A Pronouncement against Babylon
1A pronouncement concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
2Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.
Call out to them.
Signal with your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.
3I have commanded my consecrated ones;
yes, I have called my warriors,
who celebrate my triumph,
to execute my wrath.
4Listen, a commotion on the mountains,
like that of a mighty people!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations being gathered together!
The Lord of Armies is mobilizing an army for war.
5They are coming from a distant land,
from the farthest horizon —
the Lord and the weapons of his wrath —
to destroy the whole country.
6Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man will lose heart.
8They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.
9Look, the day of the Lord is coming —
cruel, with fury and burning anger —
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners.
10Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.
11I will punish the world for its evil,
and wicked people for their iniquities.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.
12I will make a human more scarce than fine gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations
at the wrath of the Lord of Armies,
on the day of his burning anger.
14Like wandering gazelles
and like sheep without a shepherd,
each one will turn to his own people,
each one will flee to his own land.
15Whoever is found will be stabbed,
and whoever is caught will die by the sword.
16Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.
17Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who cannot be bought off with silver
and who have no desire for gold.
18Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on offspring;
they will not look with pity on children.
19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20It will never be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation;
a nomad will not pitch his tent there,
and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.
21But desert creatures will lie down there,
and owls will fill the houses.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will leap about.
22Hyenas will howl in the fortresses,
and jackals, in the luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is almost up;
her days are almost over.