<p class="poetry">&#8220;Babylon must fall<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">because of the Israelites she has killed,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">just as the earth&#8217;s mortally wounded fellp> <p class="poetry">because of Babylon.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Let them fall<n id="1" /> slain in the land of Babylonia,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">mortally wounded in the streets of her cities.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry"><v id="(8:23)" /><n id="1" /> I wish that my head were a well full of water<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!p> <p class="poetry">If they were, I could cry day and nightp> <p class="poetry">for those of my dear people<n id="3" /> who have been killed.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;So the time will certainly come<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">when I will punish the idols of Babylon.p> <p class="poetry">Her whole land will be put to shame.p> <p class="poetry">All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Yes, but the time will certainly come,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;when I will punish her idols.p> <p class="poetry">Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.p>

<p class="poetry">If I go out into the countryside,p> <p class="poetry">I see those who have been killed in battle.p> <p class="poetry">If I go into the city,p> <p class="poetry">I see those who are sick because of starvation.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For both prophet and priest go about their own businessp> <p class="poetry">in the land without having any real understanding.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Those who have been killed by the <sc>Lordsc> at that timep> <p class="poetry">will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other.p> <p class="poetry">They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.p>

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one<n id="1" /> that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel.<n id="2" /> Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies.<n id="3" />