Look! Here come chariots and horsemen in pairs.” Then he said, “Babylon has fallen! It has fallen! All the idols they worship lie shattered on the ground.”
In one day both of these will happen to you instantly: the loss of your children and your husband. All this will happen to you in spite of your evil magic and your many spells.
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.
“Call together the archers, the soldiers with bows, against Babylon. Set up blockades around it. Don’t let anyone escape. Pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done. Do to them what they did to others. They have disobeyed the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
They will take hold of bows and spears. They will be cruel and have no compassion. They will sound like the sea when it roars. They will ride horses. They are ready for war, ready to attack you, people of Babylon.
I am going to stir up an alliance of strong nations from the north and bring it against Babylon. Those nations will take up positions against Babylon. Babylon will be captured from the north. Its enemy’s arrows will be like skilled soldiers who don’t come back empty-handed.
Raise your battle flag throughout the world. Blow the ram’s horn among the nations. Prepare nations to attack Babylon. Tell the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz to attack it. Appoint a commander to lead the attack. Bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.
I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make Bel spit out everything that it has swallowed. Nations will no longer stream to Babylon, and its walls will fall.
Say, ‘Babylon will sink like this scroll. It will never rise again because of the disasters that I will bring on it.’ ” The words of Jeremiah end here.
Another angel, a second one, followed him, and said, “Fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen! She has made all the nations drink the wine of her passionate sexual sins.”
He cried out in a powerful voice, “Fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a prison for every evil spirit, every unclean bird, and every unclean and hated beast.
Then a powerful angel picked up a stone that was like a large millstone. He threw it into the sea and said, “The important city Babylon will be thrown down with the same force. It will never be found again.