Jeremiah 50:21–29

²¹“Attack the land of Merathaim.

Attack the people who live in Pekod.

Chase them, kill them, and completely destroy them.

Do everything I commanded you!” says the Lord.

²²“The noise of battle can be heard all over the country;

it is the noise of much destruction.

²³Babylon was the hammer of the whole earth,

but how broken and shattered that hammer is now.

It is truly the most ruined

of all the nations.

²⁴Babylon, I set a trap for you,

and you were caught before you knew it.

You fought against the Lord,

so you were found and taken prisoner.

²⁵The Lord has opened up his storeroom

and brought out the weapons of his anger,

because the Lord God All-Powerful has work to do

in the land of the Babylonians.

²⁶Come against Babylon from far away.

Break open her storehouses of grain.

Pile up her dead bodies like heaps of grain.

Completely destroy Babylon

and do not leave anyone alive.

²⁷Kill all the young men in Babylon;

let them be killed like animals.

How terrible it will be for them, because the time has come for their defeat;

it is time for them to be punished.

²⁸Listen to the people running to escape the country of Babylon!

They are telling Jerusalem

how the Lord our God is punishing Babylon as it deserves

for destroying his Temple.

²⁹“Call for the archers

to come against Babylon.

Tell them to surround the city,

and let no one escape.

Pay her back for what she has done;

do to her what she has done to other nations.

Babylon acted with pride against the Lord,

the Holy One of Israel.