CHAPTER 13
1The portent about Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw in a vision.
2On a bald mountain raise a banner.
Lift up your voice to them, wave a hand,
that they enter the gates of the princes.
3I have charged the ones I have summoned,
even called forth My warriors for My wrath,
who exult in My pride.
4The sound of a crowd on the mountains,
the likeness of a vast people,
the sound of the din of kingdoms,
nations assembling.
The LORD of Armies is mustering
an army for war.
5They come from a faraway land,
from the end of the heavens—
the LORD with His anger’s weapons,
to destroy all the earth.
6Howl, for the LORD’s day is near,
as shattering from Shaddai it shall come.
7Therefore all hands shall go slack,
every human heart shall quail.
8They shall panic, and birth pangs shall seize them,
like a woman in labor they shall shudder.
They shall gaze aghast at each other,
their faces in flames.
9Look, the LORD’s day comes, ruthlessly,
anger and smoldering wrath,
to turn the earth into desolation
and expunge its offenses from it.
10For the stars in the heavens and their constellations
shall not shine with their light.
The sun shall go dark when it rises,
and the moon shall not send forth its light.
11And I will single out the world for its evil,
against the wicked for their crime,
and put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
bring low the overweening of tyrants.
12I will make man scarcer than gold,
human beings, than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore will I shake the heavens,
and the earth shall quake from its base
in the anger of the LORD of Armies,
on the day of His smoldering wrath.
14And they shall be like a deer driven off,
like sheep that are not gathered in.
Each man shall turn to his people,
and each man shall flee to his land.
15All who are found shall be stabbed,
and all who are caught shall fall by the sword.
16Their babes shall be smashed as they look,
their homes shall be looted and their wives ravished.
17I am about to rouse the Medes against them,
who take no account of silver
and have no desire of gold.
18And with bows young men shall be pierced,
and they shall not pity infants.
Children they shall not spare.
19And Babylon, splendor of kingdoms,
the glorious pride of Chaldeans,
shall be as God’s overthrowing
of Sodom and Gomorrah.
20She shall remain without settlers forever,
have no dwellers for time without end.
And the Arab shall not pitch his tent there,
nor shepherds bed their flocks there.
21But wildcats shall lie down there,
and their homes shall be filled with owls.
And ostriches shall dwell there,
22And hyenas shall shriek in her palaces
and jackals in her mansions of pleasure.
And it is close to come now.
Her days shall not draw on.