1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
2 Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them!
Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3 I have
commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger,
even my proudly exulting ones. 4 The noise of a multitude is in the
mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the
nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the
battle. 5 They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven,
even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the
Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s
heart will melt. 8 They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows
will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor.
They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be
faces of flame. 9 Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and
fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners
out of it. 10 For the stars of the sky and its constellations will
not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the
moon will not cause its light to shine. 11 I will punish the world for
their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the
arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the
terrible. 12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than
the pure gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of
Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger. 14 It will happen that like a
a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to
their own people, and will each flee to their own land. 15 Everyone who
is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the
sword. 16 Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes.
Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped. 17 Behold, I will
stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold,
they will not delight in it. 18 Their bows will dash the young
men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their
eyes will not spare children. 19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the
beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and
Gomorrah. 20 It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in
from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there,
neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. 21 But wild
animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of
jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will
frolic there. 22 Wolves will cry in their castles, and jackals in the
pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be
prolonged.
|
|
|
