5 ‘Look at the nations and watch –and be utterly amazed.For I am going to do something in your daysthat you would not believe,even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,that ruthless and impetuous people,who sweep across the whole earthto seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;they are a law to themselvesand promote their own honour.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,fiercer than wolves at dusk.Their cavalry gallops headlong;their horsemen come from afar.They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.Their hordes advance like a desert windand gather prisoners like sand.
10 They mock kingsand scoff at rulers.They laugh at all fortified cities;by building earthen ramps they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on –guilty people, whose own strength is their god.’