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¹ The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.² Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.³ I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, [even] them that rejoice in my highness.⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations assembled: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.⁵ They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, [even] the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶ Howl ye; for the day of the LORD [is] at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.⁷ Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:⁸ And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces [shall be as] flames.⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he will destroy its sinners out of it.¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and its constellations shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her 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 a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.¹³ Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.¹⁴ And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one to his own land.¹⁵ Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined [to them] shall fall by the sword.¹⁶ Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished.¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver; and [as for] gold, they shall not delight in it.¹⁸ [Their] bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellence, 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 the shepherds make their fold there.²¹ But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.²² And the wild beasts of the isles shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in [their] pleasant palaces: and her time [is] near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.