<p class="poetry">Look what&#8217;s coming!p> <p class="poetry">A charioteer,p> <p class="poetry">a team of horses.&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">When questioned, he replies,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Babylon has fallen, fallen!p> <p class="poetry">All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">For this is what the sovereign master<n id="1" /> has told me: &#8220;Within exactly one year<n id="2" /> all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.

<p class="bodytext">At the end of seventy years<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> will revive<n id="2" /> Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth&#8217;s kingdoms.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">tender meat and choicest wine.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The dead do not come back to life,p> <p class="poetry">the spirits of the dead do not rise.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">That is because<n id="2" /> you came in judgment<n id="3" /> and destroyed them,p> <p class="poetry">you wiped out all memory of them.p>

<p class="poetry">So now, do not mock,p> <p class="poetry">or your chains will become heavier!p> <p class="poetry">For I have heard a message about decreed destruction,p> <p class="poetry">from the sovereign master, the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, against the entire land.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">all will be put to shame<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">because of a nation that cannot help them,p> <p class="poetry">who cannot give them aid or help,p> <p class="poetry">but only shame and disgrace.&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="poetry">For this reason the <sc>Lordsc> is ready to show you mercy;p> <p class="poetry">he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Indeed, the <sc>Lordsc> is a just God;p> <p class="poetry">all who wait for him in faith will be blessed.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Every blow from his punishing cudgel,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">with which the <sc>Lordsc> will beat them,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">will be accompanied by music from the<n id="3" /> tambourine and harp,p> <p class="poetry">and he will attack them with his weapons.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">The Egyptians are mere humans, not God;p> <p class="poetry">their horses are made of flesh, not spirit.p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> will strike with<n id="1" /> his hand;p> <p class="poetry">the one who helps will stumblep> <p class="poetry">and the one being helped will fall.p> <p class="poetry">Together they will perish.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Mourn<n id="1" /> over the land of my people,p> <p class="poetry">which is overgrown with thorns and briers,p> <p class="poetry">and over all the once-happy houses<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">in the city filled with revelry.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah&#8217;s reign,<n id="1" /> King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the <sc>Lordsc> rescue Jerusalem from my power?&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />

Pay attention, <sc>Lordsc>, and hear! Open your eyes, <sc>Lordsc>, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God!<n id="1" />

Now, O <sc>Lordsc> our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s messenger<n id="1" /> went out and killed 185,000 troops<n id="2" /> in the Assyrian camp. When they<n id="3" /> got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses!<n id="4" />

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">You delivered me<n id="2" /> from the pit of oblivion.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For you removed all my sins from your sight.<n id="4" />p>

Isaiah<n id="1" /> asked, &#8220;What have they seen in your palace?&#8221; Hezekiah replied, &#8220;They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.&#8221;

<p class="poetry">But these people are looted and plundered;p> <p class="poetry">all of them are trapped in pits<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and held captive<n id="2" /> in prisons.p> <p class="poetry">They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them;p> <p class="poetry">they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, &#8220;Bring that back!&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">All nations gather together,p> <p class="poetry">the peoples assemble.p> <p class="poetry">Who among them announced this?p> <p class="poetry">Who predicted earlier events for us?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Let them produce their witnesses to testify they were right;p> <p class="poetry">let them listen and affirm, &#8216;It is true.&#8217;p>