Isaiah 13

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.^*