The Burden against Babylon

1The burden of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz has seen.

2Upon the bare mountain lift up a banner!

Raise high your voice to them.

Wave a hand,

that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

3I have commanded My holy ones;

also, I have called My mighty ones

for My nose—

those jubilant ones of My pride.

4The voice of a crowd on the mountains,

like that of many people—

the voice of a roar of the kingdoms

of nations gathered together!

YHWH of Hosts is mustering

a host for battle!

5They are coming from a land far off,

from the end of the heavens—

YHWH and the instruments of His indignation—

to destroy all the land.

6Wail, for the day of YHWH is near;

it will come as destruction from Shaddai.†

7At this all hands will go limp,

and every heart of man will melt;

8and they will be afraid; pains and pangs will seize them;

like a woman in labor they will writhe.

Each man to his neighbor will look with astonishment,

with faces aflame—their faces.

9Behold, the day of YHWH is coming,

cruel with wrath and heat of anger,

to set the land unto desolation,

and He will destroy its sinful ones from it.

10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

their light will not shine forth;

the sun will be darkened in its going forth,

and the moon will not cause to shine its light.

11And I will visit punishment upon the world for evil,

and upon the wicked for their iniquity,

and I will make cease the arrogance of the proud ones,

and the haughtiness of the ruthless ones I will lay low.

12I will make man scarcer than pure gold,

and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13Upon thus I will make the heavens tremble

and the earth will be shaken from her place,

by the fury of YHWH of Hosts,

and in the day of the heat of his nose.

14And it has been like the gazelle driven away,

or like a sheep without one gathering it,

each man to his people will turn,

and each man to his land will flee.

15Everyone who is found will be pierced,

and everyone who is captured will fall by the sword;

16and their children will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives will be ravished.

17Behold, I am stirring up against them the Medes,

who regard have no for silver,

and gold—they do not delight in it.

18And the bows will dash to pieces the young men,

and on the fruit of the womb they will have no mercy—

on sons their eye has no pity.

19Babylon, the glory of kingdoms

and the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like the overthrowing by God

of Sodom and Gomorrah.

20She wil not be dwelt in to eternity,

she wil not be dwelt in for generation and generation,

and no Arab or shepherds will pitch a tent;

there they will not make flocks rest there.

21And desert creatures will stretch out there,

and their houses will be full of howling creatures,

and daughters of the ostrich† will dwell there,

and wild goats will skip about there,

22and hyenas will howl in its towers,

and jackals† in its palaces of delight.

And her time is coming near,

and her days will not be drawn out.