Jeremiah 51:1-5, 11-13, 27-28

There’s more. GOD says more: “Watch this: I’m whipping up A death-dealing hurricane against Babylon—‘Hurricane Persia’— against all who live in that perverse land. I’m sending a cleanup crew into Babylon. They’ll clean the place out from top to bottom. When they get through there’ll be nothing left of her worth taking or talking about. They won’t miss a thing. A total and final Doomsday! Fighters will fight with everything they’ve got. It’s no-holds-barred. They will spare nothing and no one. It’s final and wholesale destruction—the end! Babylon littered with the wounded, streets piled with corpses. It turns out that Israel and Judah are not widowed after all. As their God, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, I am still alive and well, committed to them even though They filled their land with sin against Israel’s most Holy God.

“Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! GOD has stirred up the kings of the Medes, infecting them with war fever: ‘Destroy Babylon!’ GOD’s on the warpath. He’s out to avenge his Temple. Give the signal to attack Babylon’s walls. Station guards around the clock. Bring in reinforcements. Set men in ambush. GOD will do what he planned, what he said he’d do to the people of Babylon. You have more water than you need, you have more money than you need— But your life is over, your lifeline cut.” * * *

“Raise the signal in the land, blow the shofar-trumpet for the nations. Consecrate the nations for holy work against her. Call kingdoms into service against her. Enlist Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a field marshal against her, and round up horses, locust hordes of horses! Consecrate the nations for holy work against her— the king of the Medes, his leaders and people.