16 Cut off from Babylon the sower,
    and the reaper with his sickle at harvest.
Because of the sword of the oppressor
    let everyone return to their own people,
    let everyone flee to their own land.

17 ‘Israel is a scattered flock
    that lions have chased away.
The first to devour them
    was the king of Assyria;
the last to crush their bones
    was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.’

18 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land
    as I punished the king of Assyria.

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