| 1 | The mournful, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Babylon which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [with prophetic insight]: |
| 2 | Raise up a signal banner upon the high
and
bare mountain, summon them [the Medes and Persians] with loud voice and beckoning hand that they may enter the gates of the [Babylonian] nobles. |
| 3 | I Myself [says the Lord] have commanded My designated ones and have summoned My mighty men to execute My anger, even My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and Persians]—those who are made to triumph for My honor. |
| 4 | Hark, the uproar of a multitude in the mountains, like that of a great people! The noise of the tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering the host for the battle. |
| 5 | They come from a distant country, from the uttermost part of the heavens [the far east]—even the Lord and the weapons of His indignation—to seize
and
destroy the whole land. |
| 6 | Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty
and
Sufficient One [Shaddai] will it come! |
| 7 | Therefore will
[a]all hands be feeble, and every man’s heart will melt. |
| 8 | And they [of Babylon] shall be dismayed and terrified, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in childbirth. They will gaze stupefied
and
aghast at one another, their faces will be aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare]. |
| 9 | Behold, the day of the Lord is coming!—fierce, with wrath and raging anger—to make the land
and
the [whole] earth a desolation and to destroy out of it its sinners. |
| 10 | For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. |
| 11 | And I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their guilt
and
iniquity; I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible
and
the boasting of the violent
and
ruthless. |
| 12 | I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and mankind scarcer than the pure gold of Ophir. |
| 13 | Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the
[b]earth shall be shaken out of its place at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of His fierce anger. |
| 14 | And like the chased roe
or
gazelle, and like sheep that no man gathers, each [foreign resident] will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. |
| 15 | Everyone who is found will be thrust through, and everyone who is connected with the slain
and
is caught will fall by the sword. |
| 16 | Their infants also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. |
| 17 | Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and thus cannot be bribed]. |
| 18 | Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon]; and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eyes will not spare children. |
| 19 | And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. |
| 20 | [Babylon] shall never be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arab pitch his tent there, nor shall the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. |
| 21 | But wild beasts of the desert will lie down there, and the people’s houses will be full of dolefully howling creatures; and ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats [like demons] will dance there. |
| 22 | And
[c]wolves
and
howling creatures will cry
and
answer in the deserted castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. And [Babylon’s] time has nearly come, and her days will not be prolonged. |
Cross references:
-
Isaiah 13:5 : Ps. 19:4-6; Isa. 5:26.
-
Isaiah 13:6 : Gen. 17:1.
-
Isaiah 13:9 : Isa. 2:10-22; Rev. 19:11-21.
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