Isaiah 13
The Lord Will Judge Babylon
13:11 This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz:2
13:23 On a bare hill raise a signal flag,
shout to them,
wave your hand,
so they might enter the gates of the princes!
13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers;4
I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger,5
my boasting, arrogant ones.6
13:47 There is a loud noise on the mountains –
it sounds like a large army!8
There is great commotion among the kingdoms9 –
nations are being assembled!
The
forces for battle.
13:5 They come from a distant land,
from the horizon.10
It is the
coming to destroy the whole earth.12
13:6 Wail, for the
it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge.14
13:7 For this reason all hands hang limp,15
every human heart loses its courage.16
cramps and pain seize hold of them
like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.
They look at one another in astonishment;
their faces are flushed red.17
13:9 Look, the
it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger,19
and annihilating its sinners.
13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations
no longer give out their light;22
the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,
and the moon does not shine.23
13:1124 I will punish the world for its evil,25
and wicked people for their sin.
I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,
I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.26
13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
and people more scarce27 than gold from Ophir.
13:13 So I will shake the heavens,28
and the earth will shake loose from its foundation,29
because of the fury of the
in the day he vents his raging anger.30
13:14 Like a frightened gazelle31
or a sheep with no shepherd,
each will turn toward home,32
each will run to his homeland.
13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized33 will die34 by the sword.
13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them;35
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold.36
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons;37
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring,38
they will not39 look with pity on children.
13:19 Babylon, the most admired40 of kingdoms,
the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride,41
will be destroyed by God
just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.42
13:20 No one will live there again;
no one will ever reside there again.43
No bedouin44 will camp45 there,
no shepherds will rest their flocks46 there.
13:21 Wild animals will rest there,
the ruined47 houses will be full of hyenas.48
Ostriches will live there,
wild goats will skip among the ruins.49
13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,
jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces.50
Her time is almost up,51
her days will not be prolonged.52