13
1 The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.
2 “Raise a banner on a bare mountain;
lift your voice to them.
Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my consecrated ones;
I have called my mighty men for my anger, those who exult in my majesty.”
4 A sound of a multitude on the mountains, like a great people!
A sound of the uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathered together!
The LORD of hosts is mustering an army for battle.
5 They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to devastate the whole earth.
6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will grow limp, and every human heart will melt.
8 They will be terrified;
pangs and anguish will seize them, and they will writhe like a woman in labor.
They will stare at one another in amazement;
their faces will be aflame.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the earth desolate and destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light;
the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light.
11 “I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud and bring low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make a mortal rarer than fine gold, mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its place, at the fury of the LORD of hosts, in the day of his burning anger.”
14 Like a hunted gazelle or a flock with no one to gather it, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
15 Everyone found will be pierced through, and everyone caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their little ones will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered, and their wives raped.
17 “Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who do not value silver or delight in gold.
18 Their bows will shatter young men;
they will have no compassion on the fruit of the womb, and their eyes will not spare children.”
19 Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation.
No Arab will pitch his tent there, and no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But desert beasts will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures.
Ostriches will dwell there, and goat demons will dance there.
22 Howling beasts will answer in its desolate dwellings, and jackals in its luxurious palaces.
Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.