Isaiah 13–14

CHAPTER 13

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

¹The ^1aoracle concerning ^bBabylon which ^cIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld.

^2aLift up a standard on the ^1bbare hill,

Heighten your voice at them,

^cWave the hand that they may ^denter the doors of the nobles.

³I have commanded My set apart ones,

I have even called My ^amighty warriors,

My ¹proudly exulting ones,

To execute My anger.

⁴A ^asound of tumult on the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A sound of the rumbling of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!

Yahweh of hosts is mustering the host for battle.

⁵They are coming from a far country,

From the ^aend of the sky,

Yahweh and His instruments of ^bindignation,

To ^cwreak destruction on the whole land.

⁶Wail, for the ^aday of Yahweh is near!

It will come as ^bdestruction from ¹the Almighty.

⁷Therefore ^aall hands will fall limp,

And every man’s ^bheart will melt.

⁸They will be ^aterrified,

Pains and labor pangs will take hold of them;

They will ^bwrithe like a woman in labor,

They will look at one another in astonishment,

Their faces aflame.

⁹Behold, ^athe day of Yahweh is coming,

Cruel, with fury and burning anger,

To make the land a desolation;

And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

¹⁰For the ^astars of heaven and their constellations

Will not flash forth their light;

The ^bsun will be dark when it rises

And the moon will not shed its light.

¹¹Thus I will ^apunish the world for its evil

And the ^bwicked for their iniquity;

I will also put an end to the ^cpride of the arrogant

And bring low the ^dlofty pride of the ^1eruthless.

¹²I will make mortal man ^1ascarcer than fine gold

And mankind than the ^bgold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will make the ^aheavens tremble,

And ^bthe earth will be shaken from its place

At the fury of Yahweh of hosts

In ^cthe day of His burning anger.

¹⁴And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,

Or like ^asheep with none to gather them,

They will each turn to his own people,

And each one flee to his own land.

¹⁵Anyone who is found will be ^apierced through,

And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their ^ainfants also will be dashed to pieces

Before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, I am going to ^aawaken the Medes against them,

Who will not think about silver or ^btake pleasure in gold.

¹⁸And their bows will dash the ^ayoung men to pieces,

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,

Nor will their ^beye pity ¹children.

¹⁹And it will be that ^aBabylon, the ^bbeauty of kingdoms, the ¹honor of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God ^coverthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰It will ^anever be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation;

Nor will the ^1bArab pitch his tent there,

Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

²¹But ^adesert creatures will lie down there,

And their houses will be full of ¹owls;

Ostriches also will dwell there, and ²shaggy goats will leap there.

²²¹And hyenas will howl in their fortified towers

And jackals in their luxurious ^apalaces.

Her fateful time also ²will soon come

And her days will not be prolonged.

CHAPTER 14

Israel’s Restoration and Dominion

¹When Yahweh will ^ahave compassion on Jacob and again ^bchoose Israel, and ¹put them in their own land, then ^csojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

²And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^ahouse of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of Yahweh ^bfor their male and female slaves; and ¹they will take their captors captive and will have dominion over their taskmasters.

³And it will be in the day when Yahweh gives you ^arest from your pain and turmoil and harsh slavery in which you have been enslaved,

⁴that you will ^atake up this ¹taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How ^bthe taskmaster has ceased,

And how ²fury has ceased!

⁵“Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers

^6aWhich used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which had dominion over the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

⁷“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;

They ^abreak forth into shouts of joy.

⁸“Even the ^acypress trees are glad over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’

⁹“^aSheol from beneath trembles excitedly over you to meet you when you come;

It wakens for you the ¹spirits of the dead, all the ²leaders of the earth;

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

¹⁰“^aThey will all answer and say to you,

‘Even you have been made weak as we,

You have become like us.

¹¹‘Your ^apride and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

¹²“How you have ^afallen from heaven,

O ^1bstar of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

¹³“But you said in your heart,

‘I will ^aascend to heaven;

I will ^braise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

¹⁴‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

^aI will make myself like the Most High.’

¹⁵“Nevertheless you ^awill be brought down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will ¹carefully consider you, saying,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who caused kingdoms to quake,

¹⁷Who made the world like a ^awilderness

And pulled down its cities,

Who ^bdid not ¹allow his prisoners to go home?’

¹⁸“All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

Each in his own ¹place.

¹⁹“But you have been ^acast out of your grave

Like an abhorred branch,

¹Clothed with those killed who are pierced with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the ^bpit

Like a ^ctrampled corpse.

²⁰“You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you have ruined your country,

You have killed your people.

May the ^aseed of evildoers not be called upon forever.

²¹“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter

Because of the ^ainiquity of their fathers.

They must not arise and take possession of the earth

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

²²“I will rise up against them,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon ^aname and remnant, ^boffspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh.

²³“I will also make it a possession for the ^ahedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of ^1bdestruction,” declares Yahweh of hosts.

Yahweh’s Plan to Break Assyrian Rule

²⁴Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, ^ajust as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have counseled so it will stand,

²⁵to ^abreak Assyria in My land, and I will trod him down on My mountains. Then his ^byoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder.

²⁶“This is the ^acounsel that is counseled against the whole earth; and this is the ^bhand that is stretched out against all the nations.

²⁷“For ^aYahweh of hosts has counseled, and who can thwart it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

An Oracle Concerning Philistia

²⁸In the ^ayear that King Ahaz died this ^1boracle came:

²⁹“Do not be glad, O ^aPhilistia, all of you,

Because the rod that ^bstruck you is broken;

For from the serpent’s root a ^cviper will come out,

And its fruit will be a ^dflying fiery serpent.

³⁰“¹And the foremost ^aof the poor will eat,

And the needy will lie down in security;

I will put to death your root with ^bfamine,

And it will kill off your remnant.

³¹“Wail, O ^agate; cry, O city;

¹Melt away, O ^bPhilistia, all of you;

For smoke comes from the ^cnorth,

And ^dthere is no straggler in his ranks.

³²“How then will one answer the ^amessengers of the nation?

That ^bYahweh has founded Zion,

And ^cthe afflicted of His people will take refuge in it.”