Isaiah 13–23

Chapter 13

¹The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the 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 mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.

⁴Hark, a tumult on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

Hark, an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering

a host 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;

as destruction from the Almighty it will come!

⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every man’s heart will melt,

⁸and they will be dismayed.

Pangs and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in travail.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

⁹Behold, the day of the Lord comes,

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 haughtiness of the ruthless.

¹²I will make men more rare than fine gold,

and mankind 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.

¹⁴And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

every man will turn to his own people,

and every man will flee to his own land.

¹⁵Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants will be dashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, 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 dwelt in for all generations;

no Arab will pitch his tent there,

no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

²¹But wild beasts will lie down there,

and its houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches will dwell,

and there satyrs 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.

Chapter 14

¹The Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and aliens will join them and will cleave to the house of Jacob. ²And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

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

“How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

⁶that smote 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 rejoice at you,

the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low,

no hewer comes up against us.’

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,

the sound of your harps;

maggots are the bed beneath you,

and worms are your covering.

¹²“How you are fallen from heaven,

O Day Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who laid the nations low!

¹³You said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

above the stars of God

I will set my throne on high;

I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north;

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights 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 did 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 sepulchre,

like a loathed untimely birth,^z

clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,

who go down to the stones of the Pit,

like a dead body trodden under foot.

²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial,

because you have destroyed your land,

you have slain your people.

“May the descendants of evildoers

nevermore be named!

²¹Prepare slaughter for his sons

because of the guilt of their fathers,

lest they rise and possess the earth,

and fill the face of the world with cities.”

²²“I 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. ²³And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.”

²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn:

“As I have planned,

so shall it be,

and as I have purposed,

so shall it stand,

²⁵that I will break the Assyrian in my land,

and upon my mountains trample him under foot;

and his yoke shall depart from them,

and his burden from their shoulder.”

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed

concerning the whole earth;

and this is the hand that is stretched out

over all the nations.

²⁷For the Lord of hosts has purposed,

and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

and who will turn it back?

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

²⁹“Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,

that the rod which smote you is broken,

for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,

and its fruit will be a flying serpent.

³⁰And the first-born of the poor will feed,

and the needy lie down in safety;

but I will kill your root with famine,

and your remnant I will slay.

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 his ranks.”

³²What will one answer the messengers of the nation?

“The Lord has founded Zion,

and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”

Chapter 15

¹An 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.

²The daughter of Dibon^b has gone up

to the high places to weep;

over Nebo and over Medeba

Moab wails.

On every head is baldness,

every beard is shorn;

³in the streets they gird on sackcloth;

on the housetops and in the squares

every one wails and melts in tears.

⁴Heshbon and Ele-aleh cry out,

their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;

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,

the verdure is no more.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained

and what they have laid up

they carry away

over the Brook of the Willows.

⁸For a cry has gone

round the land of Moab;

the wailing reaches to Eglaim,

the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;

yet I will bring upon Dibon^c even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.

Chapter 16

¹They have sent lambs to the ruler of the land,

from Sela, by way of the desert,

to the mount of the daughter of 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,

betray not the fugitive;

⁴let the outcasts of Moab

sojourn among you;

be a refuge to them

from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and he who tramples under foot

has vanished from the land,

⁵then a throne will be established in steadfast love

and on it will sit in faithfulness

in the tent of David

one who judges and seeks justice

and is swift to do righteousness.”

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab,

how proud he was;

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence—

his boasts are false.

⁷Therefore let Moab wail,

let every one wail for Moab.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish,

and the vine of Sibmah;

the lords of the nations

have struck down its branches,

which reached to Jazer

and strayed to the desert;

its shoots spread abroad

and passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Ele-aleh;

for upon your fruit and your harvest

the battle shout has fallen.

¹⁰And joy and gladness are taken away

from the fruitful field;

and in the vineyards no songs are sung,

no shouts are raised;

no treader treads out wine in the presses;

the vintage shout is hushed.^d

¹¹Therefore my soul moans like a lyre for Moab,

and my heart for Kir-heres.

¹²And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place,…