So the Lord said: I will wipe out from the earth the human beings I have created, and not only the human beings, but also the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air, for I regret that I made them.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn in the land, human being and beast alike, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the Lord!
I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes; from the east I summon him by name; He shall trample the rulers down like mud, like a potter treading clay.
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, Subduing nations before him, stripping kings of their strength, Opening doors before him, leaving the gates unbarred:
See, I am stirring up against Babylon a band of great nations from the land of the north; They are arrayed against her, from there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like the arrows of a skilled warrior who never returns empty-handed.
Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers; The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, for his resolve is Babylon’s destruction. Yes, it is retribution from the Lord, retribution for his temple.
Then heaven and earth and everything in them shall shout over Babylon with joy, when the destroyers come against her from the north—oracle of the Lord.
and then say: Lord, you yourself spoke against this place in order to cut it down so that nothing, human being or beast, could live in it, because it is to remain a wasteland forever.
Therefore, thus says the Lord God: my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon human being and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn and not be quenched.
Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken? Let him declare it! Why is the land ravaged, scorched like a wilderness no one crosses?
I will sweep away human being and beast alike, I will sweep away the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea. I will make the wicked stumble; I will eliminate the people from the face of the land—oracle of the Lord.