Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men? and from where came they to you? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country to me, even from Babylon.
For, see, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, said the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
See, I will bring a nation on you from far, O house of Israel, said the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.
Why a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Declare you among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.
Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.