5 “For Israel and Judah will not be forsakenby their God, the Lord who rules over all.For the land of Babylonia is full of guiltagainst the Holy One of Israel.
6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people.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 back for what she has done.
7 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.So they have all gone mad.
8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed.Cry out in mourning over it!Get medicine for her wounds!Perhaps she can be healed!
9 Foreigners living there will say, ‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed.Let’s leave Babylonia 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.’
10 The exiles from Judah will say, ‘The Lord has brought about a great deliverance for us!Come on, let’s go and proclaim in Zionwhat the Lord our God has done!’
11 “Sharpen your arrows!Fill your quivers!The Lord will arouse a spirit of hostility in the kings of Media.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.