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¹ The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. ² "Lift up a banner on the high mountain, Raise your voice to them; Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. ³ I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger-- Those who rejoice in My exaltation." ⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains, Like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters The army for battle. ⁵ They come from a far country, From the end of heaven-- The LORD and His weapons of indignation, To destroy the whole land.

⁶ Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷ Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man's heart will melt, ⁸ And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. ⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. ¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their 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 its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. ¹² I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. ¹³ Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger. ¹⁴ It shall be as the hunted gazelle, And as a sheep that no man takes up; Every man will turn to his own people, And everyone will flee to his own land. ¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be thrust through, And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. ¹⁶ Their children 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 will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it. ¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰ It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation; Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. ²¹ But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches will dwell there, And wild goats will caper there. ²² The hyenas will howl in their citadels, And jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her days will not be prolonged."