Our enemies are doomed! They have robbed and betrayed, although no one has robbed them or betrayed them. But their time to rob and betray will end, and they themselves will become victims of robbery and treachery.

I was angry with my people; I treated them as no longer mine: I put them in your power, and you showed them no mercy; even the aged you treated harshly.

So the LORD brought the king of Babylonia to attack them. The king killed the young men of Judah even in the Temple. He had no mercy on anyone, young or old, man or woman, sick or healthy. God handed them all over to him.

'I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the LORD, have spoken.

Then I wanted to know more about the fourth beast, which was not like any of the others---the terrifying beast which crushed its victims with its bronze claws and iron teeth and then trampled on them.

While I was looking, that horn made war on God's people and conquered them.

For God will not show mercy when he judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgment.

"The foreigners living in Babylon will run away to their homelands, scattering like deer escaping from hunters, like sheep without a shepherd.

While they look on helplessly, their babies will be battered to death, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be raped."

With their bows and arrows they will kill the young men. They will show no mercy to babies and take no pity on children.

This is a message about Babylonia. Like a whirlwind sweeping across the desert, disaster will come from a terrifying land.

What I saw and heard in the vision has filled me with terror and pain, pain like that of a woman in labor.

In the vision a banquet is ready; rugs are spread for the guests to sit on. They are eating and drinking. Suddenly the command rings out: "Officers! Prepare your shields!"

If he sees riders coming on horseback, two by two, and riders on donkeys and camels, he is to observe them carefully."

Suddenly, here they come! Riders on horseback, two by two. The sentry gives the news, "Babylon has fallen! All the idols they worshiped lie shattered on the ground."

The LORD says, "Babylon, come down from your throne, and sit in the dust on the ground. You were once like a virgin, a city unconquered, but you are soft and delicate no longer! You are now a slave!

People will see you naked; they will see you humbled and shamed. I will take vengeance, and no one will stop me."

The LORD says to Babylon, "Sit in silence and darkness; no more will they call you the queen of nations!

You thought you would always be a queen, and did not take these things to heart or think how it all would end.

But in a moment, in a single day, both of these things will happen. In spite of all the magic you use, you will lose your husband and children.

Disaster will come upon you, and none of your magic can stop it. Ruin will come on you suddenly--- ruin you never dreamed of !

You are powerless in spite of the advice you get. Let your astrologers come forward and save you--- those people who study the stars, who map out the zones of the heavens and tell you from month to month what is going to happen to you.

That is all the good they will do you--- those astrologers you've consulted all your life. They all will leave you and go their own way, and none will be left to save you."

(SEE 25:19)

"Babylonia, you are filled with pride, so I, the Sovereign LORD Almighty, am against you! The time has come for me to punish you.

The ten horns you saw and the beast will hate the prostitute; they will take away everything she has and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and destroy her with fire.

For God has placed in their hearts the will to carry out his purpose by acting together and giving to the beast their power to rule until God's words come true.

Because of this, in one day she will be struck with plagues--- disease, grief, and famine. And she will be burned with fire, because the Lord God, who judges her, is mighty."

They stand a long way off, because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering. They say, "How terrible! How awful! This great and mighty city Babylon! In just one hour you have been punished!"

From the beginning I predicted the outcome; long ago I foretold what would happen. I said that my plans would never fail, that I would do everything I intended to do.

I am calling a man to come from the east; he will swoop down like a hawk and accomplish what I have planned. I have spoken, and it will be done.

God's anger is constant. He crushed his enemies who helped Rahab, the sea monster, oppose him.

Human wisdom, brilliance, insight---they are of no help if the LORD is against you.

He looks on the people of the earth as nothing; angels in heaven and people on earth are under his control. No one can oppose his will or question what he does.