²⁰“You are My war club, ²¹With you I shatter the horse and rider; ²²With you I shatter man and woman; ²³With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; ²⁴Before your very eyes I will repay ²⁵“Behold, I am against you, ²⁶No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone ²⁷“Raise a banner in the land! ²⁸Prepare the nations for battle against her — ²⁹The earth quakes and writhes ³⁰The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; ³¹One courier races to meet another, ³²The fords have been seized, ³³For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; ³⁵May the violence done to me ³⁶Therefore this is what the LORD says: ³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, ³⁸They will roar together like young lions; ³⁹While they are flushed with heat, ⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, ⁴¹How Sheshach has been captured! ⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon; ⁴³Her cities have become a desolation, ⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon. ⁴⁵Come out of her, My people! ⁴⁶Do not let your heart grow faint, ⁴⁷Therefore, behold, the days are coming ⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and all that is in them ⁴⁹“Babylon must fall ⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, ⁵¹“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; ⁵²“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” ⁵³Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens ⁵⁴“The sound of a cry ⁵⁵For the LORD will destroy Babylon; ⁵⁶For a destroyer is coming against her — ⁵⁷I will make her princes and wise men drunk, ⁵⁸This is what the LORD of Hosts says: