Isaiah 13:6–16

⁶Cry, because the Lord’s day of judging is near;

the Almighty is sending destruction.

⁷People will be weak with fear,

and their courage will melt away.

⁸Everyone will be afraid.

Pain and hurt will grab them;

they will hurt like a woman giving birth to a baby.

They will look at each other in fear,

with their faces red like fire.

God’s Judgment Against Babylon

⁹Look, the Lord’s day of judging is coming—

a terrible day, a day of God’s anger.

He will destroy the land

and the sinners who live in it.

¹⁰The stars will not show their light;

the skies will be dark.

The sun will grow dark as it rises,

and the moon will not give its light.

¹¹The Lord says, “I will punish the world for its evil

and wicked people for their sins.

I will cause proud people to lose their pride,

and I will destroy the pride of those who are cruel to others.

¹²People will be harder to find than pure gold;

there will be fewer people than there is fine gold in Ophir.

¹³I will make the sky shake,

and the earth will be moved from its place

by the anger of the Lord All-Powerful

at the time of his burning anger.

¹⁴“Then the people from Babylon will run away like hunted deer

or like sheep who have no shepherd.

Everyone will turn back to his own people;

each will run back to his own land.

¹⁵Everyone who is captured will be killed;

everyone who is caught will be killed with a sword.

¹⁶Their little children will be beaten to death in front of them.

Their houses will be robbed

and their wives raped.