I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches. ¹ 

Then ¹  I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It ²  had ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns were ten diadem crowns, ³  and on its heads a blasphemous name. ⁴ 

“Son of man, sing a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: “‘You were like a lion ¹  among the nations, but you are a monster in the seas; you thrash about in your streams, stir up the water with your feet, and muddy your ²  streams.

Am I the sea, or the creature of the deep, ¹  that you must put ²  me under guard? ³ 

Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: “‘Look, I am against ¹  you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster ²  lying in the midst of its waterways, who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.” ³ 

God does not restrain his anger; ¹  under him the helpers of Rahab ²  lie crushed. ³ 

Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs; ¹  you have covered us with darkness. ² 

The mountain of Bashan ¹  is a towering mountain; ²  the mountain of Bashan is a mountain with many peaks. ³ 

The Lord says, “I will retrieve them ¹  from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

You will subdue ¹  a lion and a snake; ²  you will trample underfoot a young lion and a serpent.

The ships travel there, and over here swims the whale ¹  you made to play in it.

Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ¹  It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives. ² 

and rejected Esau. ¹  I turned Esau’s ²  mountains into a deserted wasteland ³  and gave his territory ⁴  to the wild jackals.”

“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon devoured me and drove my people out. Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me. He filled his belly with my riches. He made me an empty dish. He completely cleaned me out.” ¹ 

Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses, jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. ¹  Her time is almost up, ²  her days will not be prolonged. ³ 

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow ¹  in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. ² 

The dry soil will become a pool of water, the parched ground springs of water. Where jackals once lived and sprawled out, grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

The wild animals of the desert honor me, the jackals and ostriches, because I put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness, to quench the thirst of my chosen people,

The Lord said, ¹  “I will make Jerusalem ²  a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ³  I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Listen! News is coming even now. ¹  The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³  It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.