51. How we’ve been humiliated, taunted and abused,kicked around for so long that we hardly know who we are!And we hardly know what to think—our old Sanctuary, God’s house, desecrated by strangers.
52-53. “I know, but trust me: The time is coming”—God’s Decree—“When I will bring doom on her no-god idols,and all over this land her wounded will groan.Even if Babylon climbed a ladder to the moonand pulled up the ladder so that no one could get to her,That wouldn’t stop me.I’d make sure my avengers would reach her.”God’s Decree.
54-56. “But now listen! Do you hear it? A cry out of Babylon!An unearthly wail out of Chaldea!God is taking his wrecking bar to Babylon.We’ll be hearing the last of her noise—Death throes like the crashing of waves,death rattles like the roar of cataracts.The avenging destroyer is about to enter Babylon:Her soldiers are taken, her weapons are trashed.Indeed, God is a God who evens things out.All end up with their just deserts.
57. “I’ll get them drunk, the whole lot of them—princes, sages, governors, soldiers.Dead drunk, they’ll sleep—and sleep and sleep . . .and never wake up.” The King’s Decree.His name? God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
58. God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:“The city walls of Babylon—those massive walls!—will be flattened.And those city gates—huge gates!—will be set on fire.The harder you work at this empty life,the less you are.Nothing comes of ambition like thisbut ashes.”