The Lord says, ¹  “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! ²  You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth. I will unleash my power against you; ³  I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. ⁴ 

For we have been sold ¹  – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”

“Sharpen ¹  your arrows! Fill your quivers! ²  The Lord will arouse a spirit of hostility in ³  the kings of Media. ⁴  For he intends to destroy Babylonia. For that is how the Lord will get his revenge – how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians’ destruction of his temple. ⁵ 

People of Jerusalem, ¹  I have seen your adulterous worship, your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. ²  I have seen your disgusting acts of worship ³  on the hills throughout the countryside. You are doomed to destruction! ⁴  How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

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 

And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, ¹  you accomplish nothing ²  by wearing a beautiful dress, ³  decking yourself out in jewels of gold, and putting on eye shadow! ⁴  You are making yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers spurn you. They want to kill you. ⁵ 

The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem ¹  and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. ²  For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.” ³ 

People will not praise Moab any more. The enemy will capture Heshbon ¹  and plot ²  how to destroy Moab, ³  saying, ‘Come, let’s put an end to that nation!’ City of Madmen, you will also be destroyed. ⁴  A destructive army will march against you. ⁵ 

Then I heard a holy one ¹  speaking. Another holy one said to the one who was speaking, “To what period of time does the vision pertain – this vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the destructive act of rebellion and the giving over of both the sanctuary and army to be trampled?”

Now after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. ¹  As for the city and the sanctuary, the people of the coming prince will destroy ²  them. But his end will come speedily ³  like a flood. ⁴  Until the end of the war that has been decreed there will be destruction.

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s angry judgment. The whole earth ¹  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ²  Indeed, ³  he will bring terrifying destruction ⁴  on all who live on the earth.” ⁵ 

ruin and misery are in their paths,

Streams ¹  of tears flow from my eyes ²  because my people ³  are destroyed. ⁴ 

Surely ¹  you put them in slippery places; you bring them down ²  to ruin.

He sent them an assuring word ¹  and healed them; he rescued them from the pits where they were trapped. ² 

But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! ¹  For this land is not secure! ²  Sin will thoroughly destroy it! ³ 

The waves of death engulfed me; the currents ¹  of chaos ²  overwhelmed me. ³ 

They are eager to do evil, ¹  quick to shed innocent blood. ²  Their thoughts are sinful; they crush and destroy. ³ 

the plague that comes in the darkness, or the disease that comes at noon. ¹ 

י (Yod) The hands of tenderhearted women ¹  cooked their own children, who became their food, ²  when my people ³  were destroyed. ⁴