In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and removed Israel to Assyria, and made them live in Halah, and in Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
A harsh vision is revealed to me; the one betraying betrays, and the one ravaging ravages. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! I have caused all her sighing to cease.
I have raised up one from the north; and he shall come from the rising of the sun; he will call on My name. And he shall come upon rulers as on mortar, and as a potter tramples clay.
For a nation comes up against her from the north, which shall make her land a horror. Yea, no one shall dwell in it. They shall flee, they shall go up, both man and animal.
They lay hold of a bow and a javelin, they shall be cruel and will show no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea, and arrayed like a man for the battle, they shall ride on horses against you, O daughter of Babylon.
For, behold, I am stirring up and making go up a company of great nations from a northern land against Babylon. And they shall array themselves against her. She shall be captured there; their arrows shall be as those of a mighty, skillful man; they shall not return empty.
Polish the arrows, fill the shields; Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon, to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of His temple.