Isaiah 13:6–16

⁶Cry loudly, for the day of the Lord is near. 

It will come like destruction from the Almighty. 

⁷That is why every hand will hang limp, 

and everyone’s courage will fail. 

⁸They’ll be terrified. 

Pain and anguish will seize them. 

They’ll writhe like a woman giving birth to a child. 

They’ll look at one another in astonishment. 

Their faces will be burning red. 

⁹The day of the Lord is going to come. 

It will be a cruel day with fury and fierce anger. 

He will make the earth desolate. 

He will destroy its sinners. 

¹⁰The stars in the sky and their constellations 

won’t show their light anymore. 

The sun will be dark when it rises. 

The moon won’t shine. 

¹¹I will punish the world for its evil 

and the wicked for their wrongdoing. 

I will put an end to arrogant people 

and humble the pride of tyrants. 

¹²I will make people harder to find than pure gold 

and human beings more rare than gold from Ophir. 

¹³I will make heaven tremble, 

and the earth will be shaken from its place 

when the Lord of Armies is angry. 

At that time he will be very angry. 

¹⁴They’ll be like hunted gazelle 

and like sheep with no one to gather them. 

Everyone will return to his own people 

and flee to his own land. 

¹⁵Whoever is found will be stabbed to death. 

Whoever is captured will be executed. 

¹⁶Their little children will be smashed to death right before their eyes. 

Their houses will be looted and their wives raped.