25-28 “I, God, opened my arsenal.I brought out my weapons of wrath.The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,has a job to do in Babylon.Come at her from all sides!Break into her granaries!Shovel her into piles and burn her up.Leave nothing! Leave no one!Kill all her young turks.Send them to their doom!Doom to them! Yes, Doomsday!The clock has finally run out on them.And here’s a surprise:Runaways and escapees from BabylonShow up in Zion reporting the news of God’s vengeance,taking vengeance for my own Temple.
29-30 “Call in the troops against Babylon,anyone who can shoot straight!Tighten the noose!Leave no loopholes!Give her back as good as she gave,a dose of her own medicine!Her brazen insolence is an outrageagainst God, The Holy of Israel.And now she pays: her young strewn dead in the streets,her soldiers dead, silent forever.” God’s Decree.
31-32 “Do you get it, Mister Pride? I’m your enemy!”Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.“Time’s run out on you:That’s right: It’s Doomsday.Mister Pride will fall flat on his face.No one will offer him a hand.I’ll set his towns on fire.The fire will spread wild through the country.”
33-34 And here’s more from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:“The people of Israel are beaten down,the people of Judah along with them.Their oppressors have them in a grip of steel.They won’t let go.But the Rescuer is strong:God-of-the-Angel-Armies.Yes, I will take their side,I’ll come to their rescue.I’ll soothe their land,but rough up the people of Babylon.
35-40 “It’s all-out war in Babylon”—God’s Decree—“total war against people, leaders, and the wise!War to the death on her boasting pretenders, fools one and all!War to the death on her soldiers, cowards to a man!War to the death on her hired killers, gutless wonders!War to the death on her banks—looted!War to the death on her water supply—drained dry!A land of make-believe gods gone crazy—hobgoblins!The place will be haunted with jackals and scorpions,night-owls and vampire bats.No one will ever live there again.The land will reek with the stench of death.It will join Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,the cities I did away with.” God’s Decree.“No one will live there again.No one will again draw breath in that land, ever.
41-43 “And now, watch this! People pouringout of the north, hordes of people,A mob of kings stirred upfrom far-off places.Flourishing deadly weapons,barbarians they are, cruel and pitiless.Roaring and relentless, like ocean breakers,they come riding fierce stallions,In battle formation, ready to fightyou, Daughter Babylon!Babylon’s king hears them coming.He goes white as a ghost, limp as a dishrag.Terror-stricken, he doubles up in pain, helpless to fight,like a woman giving birth to a baby.
44 “And now watch this: Like a lion coming upfrom the thick jungle of the Jordan,Looking for prey in the mountain pastures,I’ll take over and pounce.I’ll take my pick of the flock—and who’s to stop me?All the so-called shepherds are helpless before me.”