Make sharp the arrows. Hold firm the shields. LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it. For it is the vengeance of LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
I have raised up him from the north, and he has come, him who calls upon my name from the rising of the sun. And he shall come upon rulers as upon mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam. Besiege, O Media, all the sighing of it I have made to cease.
For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country, and they shall set themselves in array against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows shall be as of an exper
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein. They are fled. They are gone, both man and beast.
They lay hold on bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, each one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.