Watch! The Lord God All-Powerful with his great power will chop them down like a great tree. Those who are great will be cut down; those who are important will fall to the ground.
You have made the city a pile of rocks and have destroyed her walls. The city our enemies built with strong walls is gone; it will never be built again.
You protect the poor; you protect the helpless when they are in danger. You are like a shelter from storms, like shade that protects them from the heat. The cruel people attack like a rainstorm beating against the wall,
He will destroy the proud city, and he will punish the people living there. He will bring that high city down to the ground and throw it down into the dust.
At that time the strong, walled city will be empty like a desert. Calves will eat grass there. They will lie down there and eat leaves from the branches.
I will use justice as a measuring line and goodness as the standard. The lies you hide behind will be destroyed as if by hail. They will be washed away as if in a flood.
Look, the Lord has someone who is strong and powerful. Like a storm of hail and strong wind, like a sudden flood of water pouring over the country, he will throw Samaria down to the ground.
You will be pulled down and will speak from the ground; I will hear your voice rising from the ground. It will sound like the voice of a ghost; your words will come like a whisper from the dirt.
The Lord will cause all people to hear his great voice and to see his powerful arm come down with anger, like a great fire that burns everything, like a great storm with much rain and hail.
You have sent your messengers to insult the Lord. You have said, “With my many chariots I have gone to the tops of the mountains, to the highest mountains of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its best pine trees. I have gone to its greatest heights and its best forests.
Then a powerful angel picked up a large stone, like one used for grinding grain, and threw it into the sea. He said: “In the same way, the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, and it will never be found again.
The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were poured down on the earth. And a third of the earth, and all the green grass, and a third of the trees were burned up.