A distressing vision is revealed to me: the treacherous betrays, and the ravager ravages. Go up, O Ěylam! Besiege, O Media! All the groaning I bring to an end.
In the ninth year of Hoshĕa, the sovereign of Ashshur captured Shomeron and exiled Yisra’ĕl to Ashshur, and settled them in Ḥalaḥ and Ḥaḇor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And it shall be in that day that יהוה sets His hand again a second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Ashshur and from Mitsrayim, from Pathros and from Kush, from Ěylam and from Shin‛ar, from Ḥamath and from the islands of the sea.
From the ends of the earth we shall hear songs, “Splendour to the Righteous One!” But I say, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray, with treachery the treacherous betray.”
Woe to you ravager, while you have not been ravaged, and you treacherous, while they have not betrayed you! When you have ceased ravaging, you shall be ravaged. And when you stop betraying, they shall betray you.
And the ransomed of יהוה shall return and enter Tsiyon with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
“I was wroth with My people, I have profaned My inheritance and I gave them into your hand. You showed them no compassion, you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.
“Is Ephrayim a precious son to Me, a child of delights? For though I spoke against him, I still remembered him. That is why My affections were deeply moved for him. I have great compassion for him,” declares יהוה.
“Their Redeemer is strong, יהוה of hosts is His Name. He shall strongly plead their case, so as to give rest to the land, but unrest to the inhabitants of Baḇel.
Polish the arrows! Put on the shields! יהוה has stirred up the spirit of the sovereigns of the Medes. For His plan is against Baḇel to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of יהוה, the vengeance for His Hĕḵal.
“And I shall punish Bĕl in Baḇel. And I shall make him spew out what he has swallowed, and nations shall no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Baḇel shall fall.
“Though Baḇel should mount up to the heavens, and though she should make the height of her strength inaccessible, ravagers shall come to her from Me,” declares יהוה.
And I looked in the vision, and it came to be while I was looking, that I was in the citadel of Shushan, which is in the province of Ěylam. And I looked in the vision, and I was by the River Ulai.
He who brings into captivity shall go into captivity, he who kills with the sword has to be killed with the sword. Here is the endurance and the belief of the set-apart ones.