Isaiah 13
1 This is the message Isaiah, son of Amoz, received about Babylon.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos saw.
2 Set up a banner on a bare hilltop; shout out to them; wave your hand to encourage them to enter the palaces of princes.
Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates.
3 I have ordered the ones I have chosen to attack; I have called my warriors to execute my furious judgment and to celebrate my triumph.
I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.
4 A noise comes from the mountains, sounding like that of a huge crowd! It's the roaring sound from the kingdoms, from nations gathering together! The Lord Almighty is calling up an army for war.
The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts hath given charge to the troops of war.
5 They are coming from distant lands, from beyond the far horizons—the Lord and the weapons of his fury—coming to destroy the whole country.
To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven: tile Lord and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl in fear, for the day of the Lord is approaching—the time when the Almighty destroys.
Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a destruction from the Lord.
7 Everyone's hands will fall limp, and everyone will lose their minds in panic.
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall melt,
8 They will be terrified; pain and anguish will seize them; they will suffer like a woman giving birth. They will look in shock at each other, their faces burning in fear.
And shall be broken. Gripings and pains shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman in labour. Every one shall be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances shall be as faces burnt.
9 Look! The day of the Lord is coming—cruel, with fury and fierce anger—to devastate the land and to wipe out its sinners.
Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 The stars in the constellations of heaven above will not shine. When the sun rises it will stay dark. The moon will give no light.
For the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light.
11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their sin, says the Lord. I will put an end to the conceit of the arrogant, and I will humiliate tyrants and their pride.
And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of the mighty.
12 I will make people scarcer than pure gold, rarer than the gold of Ophir.
A man shall be more precious than gold, yea a man than the finest of gold.
13 So I will shake the heavens and make the earth jump out of its place because of the fury of the Lord Almighty, at the time when his anger burns.
For this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth shall be moved out of her place, for the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and for the day of his tierce wrath.
14 Like a gazelle being hunted, or like sheep without a shepherd, the Babylonians will return to their own people, they will run away to their own land.
And they shall be as a doe fleeing away, and as a sheep: and there shall be none to gather them together: every man shall turn to his own people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
15 Anyone who is captured will be stabbed to death; anyone who is caught will be killed by the sword.
Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and every one that shall come to their aid, shall fall by the sword.
16 Their little children will be dashed to pieces as they watch, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be raped.
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes: their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives shall be ravished.
17 I'm going to get the Medes to attack them, people who don't care about silver or gold.
Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold:
18 Their bows will slaughter their young men; they will show no mercy to babies; they will have no pity on children.
But with their arrows they shall kill the children, and shall have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and their eye shall not spare their sons.
19 Babylon, the most marvelous city of any kingdom, the greatest pride of the Babylonian people, will be demolished by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of the Chaldeans, shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.
20 No one will ever live in Babylon again. It will be deserted—no desert nomad will set up a tent there, no shepherd will bring a flock to rest there.
It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be founded unto generation and generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall shepherds rest there.
21 Only desert animals will make their homes there, and the ruined houses will be inhabited by wild dogs. Owls will live there, and wild goats will leap around.
But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there:
22 Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her lavish palaces. Babylon's time is coming soon—they will not last much longer.
And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
