CHAPTER 13

1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw.

2 On a lofty mountain lift up a banner;
Raise the voice to them; shake the hand;
That they may enter into the gates of the nobles.

3 I have commanded my sanctified ones;
And for mine anger have I also called my mighty ones,
Who rejoice in my glory.

4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
As of a great people;
The noise of the sound of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together;
Jehovah of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

5 Coming from a distant land,
From the end of heaven,
Jehovah and the vessels of his anger,
To destroy the whole land.

6 Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is at hand;
As destruction from the Strong One ¹ shall it come.

7 Therefore shall all hands be weakened,
And every heart of man shall melt.

8 And they shall be afraid;
Pangs And sorrows shall take hold of them;
They shall be in pain like a woman in labour;
Every one shall be amazed at his neighbour;
Their faces shall be faces of flames.

9 Behold! the day of Jehovah shall come cruel;
Even indignation and the burning of anger,
To lay the land desolate,
And to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

10 Therefore the stars of heaven, and the constellations,
Shall not give their light;
The sun shall be darkened in his going forth,
And the moon shall not give forth her brightness.

11 And I will visit upon the world wickedness,
And upon the wicked their iniquity;
And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
And I will lay low the loftiness of tyrants.

12 I will make a mortal more precious than fine gold,
And a man than the weight of the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth shall be moved out of its place,
In the indignation of Jehovah of hosts,
And in the day of the fierceness of his anger.

14 And it shall be as a chased roe,
And a sheep which no man taketh up;
Every one shall look to his own people,
And every one shall flee to his own land.

15 Every one that is found shall be pierced through,
And every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword.

16 Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes;
Their houses shall be plundered,
And their wives shall be ravished.

17 Behold! I raise up against you the Medes,
Who shall not think of silver,
And shall not desire even gold.

18 And with their bows shall they dash in pieces the children;
They shall not pity the fruit of the womb,
Nor shall their eye spare children.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
And the ornament of the brightness of the Chaldeans,
Shall be like God's overthrowing of Sodom And Gomorrah.

20 Never shall it be inhabited any more,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation;
Nor shall the Arabian pitch his tent there,
Nor shall the shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.

21 But the Ziim shall lie down there;
And their houses shall be full of Ohim;
There shall the daughters of the ostrich dwell,
And there shall the satyrs dance.

22 And Iim shall cry in their splendid houses,
And dragons in their delightful palaces;
And her time is near at hand,
And her days shall not be prolonged.