¹ There is a loud noise on the mountains – it sounds like a large army! ²  There is great commotion among the kingdoms ³  – nations are being assembled! The Lord who commands armies is mustering forces for battle.

The noisy city is full of raucous sounds; the town is filled with revelry. ¹  Your slain were not cut down by the sword; they did not die in battle. ² 

His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river ¹  that reaches one’s neck. He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; ²  he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. ³ 

They will surrender their stronghold ¹  because of fear; ²  their officers will be afraid of the Lord’s battle flag.” ³  This is what the Lord says – the one whose fire is in Zion, whose firepot is in Jerusalem. ⁴ 

Your children faint; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a snare. They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger, by the battle cry of your God. ¹ 

They are saying, ¹  ‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ²  “The enemy is coming!” ³  Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem: “Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land. They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

They will say, ¹  ‘Prepare to do battle ²  against it! Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’ But later they will say, ³  ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! ⁴  The day is almost over and the shadows of evening are getting long.

So the Lord who rules over all ¹  said, “I will surely ²  punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. ³  Their sons and daughters will die of starvation.

So let their children die of starvation. Let them be cut down by the sword. ¹  Let their wives lose their husbands and children. Let the older men die of disease ²  and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

May that man be like the cities ¹  that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy. May he hear a cry of distress in the morning and a battle cry at noon.

Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. ¹ 

“The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. ¹  Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians ²  will live. They will escape with their lives.’” ³ 

“Make an announcement throughout Egypt. Proclaim it in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes. ¹  ‘Take your positions and prepare to do battle. For the enemy army is destroying all the nations around you.’ ² 

I said, ¹  “I have heard a message from the Lord. A messenger has been sent among the nations to say, ‘Gather your armies and march out against her! Prepare to do battle with her!’” ² 

“Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. ¹  Shoot ²  all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! ³  For she has sinned against the Lord.

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

Pharaoh with his great army and mighty horde will not help ¹  him in battle, when siege ramps are erected and siege-walls are built to kill many people.

He said, “Do you know why I have come to you? ¹  Now I am about to return to engage in battle with the prince of Persia. When I go, the prince of Greece is coming.

His sons ¹  will wage war, mustering a large army which will advance like an overflowing river and carrying the battle all the way to the enemy’s ²  fortress. ³ 

There will arise after him ¹  one ²  who will send out an exactor ³  of tribute to enhance the splendor of the kingdom, but after a few days he will be destroyed, ⁴  though not in anger or battle.