On that day the LORD Almighty will humble everyone who is powerful, everyone who is proud and conceited.

The LORD says, "I will bring disaster on the earth and punish all wicked people for their sins. I will humble everyone who is proud and punish everyone who is arrogant and cruel.

You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble.

They will reach out their hands as if they were trying to swim, but God will humiliate them, and their hands will sink helplessly.

Look at those who are proud; pour out your anger and humble them.

Bury them all in the ground; bind them in the world of the dead.

He will destroy the fortresses of Moab with their high walls and bring them tumbling down into the dust.

(But hail will fall on the forests, and the city will be torn down.)

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!

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

Your proud nation will stumble and fall, and no one will help you up. I will set your cities on fire, and everything around will be destroyed."

Babylonia, you are like a mountain that destroys the whole world, but I, the LORD, am your enemy. I will take hold of you, level you to the ground, and leave you in ashes.

None of the stones from your ruins will ever be used again for building. You will be like a desert forever. I, the LORD, have spoken.

That country will become a pile of ruins where wild animals live. It will be a horrible sight; no one will live there, and all who see it will be terrified.

and say, 'This is what will happen to Babylonia---it will sink and never rise again because of the destruction that the LORD is going to bring on it.' " The words of Jeremiah end here.

He cried out in a loud voice: "She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She is now haunted by demons and unclean spirits; all kinds of filthy and hateful birds live in her.