People of Israel, leave Babylon! Hurry up and get away from the Babylonians! Here is what I want you to announce. Make it known with shouts of joy. Send the news out from one end of the earth to the other. Say, “The Lord has set free his servant Jacob.”
Wake up! Zion, wake up! Dress yourself with strength as if it were your clothes. Holy city of Jerusalem, put on your clothes of glory. Those who haven’t been circumcised will never enter you again. Neither will those who are “unclean.”
You who carry the objects that belong to the Lord’s temple, leave Babylon! Leave it! Get out of there! Don’t touch anything that isn’t pure and “clean.” Come out of Babylon and be pure.
“People of Judah, run away from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of the sins of its people. It is time for me to pay them back. I will punish them for what they have done.
‘At that time many nations will join themselves to me. And they will become my people. I will live among you,’ says the Lord. Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.
Moses warned the community. He said, “Move away from the tents of these evil men! Don’t touch anything that belongs to them. If you do, the Lord will sweep you away because of all their sins.”
So, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch anything that is not pure and ‘clean.’ Then I will receive you.” (Isaiah 52:11; Ezekiel 20:34,41)
Then I heard another voice from heaven. It said, “ ‘Come out of her, my people.’ (Jeremiah 51:45) Then you will not take part in her sins. You will not suffer from any of her plagues.