After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ¹  It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ² 

“Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. ¹  Shoot ²  all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! ³  For she has sinned against the Lord.

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ² 

“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured them. ¹  Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. ² 

I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured. ¹ 

Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. ¹ 

But the one who will rescue them ¹  is strong. He is known as the Lord who rules over all. ²  He will strongly ³  champion their cause. As a result ⁴  he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil ⁵  to the people who inhabit Babylonia. ⁶ 

The Lord says, “I will cause a destructive wind ¹  to blow against ²  Babylon and the people who inhabit Babylonia. ³ 

I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. ¹  They will winnow her and strip her land bare. ²  This will happen when ³  they come against her from every direction, when it is time to destroy her. ⁴ 

Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. ¹  Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia ²  back for what she has done. ³ 

Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. ¹  So they have all gone mad. ² 

Foreigners living there will say, ¹  ‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let’s leave Babylonia ²  and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’ ³ 

“But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. ¹  They will be as frightened as women. ²  The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down. ³ 

One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon. One messenger after another will come bringing news. ¹  They will bring news to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured. ² 

For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Fair Babylon ¹  will be like a threshing floor which has been trampled flat for harvest. The time for her to be cut down and harvested will come very soon.’ ² 

“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon devoured me and drove my people out. Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me. He filled his belly with my riches. He made me an empty dish. He completely cleaned me out.” ¹ 

The person who lives in Zion says, “May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.” Jerusalem says, “May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.” ¹ 

“So the time will certainly come ¹  when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst. ² 

Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Babylon. For destroyers from the north will attack it,” says the Lord. ¹