< Isaiah 13 >
1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Set ye up an ensign upon the bare mountain. Lift up the voice to them. Wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my consecrated ones, yea, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! The noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is mustering the army for the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the outermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail ye, for the day of Jehovah is at hand. It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands shall be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt.
8 And they shall be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold. They shall be in pain as a woman in travail. They shall look in amazement one at another, their faces, faces of flame.
9 Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations of it shall not give their light. The sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for the evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And it shall come to pass, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathers, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land.
15 Everyone who is found shall be thrust through, and everyone who is taken shall fall by the sword.
16 Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces. And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited, nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, nor shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures. And ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.
22 And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
