Isaiah 13

God’s Message to Babylon

1 God showed Isaiah son of Amoz this message about Babylon:

2 Raise a flag on the bare mountain. Call out to the men.
Raise your hand to signal them to enter through the gates for important people.

3 I myself have commanded those people whom I have separated as mine.
I have called those warriors to carry out my anger. They rejoice and are glad to do my will.

4 Listen to the loud noise in the mountains, the sound of many people.
Listen to the noise among the kingdoms, the sound of nations gathering together.
The Lord All-Powerful is calling his army together for battle.

5 This army is coming from a faraway land, from the edge of the horizon.
In anger the Lord is using this army like a weapon to destroy the whole country.

6 Cry, because the Lord’s day of judging is near; the Almighty is sending destruction.

7 People will be weak with fear, and their courage will melt away.

8 Everyone will be afraid. Pain and hurt will grab them; they will hurt like a woman giving birth to a baby.
They will look at each other in fear, with their faces red like fire.

God’s Judgment Against Babylon

9 Look, the Lord’s day of judging is coming— a terrible day, a day of God’s anger.
He will destroy the land and the sinners who live in it.

10 The stars will not show their light; the skies will be dark.
The sun will grow dark as it rises, and the moon will not give its light.

11 The Lord says, “I will punish the world for its evil and wicked people for their sins.
I will cause proud people to lose their pride, and I will destroy the pride of those who are cruel to others.

12 People will be harder to find than pure gold; there will be fewer people than there is fine gold in Ophir.

13 I will make the sky shake, and the earth will be moved from its place
by the anger of the Lord All-Powerful at the time of his burning anger.

14 “Then the people from Babylon will run away like hunted deer or like sheep who have no shepherd.
Everyone will turn back to his own people; each will run back to his own land.

15 Everyone who is captured will be killed; everyone who is caught will be killed with a sword.

16 Their little children will be beaten to death in front of them. Their houses will be robbed and their wives raped.

17 “Look, I will cause the armies of Media to attack Babylon. They do not care about silver or delight in gold.

18 Their soldiers will shoot the young men with arrows; they will show no mercy on children, nor will they feel sorry for little ones.

19 Babylon is the most beautiful of all kingdoms, and the Babylonians are very proud of it.
But God will destroy it like Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 No one will ever live there or settle there again.
No Arab will put a tent there; no shepherd will bring sheep there.

21 Only desert animals will live there, and their houses will be full of wild dogs.
Owls will live there, and wild goats will leap about in the houses.

22 Wolves will howl within the strong walls, and wild dogs will bark in the beautiful buildings.
The end of Babylon is near; its time is almost over.”

Isaiah 13

1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.2 Set ye up an ensign upon the bare mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.3 I have commanded my consecrated ones, yea, I have called my mighty men for mine anger, even my proudly exulting ones.4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host for the battle.5 They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.6 Wail ye; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.7 Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt:8 and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.9 Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.12 I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.13 Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.14 And it shall come to pass, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathereth, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land.15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is taken shall fall by the sword.16 Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished.17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.18 And their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.22 And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.