For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at treading time. A little longer, and the time of harvest for her will come.”
For before the harvest, as soon as blossoming is over and flower becomes ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, He will cut back and remove the twigs.
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.
Arise and tread, Daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hooves bronze. You will thresh many peoples. I will devote their unjust gain to Adonai, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time, I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the weeds and tie them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.’”