5 "Look at the nations and watch-
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told. |
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,1 1:6 Or Chaldeans
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own. |
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor. |
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; |
9 they all come bent on violence. Their hordes2 1:9 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand. |
10 They deride kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
they build earthen ramps and capture them. |
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on-
guilty men, whose own strength is their god." |