Isaiah 13:9-22 ▼

9 Look, the day of the LORD is coming — cruel, with fury and burning anger — to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners.

10 Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.

11 I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their iniquities. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

12 I will make a human more scarce than fine gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the LORD of Armies, on the day of his burning anger.

14 Like wandering gazelles and like sheep without a shepherd, each one will turn to his own people, each one will flee to his own land.

15 Whoever is found will be stabbed, and whoever is caught will die by the sword.

16 Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted, and their wives raped.

17 Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them, who cannot be bought off with silver and who have no desire for gold.

18 Their bows will cut young men to pieces. They will have no compassion on offspring; they will not look with pity on children.

19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; a nomad will not pitch his tent there, and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.

21 But desert creatures will lie down there, and owls will fill the houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

22 Hyenas will howl in the fortresses, and jackals, in the luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is almost up; her days are almost over.