³ “Prepare buckler and shield,
    and advance for battle!
⁴ Harness the horses;
    mount, O horsemen!
Take your stations with your helmets,
    polish your spears,
    put on your armor!
⁵ Why have I seen it?
They are dismayed
    and have turned backward.
Their warriors are beaten down
    and have fled in haste;
they look not back—
    terror on every side!
declares the Lord.

⁶ “The swift cannot flee away,
    nor the warrior escape;
in the north by the river Euphrates
    they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷ “Who is this, rising like the Nile,
    like rivers whose waters surge?
⁸ Egypt rises like the Nile,
    like rivers whose waters surge.
He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth,
    I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’
⁹ Advance, O horses,
    and rage, O chariots!
Let the warriors go out:
    men of Cush and Put who handle the shield,
    men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.
¹⁰ That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts,
    a day of vengeance,
    to avenge himself on his foes.
The sword shall devour and be sated
    and drink its fill of their blood.
For the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice
    in the north country by the river Euphrates.
¹¹ Go up to Gilead, and take balm,
    O virgin daughter of Egypt!
In vain you have used many medicines;
    there is no healing for you.
¹² The nations have heard of your shame,
    and the earth is full of your cry;
for warrior has stumbled against warrior;
    they have both fallen together.”

¹⁴ “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;
    proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes;
say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared,
    for the sword shall devour around you.’
¹⁵ Why are your mighty ones face down?
    They do not stand
    because the Lord thrust them down.
¹⁶ He made many stumble, and they fell,
    and they said one to another,
‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people
    and to the land of our birth,
    because of the sword of the oppressor.’
¹⁷ Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
    ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

¹⁸ “As I live, declares the King,
    whose name is the Lord of hosts,
like Tabor among the mountains
    and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.
¹⁹ Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,
    O inhabitants of Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste,
    a ruin, without inhabitant.

²⁰ “A beautiful heifer is Egypt,
    but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.
²¹ Even her hired soldiers in her midst
    are like fattened calves;
yes, they have turned and fled together;
    they did not stand,
for the day of their calamity has come upon them,
    the time of their punishment.

²² “She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away;
    for her enemies march in force
and come against her with axes
    like those who fell trees.
²³ They shall cut down her forest,
declares the Lord,
    though it is impenetrable,
because they are more numerous than locusts;
    they are without number.
²⁴ The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;
    she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”

²⁷ “But fear not, O Jacob my servant,
    nor be dismayed, O Israel,
for behold, I will save you from far away,
    and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
    and none shall make him afraid.
²⁸ Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
declares the Lord,
    for I am with you.
I will make a full end of all the nations
    to which I have driven you,
    but of you I will not make a full end.
I will discipline you in just measure,
    and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

² “Thus says the Lord:
Behold, waters are rising out of the north,
    and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
Men shall cry out,
    and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.
³ At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
    at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,
the fathers look not back to their children,
    so feeble are their hands,
⁴ because of the day that is coming to destroy
    all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
    every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
    the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
⁵ Baldness has come upon Gaza;
    Ashkelon has perished.
O remnant of their valley,
    how long will you gash yourselves?
⁶ Ah, sword of the Lord!
    How long till you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
    rest and be still!
⁷ How can it be quiet
    when the Lord has given it a charge?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore
    he has appointed it.”

“Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste!
    Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken;
the fortress is put to shame and broken down;
²     the renown of Moab is no more.
In Heshbon they planned disaster against her:
    ‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!’
You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;
    the sword shall pursue you.

³ “A voice! A cry from Horonaim,
    ‘Desolation and great destruction!’
⁴ Moab is destroyed;
    her little ones have made a cry.
⁵ For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;
for at the descent of Horonaim
    they have heard the distressed cry of destruction.
⁶ Flee! Save yourselves!
    You will be like a juniper in the desert!
⁷ For, because you trusted in your works and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
and Chemosh shall go into exile
    with his priests and his officials.
⁸ The destroyer shall come upon every city,
    and no city shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
    and the plain shall be destroyed,
    as the Lord has spoken.

⁹ “Give wings to Moab,
    for she would fly away;
her cities shall become a desolation,
    with no inhabitant in them.

