“Take up your positions
Around Babylon!
All you that bend the bow!
Shoot at her!
Spare no arrows!
She has sinned
Against Yahweh.
Raise a shout
Against her
From all sides!
She has surrendered!
Her bulwarks have fallen!
Her walls are thrown down!
This is the vengeance
Of Yahweh.
Take vengeance on her!
Do to her
As she has done!
Cut off from Babylon
The sower with
The wielder of the sickle
In the time of harvest.
Because of the destroying sword,
All of them shall return
To their own people.
All of them shall flee
To their own land.”
The attack on Babylon would be successful. The archers with their great arrows would take their positions and shoot at the Babylonians. They would raise great shouts of joy from all sides. Babylon had sinned against Yahweh. Finally, Babylon would surrender. The fortresses and the walls would come tumbling down, because this was the vengeance of Yahweh at work. Babylon was done. There would be nobody to plant. No one would be there to cut down the harvest, since there would be no harvest. Everyone would return and flee to their own lands. Thus the destruction of Babylon in 539 BCE was described here some 60 years previous to the event. Is that an indication of a later composition?
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 