Make mention to the nations; behold, announce against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and speak out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What did these men say? and from where did they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come from a far country to me, even from Babylon.
For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.
Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall plunder them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Declare ye among the nations, and annuonce, and set up a standard; announce, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is astonished, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are put to shame, her images are broken in pieces.
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.
They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in formation as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.
Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of those who dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their sculptured images, and with strange vanities?
At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to build up a mound, and to build a fort.