17-22 “And now watch this:
    Against Babylon, I’m inciting the Medes,
A ruthless bunch indifferent to bribes,
    the kind of brutality that no one can blunt.
They massacre the young,
    wantonly kick and kill even babies.
And Babylon, most glorious of all kingdoms,
    the pride and joy of Chaldeans,
Will end up smoking and stinking like Sodom,
    and, yes, like Gomorrah, when God had finished with them.
No one will live there anymore,
    generation after generation a ghost town.
Not even Bedouins will pitch tents there.
    Shepherds will give it a wide berth.
But strange and wild animals will like it just fine,
    filling the vacant houses with eerie night sounds.
Skunks will make it their home,
    and unspeakable night hags will haunt it.
Hyenas will curdle your blood with their laughing,
    and the howling of coyotes will give you the shivers.

“Babylon is doomed.
    It won’t be long now.”

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20 She will never be inhabited(A)
    or lived in through all generations;
there no nomads(B) will pitch their tents,
    there no shepherds will rest their flocks.
21 But desert creatures(C) will lie there,
    jackals(D) will fill her houses;
there the owls(E) will dwell,
    and there the wild goats(F) will leap about.
22 Hyenas(G) will inhabit her strongholds,(H)
    jackals(I) her luxurious palaces.
Her time is at hand,(J)
    and her days will not be prolonged.(K)

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