But they are like straw; fire will quickly burn them up. They cannot save themselves from the power of the fire. They are not like coals that give warmth nor like a fire that you may sit beside.
Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting. They stay in their protected cities. Their strength is gone, and they have become like frightened women. Babylon’s houses are burning. The bars of her gates are broken.
This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “The city of Babylon is like a threshing floor, where people crush the grain at harvest time. The time to harvest Babylon is coming soon.”
Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army of Judah ran away at night. They left the city through the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden. Even though the Babylonians were surrounding the city, Zedekiah and his men headed toward the Jordan Valley.