Isaiah 13-15

1This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:

2Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

3I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.

4Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

5They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens— the LORD and the weapons of His wrath— to destroy the whole country.

6Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.

8Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

9Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming— cruel, with fury and burning anger— to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it.

10For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.

11I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

12I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.

13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger.

14Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.

15Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.

16Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.

17Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.

18Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children.

19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

20She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.

21But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

22Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

1For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

2The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.

3On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced,

4you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!

5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.

6It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.

7All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song.

8Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: “Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.”

9Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you— all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

10They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!”

11Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.

12How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.

13You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.

14I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

15But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.

16Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,

17who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?”

18All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.

19But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.

20You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned.

21Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the iniquities of their forefathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or cover the earth with their cities.

22“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.

23“I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts.

24The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.

25I will break Assyria in My land; I will trample him on My mountain. His yoke will be taken off My people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

26This is the plan devised for the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

27The LORD of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

28In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden was received:

29Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying serpent from its egg.

30Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root by famine, and your remnant will be slain.

31Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! Melt away, all you Philistines! For a cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there are no stragglers in its ranks.

32What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

1This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night!

2Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.

3In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.

4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out; their souls tremble within.

5My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.

6The waters of Nimrim are dried up, and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone, and the greenery is no more.

7So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Brook of the Willows.

8For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; it is heard in Beer-elim.

9The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring more upon Dimon— a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.