Read the Bible

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

¹ This is an oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:² Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.³ I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts musters an army for war.⁵ They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country.

⁶ Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty^(a).⁷ Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.⁸ Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look in astonishment at one another, their faces aflame with fear.⁹ Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it.¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened when it rises, and the moon will not give its light.¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and humiliate the pride of tyrants.¹² I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger.¹⁴ Like a hunted gazelle and like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.¹⁵ Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.¹⁸ Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.²⁰ She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.²¹ But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. The owls will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.²² Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.