¹¹ “Moab has been at ease from his youth
    and has settled on his dregs;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    nor has he gone into exile;
so his taste remains in him,
    and his scent is not changed.

¹⁴ “How do you say, ‘We are heroes
    and mighty men of war’?
¹⁵ The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up,
    and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,
    declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
¹⁶ The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
    and his affliction hastens swiftly.
¹⁷ Grieve for him, all you who are around him,
    and all who know his name;
say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken,
    the glorious staff.’

¹⁸ “Come down from your glory,
    and sit on the parched ground,
    O inhabitant of Dibon!
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
    he has destroyed your strongholds.
¹⁹ Stand by the way and watch,
    O inhabitant of Aroer!
Ask him who flees and her who escapes;
    say, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰ Moab is put to shame, for it is broken;
    wail and cry!
Tell it beside the Arnon,
    that Moab is laid waste.

²⁸ “Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,
    O inhabitants of Moab!
Be like the dove that nests
    in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
²⁹ We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    he is very proud—
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
    and the haughtiness of his heart.
³⁰ I know his insolence, declares the Lord;
    his boasts are false,
    his deeds are false.
³¹ Therefore I wail for Moab;
    I cry out for all Moab;
    for the men of Kir-hareseth I mourn.
³² More than for Jazer I weep for you,
    O vine of Sibmah!
Your branches passed over the sea,
    reached to the Sea of Jazer;
on your summer fruits and your grapes
    the destroyer has fallen.
³³ Gladness and joy have been taken away
    from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have made the wine cease from the winepresses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.

⁴⁰ For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle
    and spread his wings against Moab;
⁴¹ the cities shall be taken
    and the strongholds seized.
The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day
    like the heart of a woman in her birth pains;
⁴² Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people,
    because he magnified himself against the Lord.
⁴³ Terror, pit, and snare
    are before you, O inhabitant of Moab!
declares the Lord.
⁴⁴ He who flees from the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
For I will bring these things upon Moab,
    the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.

⁴⁵ “In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop without strength,
for fire came out from Heshbon,
    flame from the house of Sihon;
it has destroyed the forehead of Moab,
    the crown of the sons of tumult.
⁴⁶ Woe to you, O Moab!
    The people of Chemosh are undone,
for your sons have been taken captive,
    and your daughters into captivity.
⁴⁷ Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
    in the latter days, declares the Lord.”
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

“Has Israel no sons?
    Has he no heir?
Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad,
    and his people settled in its cities?
² Therefore, behold, the days are coming,
    declares the Lord,
when I will cause the battle cry to be heard
    against Rabbah of the Ammonites;
it shall become a desolate mound,
    and its villages shall be burned with fire;
then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him,
    says the Lord.

³ “Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste!
    Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth,
    lament, and run to and fro among the hedges!
For Milcom shall go into exile,
    with his priests and his officials.
⁴ Why do you boast of your valleys,
    O faithless daughter,
who trusted in her treasures, saying,
    ‘Who will come against me?’
⁵ Behold, I will bring terror upon you,
    declares the Lord God of hosts,
    from all who are around you,
and you shall be driven out, every man straight before him,
    with none to gather the fugitives.

“Is wisdom no more in Teman?
    Has counsel perished from the prudent?
    Has their wisdom vanished?
⁸ Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths,
    O inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
    the time when I punish him.
⁹ If grape gatherers came to you,
    would they not leave gleanings?
If thieves came by night,
    would they not destroy only enough for themselves?
¹⁰ But I have stripped Esau bare;
    I have uncovered his hiding places,
    and he is not able to conceal himself.
His children are destroyed, and his brothers,
    and his neighbors; and he is no more.
¹¹ Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive;
    and let your widows trust in me.”

¹⁴ I have heard a message from the Lord,
    and an envoy has been sent among the nations:
“Gather yourselves together and come against her,
    and rise up for battle!
¹⁵ For behold, I will make you small among the nations,
    despised among mankind.
¹⁶ The horror you inspire has deceived you,
    and the pride of your heart,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,
    who hold the height of the hill.
Though you make your nest as high as the eagle’s,
    I will bring you down from there,
declares the Lord.

“Hamath and Arpad are confounded,
    for they have heard bad news;
they melt in fear,
    they are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet.
²⁴ Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee,
    and panic seized her;
anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,
    as of a woman in labor.
²⁵ How is the famous city not forsaken,
    the city of my joy?
²⁶ Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares,
    and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day,
declares the Lord of hosts.
²⁷ And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.”

