The answer marked Jerusalem appears in his right hand, indicating that he should set up battering rams, give the order to slaughter, raise a battle cry, set battering rams against the gates, build a ramp, and construct a siege wall.
I am about to bring a nation from far away against you, house of Israel. This is the Lord’s declaration. It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.
Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, ‘What did these men say, and where did they come to you from? ’ Hezekiah replied, ‘They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon.’
Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing. Say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is terrified.’ Her idols are put to shame; her false gods devastated.
In the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it.
Nations, hear the word of the Lord, and tell it among the far off coasts and islands! Say, ‘The one who scattered Israel will gather him. He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock,
Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from arid plains will ravage them. A leopard stalks their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous.
Indeed, I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. They will come, and each king will set up his throne at the entrance to Jerusalem’s gates. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah.
Listen #– #the cry of my dear people from a faraway land, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion, her King not within her? ’ Why have they angered me with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?
Listen, earth! I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting, for they have paid no attention to my words. They have rejected my instruction.
They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Zion.