The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

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- Chapter 13 -

I, Isaiah son of Amoz, received from Yahweh this message about the city of Babylon:

Lift up a flag on the bare top of a hill, to signal that an army should come to attack Babylon. Shout to them and wave your hand to signal to them that they should march through the city gates into the palaces of the proud rulers of Babylon!

Yahweh says, “I have commanded those who are set apart to do this work for me, I have summoned the warriors whom I have chosen to punish the people of Babylon because I am very angry with them, and those soldiers will be very proud when they do that.”

Listen to the noise on the mountains, which is the noise of a huge army marching! It is the noise made by people of many people groups shouting. Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, has summoned this army to gather together.

They come from countries that are far away, from the most remote places on the earth. They are like weapons that Yahweh will use to punish the people with whom he is very angry, and to destroy the entire country of Babylonia.

You people of Babylon will scream because you will be terrified, because it will be the time that Yahweh has determined, the time for the all-powerful God to destroy your city.

Because that will happen, all of your people will be very afraid, with the result that they will be unable even to lift their arms.

All of you will be terrified. You will have severe pains like a woman has when she is giving birth to a baby. You will look at each other helplessly, and it will show on your faces that you feel horror.

Listen to this, you people of Babylon: The day that Yahweh has chosen to act is near, the day on which he will furiously and fiercely punish you because he is very angry with you. He will cause your land of Babylonia to be desolate, and he will destroy all the sinners in it.

When that happens, none of the stars will shine. When the sun rises, it will be dark, and there will be no light from the moon at night.

Yahweh says, “I will punish everyone in the world for the evil things that they do; I will punish the wicked people for the sins that they have committed. I will stop arrogant people from being proud, and I will stop cruel people from being so arrogant.

And because I will cause most people to die, people will be harder to find than gold, harder to find than fine gold from Ophir in Arabia.

I will shake the sky, and the earth will also move out of its place. That will happen when I, Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, punish wicked people, when I show them that I am extremely angry with them.

All the foreigners in Babylon will run around like deer that are being hunted, like sheep that do not have a shepherd. They will try to find other people from their countries, and then they will escape from Babylon and return to their own countries.

Anyone who is captured in Babylon will be killed by their enemies’ swords.

Their little children will be dashed to pieces on the rocks while their parents watch; their enemies will steal everything valuable from their houses and will force their wives to sleep with them.

Look! I am going to incite the people of Media to attack Babylon. The army of Media will attack Babylon, even if they are offered silver or gold if they promise to not attack it.

With their arrows, the soldiers of Media will shoot the young men of Babylon; they will not even act mercifully toward infants or children!”

Babylon has been a very beautiful city; all the people of Babylonia have been very proud of Babylon, their capital city; but God will destroy Babylon, like he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

No one will ever live in Babylon again. It will be deserted forever. Nomads will refuse to set up their tents there; shepherds will not bring their flocks of sheep to rest there.

Animals that live in the desert will be there; jackals will live in the ruins of the houses. Owls will live in the ruins, and ostriches and wild goats will romp around there.

Hyenas will howl in the ruined towers, and jackals will make their dens in the ruins of the palaces that were previously very beautiful. The time when Babylon will be destroyed is very near; Babylon will not exist much longer.

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

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.

I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.

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! The LORD of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.

They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the LORD’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.

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.

Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.

For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.

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 arrogance of the terrible.

I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the LORD of Armies’ wrath, and in the day of his fierce anger.

It will happen that like 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.

Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.

Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.

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.

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

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.

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.

Hyenas will cry in their fortresses, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.