Isaiah 13–23

Proclamation against Babylon

¹³The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.^*

²On a bare hill raise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.^*

³I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,

to execute my anger.^t*

⁴Listen, a tumult on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering

an army for battle.^*

⁵They come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole earth.^*

⁶Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty!^u*

⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart will melt,^*

⁸and they will be terrified.

Pangs and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.^*

⁹See, the day of the Lord is coming,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the earth a desolation

and to destroy its sinners from it.^*

¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.^*

¹¹I will punish the world for its evil

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant

and lay low the insolence of tyrants.^*

¹²I will make mortals more rare than fine gold

and humans than the gold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.^*

¹⁴Like a gazelle on the run

or like sheep with no one to gather them,

all will turn back to their own people,

and all will flee to their own lands.^*

¹⁵Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives raped.^*

¹⁷See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.^*

¹⁸Their bows will slaughter the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.^*

¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.^*

²⁰It will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

Arabs will not pitch their tents there;

shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.^*

²¹But wild animals will lie down there,

and its houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches will live,

and there goat-demons will dance.^*

²²Hyenas will cry in its towers

and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand;

and its days will not be prolonged.^*

Restoration of Judah

¹⁴But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will settle them in their own land, and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.^{* 2}And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations^v as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.^*

Downfall of the King of Babylon

³When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve,^{* 4}you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has ceased!

How his insolence^w has ceased!^*

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

⁶that struck down the peoples in wrath

with unceasing blows,

that ruled the nations in anger

with unrelenting persecution.^*

⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

they break forth into singing.

⁸The cypresses exult over you,

the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

“Since you were laid low,

no one comes to cut us down.”^*

⁹Sheol beneath is stirred up

to meet you when you come;

it rouses the shades to greet you,

all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones

all who were kings of the nations.^*

¹⁰All of them will speak

and say to you:

“You, too, have become as weak as we!

You have become like us!”

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

and the sound of your harps;

maggots are the bed beneath you,

and worms are your covering.^*

¹²How you are fallen from heaven,

O Morning Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who laid the nations low!^*

¹³You said to yourself,

“I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God;

I will sit on the mount of assembly

on the heights of Zaphon;^x*

¹⁴I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”^*

¹⁵But you are brought down to Sheol,

to the depths of the Pit.^*

¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you

and ponder over you:

“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

who shook kingdoms,^*

¹⁷who made the world like a desert

and overthrew its cities,

who would not let his prisoners go home?”^*

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

each in his own tomb,

¹⁹but you are cast out, away from your grave,

like loathsome carrion,^y

clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,

who go down to the stones of the Pit

like a corpse trampled underfoot.^*

²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial

because you have destroyed your land;

you have killed your people.

May the descendants of evildoers

nevermore be named!^*

²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons

because of the guilt of their father.^z

Let them never rise to possess the earth

or cover the face of the world with cities.^*

²²I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord.^{* 23}And I will make it a possession of the screech owl^a and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.^*

An Oracle concerning Assyria

²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn:

As I have designed,

so shall it be,

and as I have planned,

so shall it come to pass:^*

²⁵I will break the Assyrian in my land

and on my mountains trample him under foot;

his yoke shall be removed from them

and his burden from their shoulders.^*

²⁶This is the plan that is planned

concerning the whole earth,

and this is the hand that is stretched out

over all the nations.^*

²⁷For the Lord of hosts has planned,

and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

and who will turn it back?^*

An Oracle concerning Philistia

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:^*

²⁹Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,

that the rod that struck you is broken,

for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,

and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.^*

³⁰In my pastures the poor^b will graze

and the needy lie down in safety,

but I will make your root die of famine,

and your remnant I^c will kill.^*

³¹Wail, O gate; cry, O city;

melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!

For smoke comes out of the north,

and there is no straggler in its ranks.^*

³²What will one answer the messengers of the nation?

“The Lord has founded Zion,

and the needy among his people

will find refuge in her.”^*

An Oracle concerning Moab

¹⁵An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar is laid waste in a night,

Moab is undone;

because Kir is laid waste in a night,

Moab is undone.^*

²Daughter Dibon^d has gone up

to the high places to weep;

over Nebo and over Medeba

Moab wails.

Every head is shaved;

every beard is shorn;^*

³in the streets they bind on sackcloth;

on the housetops and in the squares

everyone wails and melts in tears.^*

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;

their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the loins of Moab quiver;^e

his soul trembles.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab;

his fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim

they raise a cry of destruction;^*

⁶the waters of Nimrim

are a desolation;

the grass is withered; the new growth fails;

vegetation is no more.^*

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained

and what they have laid up

they carry away

over the Wadi of the Willows.^*

⁸For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

the wailing reaches to Eglaim;

the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dibon^f are full of blood,

yet I will bring upon Dibon^g even more—

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.^*

¹⁶Send lambs

to the ruler of the land,

from Sela, by way of the desert,

to the mount of daughter Zion.^*

²Like fluttering birds,

like scattered nestlings,

so are the daughters of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon.^*

³“Give counsel;

grant justice;

make your shade like night

at the height of noon;

hide the outcasts;

do not betray the fugitive;^*

⁴let the outcasts of Moab

settle among you;

be a refuge to them

from the destroyer.”

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and marauders have vanished from the land,^*

⁵then a throne shall be established in steadfast love

in the tent of David,

and on it shall sit in faithfulness

a ruler who seeks justice

and is swift to do what is right.^*

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab

—how proud he is!—

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;

his boasts are false.^*

⁷Therefore let Moab wail;

let everyone wail for Moab.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.^*

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish,

and the vines of Sibmah,

whose clusters once made drunk

the lords of the nations,

reached to Jazer

and strayed to the desert;

their shoots once spread abroad

and crossed over the sea.^*

⁹Therefore I weep as Jazer weeps

for the vines of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Elealeh,

for the shout over your fruit harvest

and your grain harvest has ceased.^*

¹⁰Joy and gladness are taken away

from the fruitful field,

and in the vineyards no exultation is heard;

no shouts are raised;

no treader treads out wine in the presses;

the vintage shout is hushed.…