Isaiah 13–14

13^*The ^aburden of ^bBabylon, ^cwhich Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

^2dLift ye up a banner ^eupon the ^fhigh mountain,

Exalt the voice unto them, ^gshake the hand,

That they may go into the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded ^hmy sanctified ones,

I have also called ⁱmy mighty ones for mine anger,

Even them ^kthat ^lrejoice in my highness.

⁴The noise of ^la multitude in the mountains, ^†like as of a great people;

^lA tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together:

The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

^5mThey come from a far country, from the end of heaven,

Even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation,

ⁿTo destroy the whole land.

^6oHowl ye; ^pqfor the day of the Lord is at hand;

^qIt shall come ^ras a destruction from the Almighty.

⁷Therefore shall all hands ^||be faint,

And every man’s ^sheart shall melt:

⁸And they shall be afraid: ^tpangs and ^usorrows shall take hold of them;

^uvThey shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth:

They shall ^†be amazed ^†one at another;

Their faces shall be as ^†flames.

⁹Behold, ^wthe day of the Lord cometh,

Cruel both with ^xwrath and fierce anger,

To lay the land desolate:

And ^xxhe shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

¹⁰For the stars of heaven and ^ythe constellations thereof shall not ^zgive their light:

^aThe sun shall be darkened in his going forth,

And ^athe moon shall not cause her light to shine.

¹¹And I will ^bpunish the world for their evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity;

And I will ^ccause the arrogancy of the proud to cease,

And will ^dlay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

^12eI will make a man ^fmore precious than ^gfine gold;

Even a man than ^hthe golden wedge of Ophir.

¹³Therefore ⁱI will shake the heavens,

And ⁱthe earth shall remove out of her place,

In ^jthe wrath of the Lord of hosts,

And ^kin the day of his ^jfierce anger.

¹⁴And it shall be as the chased roe,

And as a sheep that no man taketh up:

^lThey shall every man turn to his own people,

And flee every one into his own land.

¹⁵Every one that is found ^mshall be thrust through;

And every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶ⁿTheir children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes;

^oTheir houses shall be spoiled, and ^otheir wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, ^pI will stir up ^qthe Medes against them,

^rWhich shall not regard silver;

And as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

^18sTheir bows also shall dash the young men to pieces;

And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;

^tTheir eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹And Babylon, ^uthe glory of kingdoms,

^uThe beauty of ^vthe Chaldees’ ^uexcellency,

^wShall be ^†as ^xwhen God overthrew ^ySodom and Gomorrah.

^20zIt shall never be inhabited,

Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation:

Neither shall ^athe Arabian pitch tent there;

Neither shall the shepherds ^bmake their fold there.

^21cBut ^†dwild beasts of the desert shall lie there;

And their houses shall be full of ^†doleful creatures;

And ^||†dowls shall dwell there,

And ^desatyrs shall dance there.

²²And ^†dthe wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their ^||fdesolate houses,

And ^gdragons in their ^hpleasant ⁱpalaces:

And ^kher time is near to come,

And her days shall not be prolonged.

14For the Lord ^awill have mercy on Jacob,

And ^bwill yet choose Israel,

And ^cset them in their own land:

And ^dthe strangers shall be joined with them,

And they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

²And the people shall take them, and ^ebring them to their place:

And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord

^fFor servants and handmaids:

And they shall take them captives, ^†whose captives they were;

And ^gthey shall rule over their oppressors.

³And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, ⁴That thou shalt ^htake up this ^||proverb against the king of Babylon, and say,

How hath the oppressor ceased! the ^||igolden city ceased!

⁵The Lord hath broken ^kthe staff ^lof the wicked, and ^klthe sceptre of the rulers.

⁶He who smote the people in wrath with ^†a continual stroke,

He that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

⁷The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: ^mthey break forth into singing.

⁸ⁿYea, ^othe fir trees rejoice at thee, and ^opthe cedars of Lebanon, saying,

Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

^9q||Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming:

It stirreth up ^rthe dead for thee, even all the ^†chief ones of the earth;

It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰All they shall ^sspeak and say unto thee,

Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

¹¹Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy ^tviols:

^uThe worm ^vis spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

^12wHow art thou fallen from heaven, ^||O Lucifer, ^xson of the morning!

How art thou ^ycut down to the ground, which didst ^zweaken the nations!

¹³For thou hast said in thine heart, ^aI will ascend into heaven,

^bI will exalt my throne above the stars of God:

I will sit also upon ^cthe mount of the congregation, in ^dthe sides of the north:

^14bI will ascend above the heights of the clouds; ^eI will be like the most High.

¹⁵Yet ^fthou shalt be brought down to hell, to ^gthe sides of the pit.

¹⁶They that see thee shall ^hnarrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying,

Is this the man that ⁱmade the earth to tremble, that ⁱdid shake kingdoms;

¹⁷That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof;

That ^||opened not the house of his prisoners?

¹⁸All the kings of the nations, even all of them,

Lie in glory, every one ^kin his own house.

¹⁹But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch,

And as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword,

That go down to ^gthe stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

^20lThou shalt not be joined with them in burial,

Because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people:

^mThe seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

²¹Prepare slaughter for his children ⁿfor the iniquity of their fathers;

^oThat they do not rise, nor possess the land,

Nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²²For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts,

And cut off from Babylon ^pthe name, and ^qremnant,

And ^rson, and ^rsnephew, saith the Lord.

²³I will also make it a possession for ^tthe bittern, and pools of water:

And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.

²⁴The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,

Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass;

And as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

^25uThat I will break the Assyrian in my land,

And upon my mountains tread him under foot:

Then shall his ^vyoke depart from off them,

And ^whis ^vburden depart from off their shoulders.

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth:

And this is ^xthe hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

²⁷For ^ythe Lord of hosts hath purposed, and ^zwho shall disannul it?

And ^xhis hand is stretched out, and ^awho shall turn it back?

²⁸In the year that ^bking Ahaz died was this ^cburden.

²⁹Rejoice not thou, whole ^dPalestina,

Because ^ethe rod of him that smote thee is broken:

For ^fout of the serpent’s root shall come forth a ^||gcockatrice,

And ^fhis fruit shall be ^ha fiery flying serpent.

³⁰And ⁱthe firstborn of the poor shall feed,

And the needy shall lie down in safety:

And I will kill thy root with famine,

And he shall slay thy remnant.

^31jHowl, O gate; cry, O city;

Thou, whole ^dPalestina, art ^kdissolved:

For there shall come from the north a smoke,

And ^||none shall be alone in his ^||lappointed times.

³²What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation?

That ^mthe Lord hath founded Zion,

And ^nothe poor of his people ⁿshall ^||ptrust in it.