40
I will take them to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats.
41
"Sheshach has been captured. Babylon, the city that the whole world praised, has been taken captive.
42
What a horrifying sight Babylon will be to the nations! The sea will rise over Babylon, and its roaring waves will cover it.
43
Its cities will be ruined. It will become a desert, a land where no one lives and where no human travels.
44
I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make Bel spit out everything that it has swallowed. Nations will no longer stream to Babylon, and its walls will fall.
45
"Leave it, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the burning anger of the LORD.
46
Don't lose courage or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land. One rumor comes one year; another rumor comes the next year. Rumors of violence are in the land. Rumors that one ruler will fight against another are in the land.
47
That is why the days are coming when I will punish Babylon's idols. The whole country will be put to shame, and all its soldiers will lie dead.
48
Then heaven and earth and everything in them will rejoice over Babylon, because destroyers from the north will attack it," declares the LORD.
49
Because the people of Babylon have killed many Israelites and because they have killed many people throughout the earth, Babylon must fall.
50
You people who escaped from the sword, leave! Don't just stand there. Remember the LORD in a distant land, and think about Jerusalem.