13 This is the heavy message about Bavel (Babylon), which Amots’ son Yeshayah (Isaiah) saw:[ref]

2 Raise a banner on the bare mountain.

Call out to them and wave your hand,

and enter the gates of the princes.

3 I have commanded my sanctified ones

as well as angrily summoning warriors—

my boasting, arrogant ones.

4 There’s a loud noise from the mountains,

like that from many people.

It’s the sound of uproar from the kingdoms—

nations that are gathering.

Commander-in-chief Yahweh is mustering an army for battle.

5 They’re coming from a far country,

≈ from the end of the heavens.

They’re the instruments of Yahweh’s judgement,

≈ coming to destroy the entire country.

6 Start wailing because Yahweh’s day is close,

≈ and destruction from the powerful one will come.[ref]

7 That’s why all hands hang limp,

≈ and the heart of every person melts.

8 They’ll have pangs of dismay,

≈ and agony will seize them like a woman who writhes in labour.

They’ll stare at their neighbours in astonishment

with their faces flushed red.

9 Yes, Yahweh’s day is coming—

a cruel day with of fierce anger and rage,

to make the earth a desolate place

as sinners are destroyed from it.

10 The stars in the sky and their constellations

won’t shine their light.

The sun coming out will be dark,

≈ and the moon won’t be shining its light.[ref]

11 I will punish the world for its evil

≈ and the wicked for their disobedience.

I’ll put an end to the pride of the arrogant,

≈ and bring down the arrogance of the ruthless.

12 I’ll make humans more rare than pure gold,

≈ and people more scarce than the gold from Ofir.

13 So I’ll make the sky wobble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place

by the fury of Commander-in-chief Yahweh

on the day of his raging ≈ anger.

14 Then like a gazelle being hunted

or sheep without a shepherd,

everyone will turn to their own people group

and they’ll all flee back to their own countries.

15 Everyone who’s discovered (in Bavel (Babylon) ) will be run through with a spear,

≈ and everyone who’s caught will be killed by the sword.

16 Their children will be smashed to pieces right in front of them.

Their homes will be looted and their wives raped.

17 Listen, I’m stirring the Madim (Medes) up against them,

who don’t value silver or care about gold.

18 Their arrows will strike down the young men.

They’ll have no mercy on your infants,

≈ and won’t show any pity on your children.

19 Yes, that admirable kingdom of Bavel (Babylon),

the pride of the Kasdim (Chaldeans),

will be destroyed by God like Sedom and Amorah (Gomorrah) were.[ref]

20 It’ll never be inhabited again,

≈ or lived in from one generation to the next.

The Arabs won’t even set up their tents there,

≈ and the shepherds won’t rest their flocks there.

21 But desert animals will live there,

≈ and jackals will live in the houses.

Ostrich chicks will grow there

≈ and wild goats will romp around there.

22 Hyenas will howl in its towers,

≈ and jackals in the nice palaces.

Her time is coming to an end,

≈ and her lifetime won’t be extended.

14 Yahweh will have compassion on Ya’akov (Jacob),

≈ and will choose Yisrael (Israel) again,

and settle them on their own land.

Foreigners will join with them,

≈ and attach themselves to the Israeli people.

2 The nations will take them back to their own place,

and in Yahweh’s land, the Israelis will take them as male and female servants.

They’ll take their captors captive,

≈ and they’ll rule over their oppressors.

3 Then at the time when Yahweh gives you a break from your anguish and suffering,

≈ and from the hard labour you did as slaves,

4 then you’ll taunt Bavel’s (Babylon’s) king with this song,

“How the oppressor has stopped,

≈ and how his fury has ceased.

5 Yahweh has broken the wicked peoples’ staff,

≈ the golden rod of the rulers.

6 In your rage, you struck the people groups with never-ending blows,

≈ ruling the nations in anger—persecuting them without restraint.

7 Now the whole world is in restful peace.

People have broken out with a shout of celebration.

8 Even the cypress trees are happy about your demise,

≈ as the cedars in Levanon.

Now that you’re powerless,

→ no one comes up to cut us down.

9 Down below, the grave is excited

≈ waiting for your arrival.

It wakes up the dead for you—all the kings of the earth,

≈ raising them from their thrones—all the kings of the nations.

10 They’ll all speak and tell you

that you have been made weak like them,

in fact become completely like them.

11 Your reputation has been brought down to the grave,

≈ along with the sound of your harps.

Maggots are spread to be your mattress,

≈ and worms are your blanket.

12 How you’ve fallen from heaven, you shining son of the dawn.[ref]

≈ You’ve been cut down to the ground, you who defeated nations.

13 You had said to yourself,

‘I will climb up to the heavens above God’s stars.

≈ I will elevate my throne and I will rule on the mountain

where they assemble on Tsafon’s heights.

14 I’ll go up above the tops of the clouds,

≈ I’ll make myself like the most high one.’

15 Nevertheless you’ve been taken down to the grave—

≈ to the remotest parts of the pit.

16 Those who see you there will stare at you.

≈ They’ll ponder your fate—

if you’re the man who make the earth tremble?

≈ The one who made kingdoms shake?

17 The one who turned the world into a wilderness,

and tore down its cities?

The one wouldn’t release his prisoners of war to go home?

18 All the kings of the nations have laid down in honour—

each one in his own tomb,

19 but you have been thrown out of your grave,

like an unwanted branch that’s thrown away.

Those killed with the sword surround you like how clothes wrap around a person.

They went down to the stones in the pit like a trampled corpse.

20 You won’t be buried with them because you’ve ruined your land.

You’ve killed your people—

the offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again.

21 Prepare for the slaughter of his children because of their fathers’ disobedience,

in case they rise up and possess the earth,

and fill the world with their cities.

22 Commander-in-chief Yahweh declares, “I will take action against them and erase Bavel’s (Babylon’s) name and their remnant and their future offspring. 23 I’ll make it into a place where owls live, and pools of water, and I’ll sweep her with the broom of destruction.” That’s the declaration from Commander-in-chief Yahweh.

50 Yahweh gave the prophet Yirmiyah (Jeremiah) this message concerning Bavel (Babylon), the country of the Kasdim (Chaldeans):[ref]