Isaiah
13
- An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah
son of Amoz saw:
- Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout
to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.
- I have commanded my holy ones; I have summoned
my warriors to carry out my wrath -- those who rejoice in my triumph.
- Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that
of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing
together! The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war.
- They come from faraway lands, from the ends
of the heavens -- the LORD and the weapons of his wrath--to destroy the whole
country.
- Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it
will come like destruction from the Almighty.
- Because of this, all hands will go limp,
every man's heart will melt.
- Terror will seize them, pain and anguish
will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast
at each other, their faces aflame.
- See, the day of the LORD is coming -- a
cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger -- to make the land desolate and destroy
the sinners within it.
- The stars of heaven and their constellations
will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will
not give its light.
- I will punish the world for its evil, the
wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and
will humble the pride of the ruthless.
- I will make man scarcer than pure gold,
more rare than the gold of Ophir.
- Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,
in the day of his burning anger.
- Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without
a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native
land.
- Whoever is captured will be thrust through;
all who are caught will fall by the sword.
- Their infants will be dashed to pieces before
their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.
- See, I will stir up against them the Medes,
who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold.
- Their bows will strike down the young men;
they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children.
- Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory
of the Babylonians' pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- She will never be inhabited or lived in
through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will
rest his flocks there.
- But desert creatures will lie there, jackals
will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats
will leap about.
- Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals
in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
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