1 ⁵ Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
1 ⁶ For lo, I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize habitations not their own.
1 ⁷ Dread and terrible are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
1 ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Yea, their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
1 ⁹ They all come for violence;
terror of them goes before them.
They gather captives like sand.
1 ¹⁰ At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they heap up earth and take it.
1 ¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!