²¹ Go up to the land of Merathaim;^[a]
    go up against her,
and attack the inhabitants of Pekod^[b]
    and utterly destroy the last of them,^[c]
            says the Lord;
    do all that I have commanded you.^(A)
22 The noise of battle is in the land
    and great destruction!^(B)
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
    is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!^(C)
24 I set a snare for you, and you were caught, O Babylon,
    but you did not know it;
you were discovered and seized
    because you challenged the Lord.^(D)
25 The Lord has opened his armory
    and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a task
    in the land of the Chaldeans.^(E)
26 Come against her from every quarter;
    open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly;
    let nothing be left of her.^(F)
27 Kill all her bulls;
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Alas for them, their day has come,
    the time of their punishment!^(G)