20
You are My battle club, My weapons of war. With you I will smash nations; with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
21
With you I will smash the horse and its rider; with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.
22
With you I will smash man and woman; with you I will smash the old man and the youth; with you I will smash the young man and the virgin.
23
With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock; with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team. With you I will smash governors and officials.
24
"I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion before your very eyes." [This is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration.
25
Look, I am against you, devastating mountain- [this is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration- you devastate the whole earth. I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and turn you into a burned-out mountain.
26
No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will become desolate forever. [This is] the Lord's declaration.
27
Raise a signal flag in the land; blow a ram's horn among the nations; set apart the nations against her. Summon kingdoms against her- Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.
28
Set apart the nations for battle against her- the kings of Media, her governors and all her officials, and all the lands they rule.
29
The earth quakes and trembles, because the Lord's purposes against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon an uninhabited desolation.
30
Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their might is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon's homes have been set ablaze, her gate bars are shattered.