“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, with marshes of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction.” It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Look! Here comes a chariot of men, with a pair of horsemen.” Then one answered and said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods are broken on the ground.”
Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no more be called tender and delicate.
“Moreover, I will silence among them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
“Why are we sitting here? Assemble! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For Adonai Eloheinu has silenced us and given us poisoned water to drink. For we have sinned against Adonai.
How lonely sits the city, once so full of people! She who was once great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground in silence. They threw dust on their heads and girded themselves with sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
As she has exalted herself and indulged herself in luxury, so give her the same measure of torment and grief! For in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen— I am no widow; I shall never see grief.’