therefore, behold, I will once again do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.
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.
Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, His anointed, whose right hand I have held — to subdue nations before him and to loosen the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that the gates will not be shut:
Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed, it is Your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like You.
When they become heated up, I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, says the Lord.
Therefore behold, the days are coming when I will punish the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land will be humiliated, and all her slain will fall in the midst of her.
I will make her officials drunk, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, says the King whose name is the Lord of Hosts.
I will bring a sword upon you that shall extract vengeance for My covenant. And when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Woe to this worthless shepherd who abandons his flock. May the sword take his arm and right eye; may his arm surely wither up, and his right eye become blind.