31
One
1runner 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
2seized, the marshes are burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic.
33
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
3The daughter of Babylon is like
4a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and
5the time of her harvest will come."
34
"Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
6has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel;
7he has swallowed me like
8a monster; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has rinsed me out.
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,
9I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you.
10I will dry up her sea and
11make her fountain dry,
37
and Babylon shall become
12a heap of ruins,
13the haunt of jackals,
14a horror
15and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38
16"They shall roar together
17like lions; they shall growl like lions' cubs.
39
18While they are inflamed
19I will prepare them a feast and
20make them drunk, that they may become merry,
21then 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
22Babylon is taken,
23the praise of the whole earth
24seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!