40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,” declares Yahweh, “no one will live there, and the son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.
41 Look, a people is about to come from the north, and a great nation and many kings are woken up from the remotest part of the earth.
42 They keep hold of bow and short sword. They are cruel and they have no mercy. Their sound is like the sea, it roars, and upon horses they ride. Drawn up for battle as a man for the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon heard their report and his hands grew slack. Anxiety has seized him, fear and pain like the woman who gives birth.
44 Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream, so I will chase them away quickly from her, and I will appoint whoever is chosen over her. For who is like me, and who can summon me, and who is this shepherd who can stand before me?
45 Therefore hear the plan of Yahweh that he has planned against Babylon, and his plans that he has planned against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely they will drag them away, the little ones of the flock. Surely he will cause their grazing place to be desolate over them.
46 At the sound, ‘Babylon has been captured,’ the earth will quake, and a cry for help among the nations will be heard.”