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.

3 I have commanded My 2sanctified ones;

I have also called eMy mighty ones for My anger—

Those who frejoice in My exaltation.”

4 The 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.

5 They come from a far country,

From the end of heaven—

The hLord and His 3weapons of indignation,

To destroy the whole iland.

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

kIt will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore all hands will be limp,

Every man’s heart will melt,

8 And 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.

9 Behold, 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.

10 For 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.

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

A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13 rTherefore 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.

14 It 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.

15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through,

And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

16 Their 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.

18 Also 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.

19 xAnd Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God overthrew ySodom and Gomorrah.

20 zIt 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.

21 aBut 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.

22 The 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.”