24 I’ll repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans

for all the evil they did in Tsiyyon (Zion) as you watched.[fn]

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

25 Listen, Yahweh declares that I’m against you,

you mountain of destruction that destroys the whole earth.

I’ll stretch my hand out against you, and roll you down from the cliffs,

and turn you into a charred mountain

26 so they won’t quarry any stone from you to construct a building’s corner or foundation.

because you’ll become a permanent wasteland.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

27 Lift up a banner over the earth.

≈ Blow the trumpet across the nations.

Call the nations to attack it: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a commander to attack it.

Bring in horses like swarming locusts.

28 Prepare the nations to attack it:

The kings of the Medes and their governors,

all of their officials and all the land under their control.

29 The land will shake and writhe in agony,

since Yahweh’s plans against Babylon will be fulfilled:

→ to make Babylon into a deserted wasteland.

30 The Babylonian soldiers have given up the fight—they stay in their fortresses.

Their strength has run out—they’ve become like women.

The locking bars across its gates are broken and its homes are on fire.

31 A messenger runs across to pass the news onto another messenger,

≈ and a runner tells another runner to report to the Babylonian king

that his city has been taken over from one end to the other.

32 The fords over the river have been seized

the reed marshes have been burnt off,

and Babylon’s soldiers are terrified

33 Yes, Yisrael’s god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh, says this:

The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor—it’s time to trample it down.

In a little while, the time will come for it to be harvested.

34 The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar has devoured me.

He’s driven me into confusion and made me into an empty pot.

≈ Like a monster, he’s swallowed me—filled his stomach with my delicacies,

→ and then he spat me out.

35 The one who lives in Tsiyyon (Zion) will say,

‘May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon.’

Yerushalem (Jerusalem) will say,

‘May my blood be on Chaldea’s inhabitants.’