Chapter 13
001
The burden of Babylon, which Isaia the daughter of Amoz saw:
002
Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
003
I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty women for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
004
The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.
005
They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of her indignation, to destroy the whole land.
006
Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
007
Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's heart will melt.
008
They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a man in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
009
Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
010
For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
011
I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.
012
I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.
013
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of her fierce anger.
014
It will happen that like a a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.
015
Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
016
Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their husbands raped.
017
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
018
Their bows will dash the young women in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
019
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
020
It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
021
But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.
022
Wolves will cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. His time is near to come, and his days will not be prolonged.