23 “I will make her a swampland and a region for herons,[a] and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.”

This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 14:23 Or hedgehogs; Hb obscure

10 It will never go out—day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.(A)
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.(B)
11 Eagle owls[a] and herons[b] will possess it,
and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there.(C)
The Lord will stretch out a measuring line
and a plumb line(D) over her
for her destruction and chaos.(E)
12 No nobles will be left to proclaim a king,
and all her princes will come to nothing.
13 Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;
her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.(F)
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
an abode[c] for ostriches.(G)
14 The desert creatures will meet hyenas,
and one wild goat will call to another.
Indeed, the night birds will stay there
and will find a resting place.
15 Sand partridges[d] will make their nests there;
they will lay and hatch their eggs
and will gather their broods under their shadows.
Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there,
each with its mate.(H)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 34:11 Or Pelicans
  2. 34:11 Or hedgehogs
  3. 34:13 DSS, LXX, Syr, Tg; MT reads jackals, grass
  4. 34:15 Or Arrow snakes, or Owls

37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble,
a jackals’ den,
a desolation and an object of scorn,(A)
without inhabitant.(B)
38 They will roar together like young lions;
they will growl like lion cubs.
39 While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast,
and I will make them drunk so that they celebrate.[a](C)
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams together with male goats.(D)

41 How Sheshak[b](E) has been captured,(F)
the praise(G) of the whole earth seized.
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!(H)
42 The sea has risen over Babylon;(I)
she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
43 Her cities have become a desolation,(J)
an arid desert,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being even passes through.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 51:39 LXX reads pass out
  2. 51:41 = Babylon

Bible Gateway Recommends