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
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings 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 an eagle swooping to devour;
9
they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes 2 advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10
They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps they capture them.
11
Then they sweep past like the wind and go on -
guilty people, whose own strength is their god."