Isaiah 13

An Oracle against Babylon

¹The oracle of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

²Raise a signal on a bare hill,

³I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones,

⁴A sound, a noise is on the mountains,

A sound of the roar of the kingdoms,

Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle.

⁵They are coming from a distant land,

Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation,

⁶Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near;

⁷Therefore all hands will grow slack,

Pangs and labor pains will seize them;

They will stare at one another,

⁹Look! The day of Yahweh is coming,

to make the earth a desolation,

¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light;

¹¹And I will punish the world for its evil

And I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,

¹²I will make humanity more rare than gold

¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,

¹⁴And this shall happen:

like a hunted gazelle or sheep with none to gather them,

they will each turn to his own people,

¹⁵Everyone who is found will be pierced through,

¹⁶And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes;

¹⁷Look! I am stirring the Medes up against them,

who do not value silver

¹⁸And their bows will shatter young men.

¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.[#Literally “the overthrow by God of”]

²⁰It will not be inhabited forever,

and no Arab will pitch a tent there,

²¹But wild animals will lie down there,

and the daughters of ostriches will live there,

²²And hyenas will answer in its palaces,

and its time is coming soon,