13 The oracle concerning fBabylon which gIsaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 On a bare hill hraise a signal;
wave the hand for ithem to enter
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.1
4 The sound jof a tumult is on the mountains
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
kThe Lord of hosts is mustering
5 lThey come from a distant land,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.2
6 mWail, for nthe day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty3 it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart owill melt.
ppangs and agony will seize them;
qthey will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
9 Behold, nthe day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
and rto destroy its sinners from it.
10 sFor the stars of the heavens and their constellations
tthe sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish uthe world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will vput an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
wand lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make xpeople more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the ygold of Ophir.
13 Therefore zI will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
or like sheep with none to gather them,
aeach will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 bTheir infants will be dashed in pieces
their houses will be plundered
17 Behold, cI am stirring up the Medes against them,
18 dTheir bows will slaughter4 the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19 And Babylon, ethe glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be flike Sodom and Gomorrah
20 gIt will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no hArab will pitch his tent there;
no ishepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But jwild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas6 will cry in its towers,
and ljackals in mthe pleasant palaces;
and its days will not be prolonged.
14 nFor the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and owill set them in their own land, and psojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And qthe peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord's land ras male and female slaves.7 sThey will take captive those who were their captors, tand rule over those who oppressed them.
3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this utaunt against the king of Babylon:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
5 The Lord has broken the wstaff of the wicked,
the wscepter of rulers,
6 xthat struck the peoples in wrath
that ruled the nations in anger
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
ythey break forth into singing.
8 zaThe cypresses rejoice at you,
bthe cedars of Lebanon, saying,
no woodcutter comes up against us.’
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
all who were kings of the nations.
10 cAll of them will answer
‘You too have become as weak as we!
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
12 “How dyou are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, eson of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
f‘I will ascend to heaven;
gI will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;9
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 hBut you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you
‘Is this ithe man who made the earth tremble,
17 who made the world like a desert
jwho did not let his prisoners go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;10
19 but you are cast out, away from your grave,
kclothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20 You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
“May lthe offspring of evildoers
21 Prepare slaughter for his sons
mbecause of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.”
22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and nremnant, odescendants and posterity,” declares the Lord. 23 “And I will make it a possession of the phedgehog,11 and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn:
q“As I have planned,
25 that rI will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and shis yoke shall depart from them,
and shis burden from their shoulder.”
26 This is the purpose that is purposed
and this is tthe hand that is stretched out
27 uFor the Lord of hosts has purposed,
tHis hand is stretched out,
28 In the year that vKing Ahaz died came this woracle:
29 Rejoice not, xO Philistia, all of you,
that ythe rod that struck you is broken,
for from the serpent's root will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a zflying fiery serpent.
30 And the firstborn of athe poor will graze,
and athe needy lie down in safety;
but I will kill your root with famine,
and your remnant it will slay.
31 bWail, O cgate; cry out, O city;
melt in fear, xO Philistia, all of you!
dFor smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
e“The Lord has founded Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
15 An woracle concerning fMoab.
Because gAr of Moab is laid waste in a night,
because hKir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
2 He has gone up to the temple,12 and to iDibon,
to the high places13 to weep;
Moab kwails.
On every head is lbaldness;
3 in the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
4 mHeshbon and mElealeh cry out;
their voice is heard as far as nJahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
to nEglath-shelishiyah.
For at the oascent of Luhith
on the road to oHoronaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
6 the waters of pNimrim
the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
7 qTherefore the abundance they have gained
over the Brook of the Willows.
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of rDibon14 are full of blood;
for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
sa lion for those of Moab who escape,
16 tSend the lamb to the ruler of the land,
from uSela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
at vthe fords of the Arnon.
wmake your shade like night
4 let xthe outcasts of Moab
be a shelter to them15
When the oppressor is no more,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
5 ythen a throne will be established in steadfast love,
and on it will sit in faithfulness
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”
6 zWe have heard of the pride of Moab—
aof his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
in his idle boasting he is not right.
7 Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,
blet everyone wail.
for the craisin cakes of dKir-hareseth.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and ethe vine of Sibmah;
have struck down its branches,
9 Therefore fI weep with ethe weeping of Jazer
for over gyour summer fruit and your harvest
10 hAnd joy and gladness are taken away from ithe fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no jsongs are sung,
no ktreader treads out wine lin the presses;
I have put an end to the shouting.
11 Therefore mmy inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,
and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.
12 And when Moab presents himself, when nhe wearies himself on othe high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
13 This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab pin the past. 14 But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, qlike the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be rvery few and feeble.”
17 An soracle concerning tDamascus.
Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of uAroer are deserted;
which will lie down, and vnone will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from wEphraim,
and the kingdom from wDamascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
like xthe glory of the children of Israel,
4 And in that day xthe glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and ythe fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5 And it shall be zas when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in athe Valley of Rephaim.
6 bGleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
in the top of the highest bough,
on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares the Lord God of Israel.
7 cIn that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. 8 dHe will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the eAsherim or the altars of incense.
9 fIn that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.
10 For gyou have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the hRock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
11 though you make them grow16 on the day that you plant them,
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away17
in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 Ah, ithe thunder of many peoples;
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
13 jThe nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
kbut he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased llike chaff on the mountains before the wind
and mwhirling dust before the storm.
14 nAt evening time, behold, terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
and the lot of those who plunder us.
[1] 13:3
[2] 13:5
[3] 13:6
[4] 13:18
[5] 13:21
[6] 13:22
[7] 14:2
[8] 14:4
[9] 14:13
[10] 14:18
[11] 14:23
[12] 15:2
[13] 15:2
[14] 15:9
[15] 16:4
[16] 17:11
[17] 17:11