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¹ The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.² Set up an ensign on the bare mountain, lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.³ I have commanded my consecrated ones, yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of hosts is mustering the host for the battle.⁵ They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶ Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty it shall come.⁷ Therefore all hands shall be feeble, and every heart of common man shall melt:⁸ and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold [of them]; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces [shall be] faces of flame.⁹ Look, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.¹¹ And I will punish the world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.¹² I will make common man more rare than fine gold, even man more than the pure gold of Ophir.¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.¹⁴ And it shall come to pass, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathers, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land.¹⁵ Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is taken shall fall by the sword.¹⁶ Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished.¹⁷ Look, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.¹⁸ And [their] bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare sons.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.²⁰ It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.²¹ But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.²² And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.