1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
2 Lift up a banner on the bare mountain, raise the voice to them; wave the hand, so that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My consecrated ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger, those who rejoice in My majesty.
4 The sound of a multitude in the mountains, as of many people! A tumultuous sound of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! Jehovah of Hosts musters the army for battle.
5 They come from a distant land, from the ends of the heavens; Jehovah and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl! For the day of Jehovah is at hand! It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands shall be faint, and every mans heart shall melt;
8 and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall writhe like a woman giving birth. They shall be amazed at one another; their faces like flames.
9 Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel and with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land waste; and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not give light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not shine its light.
11 And I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.
12 I will make mortal man more precious than refined gold; even mankind than the pure gold of Ophir.
13 Thus I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger.
14 And it shall be as a hunted gazelle, and as a sheep that no man takes up; each man shall turn to his own people, and everyone flee into his own land.
15 Everyone who is found shall be thrust through; and everyone who is captured shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not value silver; and they shall not delight in gold.
18 Their bows shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the majestic beauty of Chaldea, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall nevermore be inhabited, nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation; nor shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; nor shall the shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21 But the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of howling creatures; and young owls shall dwell there, and wild goats shall skip about.
22 And howling beasts shall respond from desolate places, and dragons in the delightful palaces. Indeed, her time will soon come to pass, and her days shall not be prolonged.