Like fire they devour everything in their path; ¹  a flame blazes behind them. The land looks like the Garden of Eden ²  before them, but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness – for nothing escapes them! ³ 

How awful that day will be! ¹  For the day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer. ² 

They ¹  charge ²  like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. ³  Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter ⁴  their path.

For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. ¹ 

They ¹  have destroyed our ²  vines; ³  they have turned our ⁴  fig trees into mere splinters. They have completely stripped off the bark ⁵  and thrown them aside; the ⁶  twigs are stripped bare. ⁷ 

They rush into ¹  the city; they scale ²  its walls. They climb up into the houses; they go in through the windows like a thief.

You will have plenty to eat, and your hunger will be fully satisfied; ¹  you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has acted wondrously in your behalf. My people will never again be put to shame.

It will be ¹  a day of dreadful darkness, ²  a day of foreboding storm clouds, ³  like blackness ⁴  spread over the mountains. It is a huge and powerful army ⁵  – there has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ⁶