1The oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.
2On a bare hill raise a banner; lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones; I have also summoned my warriors for my anger, my exultant, proud ones.
4A sound of tumult on the mountains, like that of a numerous people! A sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle.
5They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens — Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation — to destroy the whole earth.
6Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near; like destruction from the Almighty it comes.
7Therefore all hands will go limp, and every human heart will melt.
8They will be terrified; pangs and pains will seize them; they will writhe like a woman giving birth. They will look at one another aghast, their faces aflame.
9Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
10For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash their light; the sun is darkened at its rising, and the moon does not shine its light.
11I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12I will make mortals rarer than fine gold, and humankind than the pure gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its place, at the fury of Yahweh of hosts, on the day of his burning anger.
14And it will be that like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep with no one to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.
15Everyone who is found will be run through, and everyone who is caught will fall by the sword.
16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished.
17Behold, I am stirring up against them the Medes, who do not value silver and take no delight in gold.
18Their bows will shatter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eye will not spare children.
19And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glorious pride of the Chaldeans, will be like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.
20It will never be inhabited, nor dwelt in from generation to generation; no Arab will pitch his tent there, and no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21But desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about there.
22Hyenas will howl in its citadels, and jackals in its luxurious palaces. Its time is near to come, and its days will not be prolonged.
Open in the interactive reader →Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.