1 The burden of Babylon, which burden Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw.

2 Raise ye [up] a sign on a misty hill, and enhance ye [the] voice; raise ye the hand, and [the] dukes enter by the gates.

3 I have commanded to mine hallowed men, and I called my strong men in my wrath, that make full out joy in my glory.

4 The voice of [the] multitude in hills [or mountains], as of many peoples; the voice of [the] sound of kings, of heathen men gathered together. The Lord of hosts commanded to the chivalry of [the] battle,

5 to men coming from a far land. The Lord cometh from the highness of heaven, and the vessels of his strong vengeance, that he destroy all the land.

6 Yell ye, for the day of the Lord is nigh; as wasting, either destroying, it shall come of the Lord.

7 For this thing all hands shall be unmighty, and each heart of man shall fail, and shall be all-broken.

8 Gnawings [or Tormentings] and sorrows shall hold Babylonians; they shall have sorrow, as they that travail of child. Each man shall wonder at his neighbour; their cheers shall be burnt faces.

9 Lo! the day of the Lord shall come, cruel, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and of strong vengeance; to set the land into wilderness, and to all-break the sinners thereof from that land.

10 For why the stars of heaven and the shining of them shall not spread abroad their light; the sun is made dark in his rising, and the moon shall not shine in her light.

11 And I shall visit on the evils of the world, and I shall visit against wicked men the wickedness of them; and I shall make the pride of unfaithful men for to rest, and I shall make low the boast of strong men.

12 A man of full age shall be preciouser than gold, and a man shall be preciouser than pure gold and shining.

13 On this thing I shall trouble heaven, and the earth shall be moved from his place; for the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and for the day of wrath of his strong vengeance.

14 And it shall be as a doe fleeing, and as a sheep, and none shall be that shall gather together; each man shall turn to his people, and all by themselves shall flee to their land.

15 Each man that is found, shall be slain; and each man that cometh above, shall fall down by sword.

16 The young children of them shall be hurtled down before the eyes of them; their houses shall be ravished, and their wives shall be defouled.

17 Lo! I shall raise on them Medes, that seek not silver, neither will gold;

18 but they shall slay little children with arrows, and they shall not have mercy on wombs giving milk, and the eye of them shall not spare on sons.

19 And Babylon, that glorious city in realms, noble in the pride of Chaldees, shall be destroyed, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It shall not be inhabited till into the end, and it shall not be founded till to generation and generation; a man of Arabia shall not set tents there, and shepherds shall not rest there.

21 But wild beasts shall rest there, and the houses of them shall be filled with dragons; and ostriches shall dwell there, and hairy beasts shall skip there.

22 And bitterns shall answer there in the houses thereof, and flying serpents in the temples of lust. It is nigh that the time thereof come, and the days thereof shall not be made far;