I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women.

I used you to smash horses and their riders. ¹  I used you to smash chariots and their drivers.

O sovereign Lord, ¹  at your right hand he strikes down ²  kings in the day he unleashes his anger. ³ 

I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.” ¹ 

Indeed God strikes the heads of his enemies, the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. ¹ 

He executes judgment ¹  against ²  the nations; he fills the valleys with corpses; ³  he shatters their heads over the vast battlefield. ⁴ 

“Babylon, ¹  you are my war club, ²  my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. ³  I used you to destroy kingdoms.

Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; ¹  he will beat them with a club.

“I will go before you and level mountains. ¹  Bronze doors I will shatter and iron bars ²  I will hack through.

then you scare me ¹  with dreams and terrify ²  me with ³  visions,

With an east wind you shatter ¹  the large ships. ² 

Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, ¹  cut down their sacred Asherah poles, ²  and burn up their idols.

He will demolish the sacred pillars in the temple of the sun ¹  in Egypt and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.”’”

But the time is coming when I will send men against Moab who will empty it out. They will empty the towns of their people, then will lay those towns in ruins. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

By the swords of the mighty warriors I will cause your hordes to fall – all of them are the most terrifying among the nations. They will devastate the pride of Egypt, and all its hordes will be destroyed.

I will overthrow royal thrones and shatter the might of earthly kingdoms. ¹  I will overthrow chariots and those who ride them, and horses and their riders will fall as people kill one another. ² 

You will break them ¹  with an iron scepter; ²  you will smash them like a potter’s jar!’” ³ 

O God, break the teeth in their mouths! Smash the jawbones of the lions, O Lord!

He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his weapons. ¹ 

I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies, who are seeking to kill them. I will vent my fierce anger and bring disaster upon them,” ¹  says the Lord. ²  “I will send armies chasing after them ³  until I have completely destroyed them.