And they cast dust upon their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying: Alas! alas! that great city, wherein all were made rich, that had ships at sea, by reason of her prices: for in one hour she is made desolate.
Behold the land of the Chaldeans: there was not such a people: the Assyrian founded it. They have led away the strong ones thereof into captivity, they have destroyed the houses thereof, they have brought it to ruin.
Behold, this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot with two horsemen. And he answered and said: Babylon is fallen, she is fallen, and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground.
And all the household goods that are there, thou shalt gather together in the midst of the streets thereof, and shalt burn them with the city itself, so as to consume all for the Lord thy God, and that it be a heap for ever. It shall be built no more.
And aid shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: and the remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.
For he shall bring down them that dwell on high: the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground: he shall pull it down even to the dust.
For the strong city shall be desolate: the beautiful city shall be forsaken and shall be left as a wilderness. There the calf shall feed: and there shall he lie down and shall consume its branches.
For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever: a joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks,
And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons and the pasture of ostriches.
Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old? From the days of old I have formed it: and now I have brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills fighting together and fenced cities should be destroyed.
It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be founded unto generation and generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall shepherds rest there.
But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with serpents: and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there.