1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
2 Lift up a banner on a bare mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, so that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My holy ones, I have also called My mighty ones for anger, those who 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 gathered together; Jehovah of hosts gathers an army for the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy all the land.
6 Howl! For the day of the LORD [is] at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands shall 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 like a woman who travails. They shall be amazed at one another, their faces [like] flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel and [with] wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land waste; and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not give light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not reflect its light.
11 And I will visit evil on the world, and their iniquity on the wicked. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the pride of tyrants.
12 I will make a man more precious than gold; even a man than the fine gold of Ophir.
13 So I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger.
14 And it shall be as a driven gazelle, and as a sheep that no man takes up; each man shall look to his own people, and each one flee into his own land.
15 Everyone who is found shall be thrust through; and everyone who is joined [to them] shall fall by the sword.
16 And their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be robbed, and their wives raped.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not value silver; and they shall not delight in gold.
18 And bows shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not pity sons.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the majestic beauty of the Chaldees, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited forever, nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation; nor shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; nor shall the shepherds make their [flocks] lie down there.
21 But the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of howling creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and he-goats shall dance there.
22 And hyenas shall cry along with his widows, and jackals in palaces of delight. Yea, her time is coming near, and her days shall not be prolonged.