Thus says the Lord:
“Rise up, advance against Kedar!
    Destroy the people of the east!
²⁹ Their tents and their flocks shall be taken,
    their curtains and all their goods;
their camels shall be led away from them,
    and men shall cry to them: ‘Terror on every side!’
³⁰ Flee, wander far away, dwell in the depths,
    O inhabitants of Hazor!
declares the Lord.
For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
    has made a plan against you
    and formed a purpose against you.

³¹ “Rise up, advance against a nation at ease,
    that dwells securely,
declares the Lord,
that has no gates or bars,
    that dwells alone.
³² Their camels shall become plunder,
    their herds of livestock a spoil.
I will scatter to every wind
    those who cut the corners of their hair,
and I will bring their calamity
    from every side of them,
declares the Lord.
³³ Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals,
    an everlasting waste;
no man shall dwell there;
    no man shall sojourn in her.”

² “Declare among the nations and proclaim,
    set up a banner and proclaim,
    conceal it not, and say:
‘Babylon is taken,
    Bel is put to shame,
    Merodach is dismayed.
Her images are put to shame,
    her idols are dismayed.’

¹¹ “Though you rejoice, though you exult,
    O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frolic like a heifer in the pasture,
    and neigh like stallions,
¹² your mother shall be utterly shamed,
    and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
Behold, she shall be the last of the nations,
    a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited
    but shall be an utter desolation;
everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled,
    and hiss because of all her wounds.
¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
    all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her, spare no arrows,
    for she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ Raise a shout against her all around;
    she has surrendered;
her bulwarks have fallen;
    her walls are thrown down.
For this is the vengeance of the Lord:
    take vengeance on her;
    do to her as she has done.
¹⁶ Cut off from Babylon the sower,
    and the one who handles the sickle in time of harvest;
because of the sword of the oppressor,
    every one shall turn to his own people,
    and every one shall flee to his own land.

²¹ “Go up against the land of Merathaim,
    and against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Kill, and devote them to destruction,
declares the Lord,
    and do all that I have commanded you.
²² The noise of battle is in the land,
    and great destruction!
²³ How the hammer of the whole earth
    is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
²⁴ I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon,
    and you did not know it;
you were found and caught,
    because you opposed the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened his armory
    and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do
    in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from every quarter;
    open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction;
    let nothing be left of her.
²⁷ Kill all her bulls;
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
    the time of their punishment.

³¹ “Behold, I am against you, O proud one,
    declares the Lord God of hosts,
for your day has come,
    the time when I will punish you.
³² The proud one shall stumble and fall,
    with none to raise him up,
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
    and it will devour all that is around him.

³⁵ “A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord,
    and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
    and against her officials and her wise men!
³⁶ A sword against the diviners,
    that they may become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
    that they may be destroyed!
³⁷ A sword against her horses and against her chariots,
    and against all the foreign troops in her midst,
    that they may become women!
A sword against all her treasures,
    that they may be plundered!
³⁸ A drought against her waters,
    that they may be dried up!
For it is a land of images,
    and they are mad over idols.

⁴¹ “Behold, a people comes from the north;
    a mighty nation and many kings
    are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
⁴² They lay hold of bow and spear;
    they are cruel and have no mercy.
The sound of them is like the roaring of the sea;
    they ride on horses,
arrayed as a man for battle
    against you, O daughter of Babylon!

⁴³ “The king of Babylon heard the report of them,
    and his hands fell helpless;
anguish seized him,
    pain as of a woman in labor.

⁶ “Flee from the midst of Babylon;
    let every one save his life!
Be not cut off in her punishment,
    for this is the time of the Lord‘s vengeance,
    the repayment he is rendering her.
⁷ Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord‘s hand,
    making all the earth drunken;
the nations drank of her wine;
    therefore the nations went mad.
⁸ Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
    wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
    perhaps she may be healed.
⁹ We would have healed Babylon,
    but she was not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go
    each to his own country,
for her judgment has reached up to heaven
    and has been lifted up even to the skies.
¹⁰ The Lord has brought about our vindication;
    come, let us declare in Zion
    the work of the Lord our God.

