Isaiah 13:6–16

⁶Scream in terror, for the day of the Lord has arrived—

the time for the Almighty to destroy.

⁷Every arm is paralyzed with fear.

Every heart melts,

⁸and people are terrified.

Pangs of anguish grip them,

like those of a woman in labor.

They look helplessly at one another,

their faces aflame with fear.

⁹For see, the day of the Lord is coming—

the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger.

The land will be made desolate,

and all the sinners destroyed with it.

¹⁰The heavens will be black above them;

the stars will give no light.

The sun will be dark when it rises,

and the moon will provide no light.

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

and the wicked for their sin.

I will crush the arrogance of the proud

and humble the pride of the mighty.

¹²I will make people scarcer than gold—

more rare than the fine gold of Ophir.

¹³For I will shake the heavens.

The earth will move from its place

when the Lord of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath

in the day of his fierce anger.”

¹⁴Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle,

like sheep without a shepherd.

They will try to find their own people

and flee to their own land.

¹⁵Anyone who is captured will be cut down—

run through with a sword.

¹⁶Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes.

Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped.