2 “Declare it among the nations and proclaim! Raise a banner, announce, hide nothing! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured, Bel put to shame, Merodach dismayed, her images disgraced, her idols shattered!’
3 For a nation comes up against her out of the land of the north —it will desolate her land. No one will dwell there— they have fled, gone, both man and beast.”
4 “In those days and at that time” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “the children of Israel will come, together with the children of Judah, weeping as they come, and will seek Adonai their God.
5 They will ask about Zion, the way— here are their faces! Come! They will join themselves to Adonai in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
6 My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds led them astray. Turning around in the mountains, they went from mountain to hill, and forgot their resting place.
7 Everyone finding them devoured them. Their foes said: ‘We’re not guilty!’ Instead, they sinned against Adonai, the habitation of justice—Adonai, the hope of their fathers.”
8 “Flee from within Babylon, get out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be like he-goats before the flock.