In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria seized Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He put them in Halah, in Habor by the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
A grievous vision is declared to me; the treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam. Lay siege, O Media. All her sighing I have made to cease.
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun he shall call on My name; and he shall come on princes as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which will make her land desolate, and no one will dwell in it. They will wander away; they will depart, both man and beast.
They will hold the bow and the lance; they are cruel and will not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea; and they shall ride on horses, everyone put in array, like a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.
For behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. And they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken captive. Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior; no one shall return empty-handed.
Sharpen the arrows. Gather the shields. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple.