“See, I am putting a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a report and return to his own land. And I shall cause him to fall by the sword in his land.” ’ ”
“So I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall shake from her place, in the wrath of יהוה of hosts and in the day of the heat of His displeasure.
“Come down and sit in the dust, O maiden daughter of Baḇel. Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Kasdim! For no more do they call you tender and delicate.
And I shall bring upon Ěylam the four winds from the four quarters of the heavens, and scatter them toward all those winds. And there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Ěylam do not go.
“Go up against the land of Merathayim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Peqoḏ. Slay and put them under the ban,” declares יהוה, “and do according to all that I have commanded you.
“I have laid a snare for you, and you were captured, O Baḇel, and you yourself did not know! You have been found and also caught, because you strove against יהוה.”
“Summon archers against Baḇel. All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around, let no one escape. Repay her according to her work, do to her according to all she has done. For she has been proud against יהוה, against the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
Thus said יהוה of hosts, “The children of Yisra’ĕl were oppressed, along with the children of Yehuḏah. And all who took them captive have held them fast, they refused to let them go.
“For look, I am stirring up and bringing up against Baḇel an assembly of great nations from a land of the north, and they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be captured – their arrows are like those of a mighty skilled man, not returning empty-handed.
“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.
But she was uprooted in wrath, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried her fruit. Her strong rods were broken and withered, fire consumed them.
“Though he bears fruit among his brothers, an east wind comes, a wind from יהוה comes up from the wilderness, and it dries up his fountain, and his spring becomes dry – it plunders a treasure of all desirable objects.