Listen to the noise on the mountains. It is like the sound of a large army. It is the sound of kingdoms and nations gathering together. The Lord of Armies is assembling his army for battle.
How horrible it will be for many people! They will roar like the roaring sea. The noise that the people make will be like the noise from rushing water.
Gather together, all of you, and listen. What idol has revealed such things? The Lord loves Cyrus. He will carry out the Lord’s plan against Babylon. He will use his strength against the Babylonians.
On that day they will roar over their prey as the sea roars. If they look at the land, they will see only darkness and distress. Even the light will be darkened by thick clouds.
‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I’m going to take your weapons away from you. You are using these weapons to fight the king of Babylon as well as the Babylonians who are now blockading you outside the wall. I will bring the Babylonians inside this city.
“Then I will repay you for the years that the mature locusts, the adult locusts, the grasshoppers, and the young locusts ate your crops. (They are the large army that I sent against you.)
For this reason her plagues of death, misery, and starvation will come in a single day. She will be burned up in a fire, because the Lord God, who judges her, is powerful.