“Announce ¹  the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! ²  Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel ³  will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images ⁴  will be dismayed. ⁵ 

For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations ¹  from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. ²  Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier ³  who does not return from the battle empty-handed. ⁴ 

“I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹  I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses ²  rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Raiding parties went out from Syria and took captive from the land of Israel a young girl, who became a servant to Naaman’s wife.

Later David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. He took Gath and its surrounding towns ¹  away from the Philistines. ² 

They also attacked the tents of the herdsmen in charge of the livestock. ¹  They carried off many sheep and camels and then returned to Jerusalem. ² 

Now listen to me! Send back those you have seized from your brothers, for the Lord is very angry at you!” ¹ 

who had been taken into exile from Jerusalem ¹  with the captives who had been carried into exile with Jeconiah ²  king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile.

They speak sinful words. ¹  So let them be trapped by their own pride and by the curses and lies they speak!

Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. ¹  They said, “Tear it down, tear it down, ²  right to its very foundation!”

You have stolen my heart, ¹  my sister, ²  my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, ³  with one jewel of your necklace.

If you do not obey me, ¹  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ²  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified. ¹ 

The nations heard about him; he was trapped in their pit. They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. ¹ 

Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? ¹  Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?

You are happy because you conquered Lo-Debar. ¹  You say, “Did we not conquer Karnaim ²  by our own power?”

Moreover, Judah will fight at ¹  Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered up ²  – gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.

and they will come to their senses and escape the devil’s trap where they are held captive ¹  to do his will. ² 

I discovered this: ¹  More bitter than death is the kind of ²  woman ³  who is like a hunter’s snare; ⁴  her heart is like a hunter’s net and her hands are like prison chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is captured by her.

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem ¹  to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. ²