Isaiah 13:1-17

Prophecies about Babylon

¹The pronouncement concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

2Lift up a flag on the bare hill,

Raise your voice to them,

Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

3I have commanded My consecrated ones,

I have also called for My warriors

Who boast in My eminence,

To execute My anger.

4A sound of a roar on the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A sound of an uproar of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!

The Lord of armies is mustering the army for battle.

5They are coming from a distant country,

From the farthest horizons,

The Lord and the weapons of His indignation,

To destroy the whole land.

Judgment on the Day of the Lord

6Wail, for the day of the Lord is near!

It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7Therefore all hands will fall limp,

And every human heart will melt.

8They will be terrified,

Pains and anguish will take hold of them;

They will writhe like a woman in labor,

They will look at one another in astonishment,

Their faces aflame.

9Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,

Cruel, with fury and burning anger,

To make the land a desolation;

And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

10For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not flash their light;

The sun will be dark when it rises

And the moon will not shed its light.

11So I will punish the world for its evil

And the wicked for their wrongdoing;

I will also put an end to the audacity of the proud

And humiliate the arrogance of the tyrants.

12I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold

And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

And the earth will be shaken from its place

At the fury of the Lord of armies

In the day of His burning anger.

14And it will be that, like a hunted gazelle,

Or like sheep with no one to gather them,

Each of them will turn to his own people,

And each of them will flee to his own land.

15Anyone who is found will be thrust through,

And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

16Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces

Before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives raped.

Babylon Will Fall to the Medes

17Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,

Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.