A Judgment against Babylon

1The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2Lift up a banner upon a bare mountain, raise the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

3I have commanded my hallowed ones, I have also called my mighty men for mine anger, them that rejoice in my highness.

4The noise of a multitude on the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations assembled together: Jehovah of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

5They come from a far country, from the end of the heavens -- Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation -- to destroy the whole land.

6Howl, for the day of Jehovah is at hand; it cometh as destruction from the Almighty.

7Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt,

8and they shall be terrified: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall writhe as a woman that travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames.

9Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the earth desolate; and he will destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

10For the stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

11And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will make the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will bring low the haughtiness of the violent.

12I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even man than the gold of Ophir.

13Therefore I will make the heavens to shake, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, at the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

14And it shall be as with a chased roe, and as with a flock that no man gathereth together; every one shall turn to his own people, and every one flee into his own land.

15All that are found shall be thrust through; and every one that is in league [with them] shall fall by the sword.

16And their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be rifled, and their women ravished.

17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who do not regard silver, and as for gold, they have no delight in it.

18And [their] bows 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.

19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in, even to generation and generation; nor shall Arabian pitch tent there, nor shepherds make fold there.

21But beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of owls; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.

22And jackals shall cry to one another in their palaces, and wild dogs in the pleasant castles. And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.