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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.

Restoration of Judah

14But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ²And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations^* as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

Downfall of the King of Babylon

3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, ⁴you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased!
   How his insolence^* has ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
   the sceptre of rulers,
⁶ that struck down the peoples in wrath
   with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
   with unrelenting persecution.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
   they break forth into singing.
⁸ The cypresses exult over you,
   the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
   no one comes to cut us down.’
⁹ Sheol beneath is stirred up
   to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
   all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
   all who were kings of the nations.
¹⁰ All of them will speak
   and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we are!
   You have become like us!’
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
   and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
   and worms are your covering.

¹² How you are fallen from heaven,
   O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
   you who laid the nations low!
¹³ You said in your heart,
   ‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
   above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
   on the heights of Zaphon;^*
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
   I will make myself like the Most High.’
¹⁵ But you are brought down to Sheol,
   to the depths of the Pit.
¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you,
   and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
   who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ who made the world like a desert
   and overthrew its cities,
   who would not let his prisoners go home?’
¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
   each in his own tomb;
¹⁹ but you are cast out, away from your grave,
   like loathsome carrion,^*
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
   who go down to the stones of the Pit,
   like a corpse trampled underfoot.
²⁰ You will not be joined with them in burial,
   because you have destroyed your land,
   you have killed your people.

May the descendants of evildoers
   nevermore be named!
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his sons
   because of the guilt of their father.^*
Let them never rise to possess the earth
   or cover the face of the world with cities.

22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord. ²³And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts.

An Oracle concerning Assyria

²⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
   so shall it be;
and as I have planned,
   so shall it come to pass:
²⁵ I will break the Assyrian in my land,
   and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them,
   and his burden from their shoulders.
²⁶ This is the plan that is planned
   concerning the whole earth;
and this is the hand that is stretched out
   over all the nations.
²⁷ For the Lord of hosts has planned,
   and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
   and who will turn it back?

An Oracle concerning Philistia

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
   that the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
   and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will graze,
   and the needy lie down in safety;
but I will make your root die of famine,
   and your remnant I^* will kill.
³¹ Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
   melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
   and there is no straggler in its ranks.

³² What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
‘The Lord has founded Zion,
   and the needy among his people
   will find refuge in her.’