(SEE 25:19)

Then the LORD said to me, "Tell the people that I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of the war that I am sending against them.

All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.

The LORD says, "I am bringing a destructive wind against Babylonia and its people.

Don't give its soldiers time to shoot their arrows or to put on their armor. Do not spare the young men! Destroy the whole army!

I, the LORD God Almighty, have not abandoned Israel and Judah, even though they have sinned against me, the Holy One of Israel.

Babylonia was like a gold cup in my hand, making the whole world drunk. The nations drank its wine and went out of their minds.

Foreigners living there said, 'We tried to help Babylonia, but it was too late. Let's leave now and go back home. God has punished Babylonia with all his might and has destroyed it completely.' "

The LORD has stirred up the kings of Media, because he intends to destroy Babylonia. That is how he will take revenge for the destruction of his Temple. The attacking officers command, "Sharpen your arrows! Get your shields ready!

That country has many rivers and rich treasures, but its time is up, and its thread of life is cut.

Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy are those who pay you back for what you have done to us---

who take your babies and smash them against a rock.

This is a message about Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz received from God.

The LORD has called out his proud and confident soldiers to fight a holy war and punish those he is angry with.

When he does this, they are to mock the king of Babylon and say: "The cruel king has fallen! He will never oppress anyone again!

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."

Wealth is deceitful. Greedy people are proud and restless---like death itself they are never satisfied. That is why they conquer nation after nation for themselves.

But before you know it, you that have conquered others will be in debt yourselves and be forced to pay interest. Enemies will come and make you tremble. They will plunder you!

You are doomed! You have made your family rich with what you took by violence, and have tried to make your own home safe from harm and danger!

Even the stones of the walls cry out against you, and the rafters echo the cry.

The nations you conquered wore themselves out in useless labor, and all they have built goes up in flames. The LORD Almighty has done this.

You are doomed! In your fury you humiliated and disgraced your neighbors; you made them stagger as though they were drunk.

You have cut down the forests of Lebanon; now you will be cut down. You killed its animals; now animals will terrify you. This will happen because of the murders you have committed and because of your violence against the people of the world and its cities.

You are doomed! You say to a piece of wood, "Wake up!" or to a block of stone, "Get up!" Can an idol reveal anything to you? It may be covered with silver and gold, but there is no life in it.

After this I saw another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and his splendor brightened the whole earth.

For all the nations have drunk her wine---the strong wine of her immoral lust. The kings of the earth practiced sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the world grew rich from her unrestrained lust."

For her sins are piled up as high as heaven, and God remembers her wicked ways.

Give her as much suffering and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. For she keeps telling herself: 'Here I sit, a queen! I am no widow, I will never know grief !'

The kings of the earth who took part in her immorality and lust will cry and weep over the city when they see the smoke from the flames that consume her.

The merchants of the earth also cry and mourn for her, because no one buys their goods any longer;

and cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine and oil, flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages, slaves, and even human lives.

The merchants, who became rich from doing business in that city, will stand a long way off, because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering. They will cry and mourn,

And in one hour she has lost all this wealth!" All the ships' captains and passengers, the sailors and all others who earn their living on the sea, stood a long way off,

They threw dust on their heads, they cried and mourned, saying, "How terrible! How awful for the great city! She is the city where all who have ships sailing the seas became rich on her wealth! And in one hour she has lost everything!"

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "This is how the great city Babylon will be violently thrown down and will never be seen again.

Never again will the light of a lamp be seen in you; no more will the voices of brides and grooms be heard in you. Your merchants were the most powerful in all the world, and with your false magic you deceived all the peoples of the world!"

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there.

Before he had finished speaking, another servant came and said, "Three bands of Chaldean raiders attacked us, took away the camels, and killed all your servants except me. I am the only one who escaped to tell you."

(It was the Babylonians, not the Assyrians, who let the wild animals overrun Tyre. It was the Babylonians who put up siege towers, tore down the fortifications of Tyre, and left the city in ruins. )

And so he left his country and went to live in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God made him move to this land where you now live.

The spirit of the LORD speaks through me; his message is on my lips.

For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.