the jackdaw, ¹  the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

the white owl, the scops owl, the osprey,

Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures ¹  will gather. ² 

You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the people who are with you. I give you as food to every kind of bird and every wild beast.

And its young ones devour the blood, and where the dead carcasses ¹  are, there it is.”

He ¹  shouted with a powerful voice: “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great! She ²  has become a lair for demons, a haunt ³  for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detested beast. ⁴ 

Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off.

Dogs will eat the members of your family ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!

Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

As for Ahab’s family, dogs will eat the ones ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; ¹  the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.

Owls ¹  will make nests and lay eggs ²  there; they will hatch them and protect them. ³  Yes, hawks ⁴  will gather there, each with its mate.

I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹ 

I will leave you on the ground, I will fling you on the open field, I will allow ¹  all the birds of the sky to settle ²  on you, and I will permit ³  all the wild animals ⁴  to gorge themselves on you.

But you have been thrown out of your grave like a shoot that is thrown away. ¹  You lie among ²  the slain, among those who have been slashed by the sword, among those headed for ³  the stones of the pit, ⁴  as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁵ 

They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

In this place I will thwart ¹  the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword ²  at the hands of their enemies. ³  I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.

I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your waterways; you will fall in the open field and will not be gathered up or collected. ¹  I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies.

Their horses are faster than leopards and more alert ¹  than wolves in the desert. ²  Their horses ³  gallop, ⁴  their horses come a great distance; like a vulture ⁵  they swoop down quickly to devour their prey. ⁶ 

And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat ¹  has never entered my mouth.”