Isaiah 13:1–22

Proclamation Against Babylon

13The ^aburden ¹against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

²“Lift ^bup a banner ^con the high mountain,

Raise your voice to them;

^dWave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded My ²sanctified ones;

I have also called ^eMy mighty ones for My anger—

Those who ^frejoice in My exaltation.”

⁴The ^gnoise of a multitude in the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!

The Lord of hosts musters

The army for battle.

⁵They come from a far country,

From the end of heaven—

The ^hLord and His ³weapons of indignation,

To destroy the whole ⁱland.

⁶Wail, ^jfor the day of the Lord is at hand!

^kIt will come as destruction from the Almighty.

⁷Therefore all hands will be limp,

Every man’s heart will melt,

⁸And they will be afraid.

^lPangs ⁴and sorrows will take hold of them;

They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;

They will be amazed at one another;

Their faces will be like flames.

⁹Behold, ^mthe day of the Lord comes,

Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,

To lay the land desolate;

And He will destroy ⁿits sinners from it.

¹⁰For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not give their light;

The sun will be ^odarkened in its going forth,

And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

¹¹“I will ^ppunish the world for its evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity;

^qI will halt the arrogance of the proud,

And will lay low the haughtiness of the ⁵terrible.

¹²I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,

A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

^13rTherefore I will shake the heavens,

And the earth will move out of her place,

In the wrath of the Lord of hosts

And in ^sthe day of His fierce anger.

¹⁴It shall be as the hunted gazelle,

And as a sheep that no man ⁶takes up;

^tEvery man will turn to his own people,

And everyone will flee to his own land.

¹⁵Everyone who is found will be thrust through,

And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their children also will be ^udashed to pieces before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives ^vravished.

¹⁷“Behold, ^wI will stir up the Medes against them,

Who will not ⁷regard silver;

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

¹⁸Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,

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

Their eye will not spare children.

^19xAnd Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God overthrew ^ySodom and Gomorrah.

^20zIt will never be inhabited,

Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;

Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,

Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.

^21aBut wild beasts of the desert will lie there,

And their houses will be full of ⁸owls;

Ostriches will dwell there,

And wild goats will caper there.

²²The hyenas will howl in their citadels,

And jackals in their pleasant palaces.

^bHer time is near to come,

And her days will not be prolonged.”