Proclamation Against Babylon
1 Theburden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 “Liftup a banneron the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
# Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My sanctified ones;
# I have also calledMy mighty ones for My anger—
# Those whorejoice in My exaltation.”
4 Thenoise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!
TheLordof hosts musters
The army for battle.
5 They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
# TheLordand His weapons of indignation,
# To destroy the wholeland.
6 Wail,for the day of theLordisat hand!
# It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
8 And they will be afraid.
# Pangs and sorrows will take hold ofthem;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faceswillbelikeflames.
9 Behold,the day of theLordcomes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
# And He will destroyits sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
# The sun will bedarkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 “I willpunish the world foritsevil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
# I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of theLordof hosts
# And inthe day of His fierce anger.
14 It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man takes up;
# Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.
15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16 Their children also will bedashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
# And their wivesravished.
17 “Behold,I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
Andasforgold, they will not delight in it.
18 Alsotheirbows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
# Will be as when God overthrewSodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.
22 The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
# Her timeisnear to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”