<p class="poetry">&#8220;Call for archers<n id="1" /> to come against Babylon!p> <p class="poetry">Summon against her all who draw the bow!p> <p class="poetry">Set up camp all around the city!p> <p class="poetry">Do not allow anyone to escape!p> <p class="poetry">Pay her back for what she has done.p> <p class="poetry">Do to her what she has done to others.p> <p class="poetry">For she has proudly defied me,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the Holy One of Israel.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">So listen to what I, the <sc>Lordsc>, have planned against Babylon,p> <p class="poetry">what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Their little ones will be dragged off.p> <p class="poetry">I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Raise up battle flags throughout the lands.p> <p class="poetry">Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle.p> <p class="poetry">Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Call for these kingdoms to attack her:p> <p class="poetry">Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Appoint a commander to lead the attack.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Send horses<n id="4" /> against her like a swarm of locusts.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">I also told the priests and all the people, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that<n id="1" /> the valuable articles taken from the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon.<n id="2" /> But they are prophesying a lie to you.

So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say: &#8220;You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman.<n id="1" /> Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom<n id="2" /> to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="3" /> I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you.<n id="4" />

I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, &#8220;Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right.<n id="1" /> Do not pay allegiance to other gods<n id="2" /> and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.&#8221; But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

So I, the <sc>Lord,sc> the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, say:<n id="1" /> &#8220;I will soon bring on Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem all the disaster that I threatened to bring on them. I will do this because I spoke to them but they did not listen. I called out to them but they did not answer.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;p>

But<n id="1" /> listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, &#8220;As surely as the Lord <sc>Godsc> lives&#8230;.&#8221;<n id="2" />