As soon as they were outside, one ⌞of the angels⌟ said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stop on the plain. Run for the hills, or you’ll be swept away!”
By your power you forced nations ⌞out of the land⌟, but you planted our ancestors ⌞there⌟. You shattered many groups of people, but you set our ancestors free.
Leave Babylon; flee from the Babylonians! Shout for joy as you tell it and announce it. Shout it out to the ends of the earth. Say that the Lord has reclaimed his servant Jacob.
“Listen! Whoever is thirsty, come to the water! Whoever has no money can come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk. You don’t have to pay; it’s free!
I will make these people a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms on the earth. This will happen because of what Judah’s King Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, did in Jerusalem.
In those days the nation of Judah will live with the nation of Israel. They will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave their ancestors as their own property.
“You nations, listen to the Lord’s word. Tell it to the distant islands. Say, ‘The one who scattered the people of Israel will gather them and watch over them as a shepherd watches over his flock.’
“I will bring them from the land of the north. I will gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Blind people and lame people will return together with pregnant women and those in labor. A large crowd will return here.
Run away from Babylon! Run for your lives! You shouldn’t die because of Babylon’s crimes. This is the time for the vengeance of the Lord. He will pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done.
“So tell them, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, I have been their sanctuary for a little while among the countries where they’ve gone.’
The best of your troops will die in battle. Anyone who remains will be scattered in every direction that the wind blows. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.
One-third of you will die in plagues and be devoured in famines. Another third will die in battles against those around you. I will scatter the remaining third to the wind, and I will pursue them with a sword.
But as soon as he is established, his kingdom will be broken into pieces and divided in the directions of the four winds of heaven. The empire will not be given to his descendants. It will no longer be like his empire, since it will be uprooted and given to others.
I’m going to give the order. I will sift the nation of Israel out of all the nations as if I were using a sieve. Not one pebble will fall to the ground.
This is what the Lord of Armies says: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion. My house will be rebuilt in it, declares the Lord of Armies. A measuring line will be used to rebuild Jerusalem.
Then the Lord will scatter you among all the people of the world, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve gods made of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew.
I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of Babylon, my people, so that you do not participate in her sins and suffer from any of her plagues.
Boaz went to the city gate and sat there. Just then, the relative about whom he had spoken was passing by. Boaz said, “Please come over here and sit, my friend.” So the man came over and sat down.