Isaiah 13–14

Chapter 13

¹The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. ²Lift up a banner upon a bare mountain, raise the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. ³I have commanded my hallowed ones, I have also called my mighty men for mine anger, them that rejoice in my highness. ⁴The noise of a multitude on the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations assembled together: Jehovah of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. ⁵They come from a far country, from the end of the heavens—Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation—to destroy the whole land.

⁶Howl, for the day of Jehovah is at hand; it cometh as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt, ⁸and they shall be terrified: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall writhe as a woman that travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames. ⁹Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the earth desolate; and he will destroy the sinners thereof out of it. ¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. ¹¹And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will make the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will bring low the haughtiness of the violent. ¹²I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even man than the gold of Ophir. ¹³Therefore I will make the heavens to shake, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, at the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. ¹⁴And it shall be as with a chased roe, and as with a flock that no man gathereth together; every one shall turn to his own people, and every one flee into his own land. ¹⁵All that are found shall be thrust through; and every one that is in league with them shall fall by the sword. ¹⁶And their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be rifled, and their women ravished. ¹⁷Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who do not regard silver, and as for gold, they have no delight in it. ¹⁸And their bows shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb: their eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, even to generation and generation; nor shall Arabian pitch tent there, nor shepherds make fold there. ²¹But beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of owls; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. ²²And jackals shall cry to one another in their palaces, and wild dogs in the pleasant castles. And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Chapter 14

¹For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in rest in their own land; and the stranger shall be united to them, and they shall be joined to the house of Jacob. ²And the peoples shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captive whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. ³And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy trouble and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

⁴that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, —the exactress of gold ceased! ⁵Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. ⁶He that smote the peoples in wrath with a relentless stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted unsparingly. ⁷The whole earth is at rest, is quiet: they break forth into singing. ⁸Even the cypresses rejoice at thee, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. ⁹Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming, stirring up the dead for thee, all the he-goats of the earth; making to rise from their thrones all the kings of the nations. ¹⁰All of them shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become powerless as we; art thou become like unto us! ¹¹—Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, the noise of thy lyres: the maggot is spread under thee, and worms cover thee. ¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations! ¹³And thou that didst say in thy heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of •God, and I will sit upon the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north; ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High: ¹⁵none the less art thou brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. ¹⁶They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee; they shall consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that shook kingdoms; ¹⁷that made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; that dismissed not his prisoners homewards? ¹⁸—All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house; ¹⁹but thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, covered with the slain—those thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit: like a carcase trodden under foot. ²⁰Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial; for thou hast destroyed thy land, hast slain thy people. Of the seed of evildoers no mention shall be made for ever. ²¹Prepare ye slaughter for his children, because of the iniquity of their fathers; that they may not rise up and possess the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities. ²²For I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and scion and descendant, saith Jehovah. ²³And I will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts.

²⁴Jehovah of hosts hath sworn saying, Assuredly as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, it shall stand: ²⁵to break the Assyrian in my land; and upon my mountains will I tread him under foot; and his yoke shall depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. ²⁶This is the counsel which is purposed concerning the whole earth; and this is the hand which is stretched out upon all the nations. ²⁷For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall frustrate it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? ²⁸In the year of the death of king Ahaz was this burden: ²⁹Rejoice not thou, Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. ³⁰And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; but I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain. ³¹Howl, O gate! cry, O city! thou, Philistia, art wholly dissolved; for there cometh from the north a smoke, and none remaineth apart in his gatherings of troops. ³²And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and the afflicted of his people find refuge in it.