A Judgment against Babylon
1 An oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Raise up a banner on the bare mountain!
Raise your voice to them!
Wave your hand to them to go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones.
Yes, I have called my warriors who exult in my triumph,
to execute my wrath.
4 Listen, the sound of a great multitude is in the mountains,
the sound of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts is mustering the army for the battle.
5 They come from faraway lands,
from the uttermost part of heaven,
the Lord and the weapons of his wrath,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore everyone’s hands will hang limp,
and everyone’s heart will melt.
8 They will be dismayed.
Pangs and sorrows will seize them.
They will be in pain like a woman in labor.
They will look in amazement one at another,
their faces aflame with fear.
9 The day of the Lord is coming,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation,
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the sky and its constellations
will not give their light.
The sun will be darkened in its going out,
and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their sin.
I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
and will humble the arrogance of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the pure gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place
in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 It will happen that like 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.
15 Everyone who is found will be thrust through.
Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants also will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes.
Their houses will be ransacked,
and their wives raped.
17 I will stir up the Medes against them,
who will not value silver, and as for gold,
they will not delight in it.
18 Their bows will dash the young men in pieces,
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb.
Their eyes will not spare children.
19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited,
nor will it be lived in from generation to generation.
The Arabian will not pitch a tent there,
nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21 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.
22 Wolves will cry in their fortresses,
and jackals in its luxurious palaces.
Her time is near to come,
and her days will not be prolonged.