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Proclamation against Babylon

13The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.

² On a bare hill raise a signal,
   cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
   the gates of the nobles.
³ I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
   have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
   to execute my anger.

⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains
   as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
   of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
   an army for battle.
⁵ They come from a distant land,
   from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
   to destroy the whole earth.

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
   it will come like destruction from the Almighty!^*
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
   and every human heart will fail,
⁸   and they will be dismayed.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
   they will be in anguish like a woman in labour.
They will look aghast at one another;
   their faces will be aflame.
⁹ See, the day of the Lord comes,
   cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation,
   and to destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
   will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
   and the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹ I 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 insolence of tyrants.
¹² I will make mortals more rare than fine gold,
   and humans than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
   and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
   on the day of his fierce anger.
¹⁴ Like a hunted gazelle,
   or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn to their own people,
   and all will flee to their own lands.
¹⁵ Whoever is found will be thrust through,
   and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces
   before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered,
   and their wives ravished.
¹⁷ See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
   who have no regard for silver
   and do not delight in gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will slaughter the young men;
   they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
   their eyes will not pity children.
¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
   the splendour and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
   when God overthrew them.
²⁰ It will never be inhabited
   or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there,
   shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.
²¹ But wild animals will lie down there,
   and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will live,
   and there goat-demons will dance.
²² Hyenas will cry in its towers,
   and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand,
   and its days will not be prolonged.