Isaiah 13:1-11 ▼

1 This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz:

2 On a bare hill raise a signal flag, shout to them, wave your hand, so they might enter the gates of the princes!

3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, my boasting, arrogant ones.

4 There is a loud noise on the mountains--it sounds like a large army! There is great commotion among the kingdoms--nations are being assembled! The LORD who commands armies is mustering forces for battle.

5 They come from a distant land, from the horizon. It is the LORD with his instruments of judgment, coming to destroy the whole earth.

6 Wail, for the LORD's day of judgment is near; it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge.

7 For this reason all hands hang limp, every human heart loses its courage.

8 They panic--cramps and pain seize hold of them like those of a woman who is straining to give birth. They look at one another in astonishment; their faces are flushed red.

9 Look, the LORD's day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.

10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine.

11 I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.