The Judgment of Babylon
The oracle concerning aBabylon which bIsaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 On a bare hill araise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for bthem to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.
4 The sound aof a tumult is on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
bThe Lord of hosts is mustering
a host for battle.
5 aThey come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
6 aWail, for bthe day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart awill melt.
8 They will be dismayed:
apangs and agony will seize them;
bthey will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9 Behold, athe day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and bto destroy its sinners from it.
10 aFor the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
bthe sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish athe world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will bput an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
cand lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make apeople more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the bgold of Ophir.
13 Therefore aI will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
aeach will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 aTheir infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, aI am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18 aTheir bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19 And Babylon, athe glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be blike Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 aIt will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no bArab will pitch his tent there;
no cshepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But awild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there bostriches will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and ajackals in bthe pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.