A song to praise Yahweh

15 Yahweh created the earth by his power;

he established it by his wisdom,

and he stretched out the sky by his understanding.

16 When he speaks loudly, there is thunder in the sky;

he causes clouds to form in every part of the earth.

He sends lightning with the rain

and releases the winds from his storehouses.

17 People are senseless, and they know very little [HYP];

those who make idols are always disappointed,

because their idols do nothing for them.

The images/statues that they make are not real gods;

they are lifeless.

18 Idols are worthless; they deserve to be ridiculed;

there will be a time when they will all be destroyed.

19 But the God whom we Israelis worship is not like those idols;

he is the one who created everything that exists;

we, the people of Israel, belong to him;

his name is ‘the Commander of the armies of angels’.

20 Yahweh says about the army of Babylonia (OR, about a nation that will attack Babylonia),

“You have been like [MET] my battle-axe and war-club;

with your power I have shattered nations

and destroyed many kingdoms.

21 With your power I have shattered armies of other nations:

I destroyed their horses and their riders, their chariots and their chariot-drivers.

22 With your power I shattered men and women,

old people and children,

young men and young women.

23 With your power I shattered shepherds and their flocks of sheep,

farmers and their oxen,

governors and their officials.”

24 But, Yahweh also says,

“Soon I will repay/punish you people in Babylon and in the rest of Babylonia

for all the evil things that you have done in Jerusalem.

25 Babylonia is [APO] like [MET] a great mountain

from which bandits descend to ◄plunder/steal things from► people all over the earth.

But I, Yahweh, am the enemy of you people of Babylonia.

I will raise my fist to strike you.

I will knock you down from the cliffs

and cause you to be only a huge pile of burned rubble.

26 Your city will be abandoned forever;

even the stones in your city will never again be used for buildings.

Your city will be completely destroyed.”

27 Tell the nations to lift up a battle flag!

Tell them to shout the battle-cry!

Gather all their armies to fight against Babylon!

Prepare the nations to attack Babylon.

Summon the armies of the kingdoms north of Babylonia—from Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a commander for them,

and bring a great number of horses;

there must be a huge number of horses; that huge number will resemble [SIM] a swarm of locusts.

28 Prepare the armies of other nations,

armies that will be led by the kings of Media and Persia,

their governors and their officials.

29 When they attack Babylon, it will be as though the earth will shake and writhe in pain,

because those armies will accomplish everything that Yahweh has planned to do to Babylon;

they will destroy it completely,

with the result that no one will live there again.

30 When their enemies attack, the strongest warriors in Babylon will not fight.

They will remain in their barracks, without any strength.

They will be as timid/weak as [SIM] women.

The enemy soldiers will burn the buildings in the city

and pull down the bars of the city gates.

31 Messengers will go quickly, one after another,

to tell the king that his city has been captured.

32 The places at which people can cross the river to escape from the city will be blocked.

The dry reeds in the marshes/swamps will be set on fire,

and the soldiers of Babylon will be terrified.

33 This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom we Israelis worship, says;

“Babylon is like [SIM] wheat on the ground where it is about to be threshed

by animals tramping on it.

Very soon their enemies will trample on the city of Babylon [MET].”

34 The army of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, has attacked and crushed us Israeli people,

and we have no strength left.

It is as though they have swallowed us like a great monster

that filled its belly with all our tasty parts,

and then has spit out what it did not like.

35 So the people of [PRS] Jerusalem say to Yahweh,

“Cause the people of Babylon to suffer

like they caused us to suffer!

Cause the people of Babylonia to be punished for killing [MTY] our people!”