As soon as the angels had brought them out, one of them spoke. He said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere in the valley! Run to the mountains! If you don’t, you will be swept away!”
“City of Babylon, go down and sit in the dust. Leave your throne and sit on the ground. Queen city of the Babylonians, your life will not be comfortable and easy anymore.
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.”
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.
People of Zion, groan with pain. Cry out like a woman having a baby. Soon you must leave your city. You must camp in the open fields. You will have to go to the land of Babylon. But that’s where the Lord will save you. There he will set you free from the power of your enemies.
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.”
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.