panic.

33  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

uThe daughter of Babylon is like ua threshing floor

at the time when it is trodden;

yet a little while

and vthe time of her harvest will come.”

34  “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon whas devoured me;

he has crushed me;

he has made me an empty vessel;

xhe has swallowed me like ya monster;

he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;

he has rinsed me out.4

35  The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”

let the inhabitant of Zion say.

“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”

let Jerusalem say.

36  Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, zI will plead your cause

and take vengeance for you.

aI will dry up her sea

and bmake her fountain dry,

37  and Babylon shall become ca heap of ruins,

dthe haunt of jackals,

ea horror eand a hissing,

without inhabitant.

38  f“They shall roar together glike lions;

they shall growl like lions’ cubs.

39  hWhile they are inflamed hI will prepare them a feast

and imake them drunk, that they may become merry,

ithen sleep a perpetual sleep

and not wake, declares the Lord.

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

like rams and male goats.

41  “How jBabylon5 is taken,

kthe praise of the whole earth lseized!

How Babylon has become

a horror among the nations!

42  mThe sea has come up on Babylon;

she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

43  Her cities have become a horror,

na land of drought and a desert,

oa land in which no one dwells,

and through which no son of man passes.

44  And I will punish pBel in Babylon,

and qtake out of his mouth rwhat he has swallowed.

sThe nations shall no longer flow to him;

tthe wall of Babylon has fallen.

45  “Go out of the midst of her, umy people!

Let every one save his life

from vthe fierce anger of the Lord!

46  Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful

wat the report heard in the land,

xwhen a report comes in one year

and afterward a report in another year,

and violence is in the land,

xand ruler is against ruler.

47  “Therefore, behold, the days are coming

when yI will punish the images of Babylon;

zher whole land shall be put to shame,

and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48  aThen the heavens and the earth,

and all that is in them,

shall sing for joy over Babylon,

bfor the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,

declares the Lord.

49  Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,

cjust as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

50  d“You who have escaped from the sword,

go, do not stand still!

Remember the Lord from far away,

and let Jerusalem come into your mind:

51  e‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;

edishonor has covered our face,

ffor foreigners have come

into the holy places of the Lord’s house.’

52  “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,

when yI will execute judgment upon her images,

gand through all her land

the wounded shall groan.

53  Though Babylon should hmount up to heaven,

and though she should ifortify her strong height,

yet destroyers would come from me against her,

declares the Lord.

54  j“A voice! A cry from Babylon!

The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55  For the Lord is laying Babylon waste

and stilling her mighty voice.

kTheir waves roar like many waters;

the noise of their voice is raised,

56  for a destroyer has come upon her,

upon Babylon;

her warriors are taken;

their bows are broken in pieces,

lfor the Lord is a God of recompense;

he will surely repay.

57  mI will make drunk her officials and her wise men,

nher governors, her commanders, and her warriors;

they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,

declares othe King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

58  “Thus says the Lord of hosts:

The broad pwall of Babylon

shall be leveled to the ground,

qand her high gates

shall be burned with fire.

rThe peoples labor for nothing,

and sthe nations weary themselves only for fire.”