¹¹ “Sharpen the arrows!
    Take up the shields!

¹² “Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon;
    make the watch strong;
set up watchmen;
    prepare the ambushes;
for the Lord has both planned and done
    what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³ O you who dwell by many waters,
    rich in treasures,
your end has come;
    the thread of your life is cut.
¹⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself:
Surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts,
    and they shall raise the shout of victory over you.

¹⁵ “It is he who made the earth by his power,
    who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
¹⁶ When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
    and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
    and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
¹⁷ Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
    every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
    and there is no breath in them.
¹⁸ They are worthless, a work of delusion;
    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁹ Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob,
    for he is the one who formed all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
    the Lord of hosts is his name.

²⁰ “You are my hammer and weapon of war:
with you I break nations in pieces;
    with you I destroy kingdoms;
²¹ with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
    with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;
²² with you I break in pieces man and woman;
    with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth;
with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman;
²³     with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team;
    with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.

²⁵ “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
declares the Lord,
    which destroys the whole earth;
I will stretch out my hand against you,
    and roll you down from the crags,
    and make you a burnt mountain.
²⁶ No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
    and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
    declares the Lord.

²⁷ “Set up a standard on the earth;
    blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her;
    summon against her the kingdoms,
    Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her;
    bring up horses like bristling locusts.
²⁸ Prepare the nations for war against her,
    the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
    and every land under their dominion.
²⁹ The land trembles and writhes in pain,
    for the Lord‘s purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
    without inhabitant.
³⁰ The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
    they have become women;
her dwellings are on fire;
    her bars are broken.
³¹ One runner runs to meet another,
    and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
    that his city is taken on every side;
³² the fords have been seized,
    the marshes are burned with fire,
    and the soldiers are in panic.
³³ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
    at the time when it is trodden;
yet a little while
    and the time of her harvest will come.”

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me;
    he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
    he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
    he has rinsed me out.^[q]
35 The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”
    let the inhabitant of Zion say.
“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
    let Jerusalem say.
³⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will plead your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,
³⁷ and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    the haunt of jackals,
a horror and a hissing,
    without inhabitant.

³⁸ “They shall roar together like lions;
    they shall growl like lions’ cubs.
³⁹ While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast
    and make them drunk, that they may become merry,
then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and not wake, declares the Lord.
⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and male goats.

⁴¹ “How Babylon is taken,
    the praise of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
⁴² The sea has come up on Babylon;
    she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
⁴³ Her cities have become a horror,
    a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one dwells,
    and through which no son of man passes.
⁴⁴ And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
    and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer flow to him;
    the wall of Babylon has fallen.

⁴⁵ “Go out of the midst of her, my people!
    Let every one save his life
    from the fierce anger of the Lord!
⁴⁶ Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
    at the report heard in the land,
when a report comes in one year
    and afterward a report in another year,
and violence is in the land,
    and ruler is against ruler.

⁴⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days are coming
    when I will punish the images of Babylon;
her whole land shall be put to shame,
    and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
⁴⁸ Then the heavens and the earth,
    and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
    for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the Lord.
⁴⁹ Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
    just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

⁵⁰ “You who have escaped from the sword,
    go, do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
    and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
⁵¹ ‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
    dishonor has covered our face,
for foreigners have come
    into the holy places of the Lord‘s house.’

⁵² “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will execute judgment upon her images,
and through all her land
    the wounded shall groan.
⁵³ Though Babylon should mount up to heaven,
    and though she should fortify her strong height,
yet destroyers would come from me against her,
    declares the Lord.

⁵⁴ “A voice! A cry from Babylon!
    The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵ For the Lord is laying Babylon waste
    and stilling her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like many waters;
    the noise of their voice is raised,
⁵⁶ for a destroyer has come upon her,
    upon Babylon;
her warriors are taken;
    their bows are broken in pieces,
for the Lord is a God of recompense;
    he will surely repay.
⁵⁷ I will make drunk her officials and her wise men,
    her governors, her commanders, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
    declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

⁵⁸ “Thus says the Lord of hosts:
The broad wall of Babylon
    shall be leveled to the ground,
and her high gates
    shall be burned with fire.
The peoples labor for nothing,
    and the nations weary themselves only for fire.”