Isaiah 13:1--15:9

The Lord Will Judge Babylon

13:1 This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz:

13:2 On a bare hill raise a signal flag,

shout to them,

wave your hand,

so they might enter the gates of the princes!

13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers;

I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger,

my boasting, arrogant ones.

13:4 There is a loud noise on the mountains –

it sounds like a large army!

There is great commotion among the kingdoms –

nations are being assembled!

The Lord who commands armies is mustering

forces for battle.

13:5 They come from a distant land,

from the horizon.

It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment,

coming to destroy the whole earth.

13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment is near;

it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge.

13:7 For this reason all hands hang limp,

every human heart loses its courage.

13:8 They panic –

cramps and pain seize hold of them

like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.

They look at one another in astonishment;

their faces are flushed red.

13:9 Look, the Lord’s day of judgment is coming;

it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger,

destroying the earth

and annihilating its sinners.

13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations

no longer give out their light;

the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,

and the moon does not shine.

13:11 I will punish the world for its evil,

and wicked people for their sin.

I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,

I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.

13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,

and people more scarce than gold from Ophir.

13:13 So I will shake the heavens,

and the earth will shake loose from its foundation,

because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,

in the day he vents his raging anger.

13:14 Like a frightened gazelle

or a sheep with no shepherd,

each will turn toward home,

each will run to his homeland.

13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;

everyone who is seized will die by the sword.

13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;

their houses will be looted

and their wives raped.

13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them;

they are not concerned about silver,

nor are they interested in gold.

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons;

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring,

they will not look with pity on children.

13:19 Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms,

the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride,

will be destroyed by God

just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.

13:20 No one will live there again;

no one will ever reside there again.

No bedouin will camp there,

no shepherds will rest their flocks there.

13:21 Wild animals will rest there,

the ruined houses will be full of hyenas.

Ostriches will live there,

wild goats will skip among the ruins.

13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,

jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces.

Her time is almost up,

her days will not be prolonged.

14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob; he will again choose Israel as his special people and restore them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family of Jacob. 14:2 Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them. 14:3 When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, and from the hard labor which you were made to perform, 14:4 you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words:

“Look how the oppressor has met his end!

Hostility has ceased!

14:5 The Lord has broken the club of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers.

14:6 It furiously struck down nations

with unceasing blows.

It angrily ruled over nations,

oppressing them without restraint.

14:7 The whole earth rests and is quiet;

they break into song.

14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise,

as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing,

‘Since you fell asleep,

no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’

14:9 Sheol below is stirred up about you,

ready to meet you when you arrive.

It rouses the spirits of the dead for you,

all the former leaders of the earth;

it makes all the former kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

14:10 All of them respond to you, saying:

‘You too have become weak like us!

You have become just like us!

14:11 Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol,

as well as the sound of your stringed instruments.

You lie on a bed of maggots,

with a blanket of worms over you.

14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,

O shining one, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the ground,

O conqueror of the nations!

14:13 You said to yourself,

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon.

14:14 I will climb up to the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High!”

14:15 But you were brought down to Sheol,

to the remote slopes of the pit.

14:16 Those who see you stare at you,

they look at you carefully, thinking:

“Is this the man who shook the earth,

the one who made kingdoms tremble?

14:17 Is this the one who made the world like a desert,

who ruined its cities,

and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’

14:18 As for all the kings of the nations,

all of them lie down in splendor,

each in his own tomb.

14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave

like a shoot that is thrown away.

You lie among the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for the stones of the pit,

as if you were a mangled corpse.

14:20 You will not be buried with them,

because you destroyed your land

and killed your people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never be mentioned again.

14:21 Prepare to execute his sons

for the sins their ancestors have committed.

They must not rise up and take possession of the earth,

or fill the surface of the world with cities.”

14:22 “I will rise up against them,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people,

including the offspring she produces,”

says the Lord.

14:23 “I will turn her into a place that is overrun with wild animals

and covered with pools of stagnant water.

I will get rid of her, just as one sweeps away dirt with a broom,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

14:24 The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow:

“Be sure of this:

Just as I have intended, so it will be;

just as I have planned, it will happen.

14:25 I will break Assyria in my land,

I will trample them underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders.

14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;

my hand is ready to strike all the nations.”

14:27 Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has a plan,

and who can possibly frustrate it?

His hand is ready to strike,

and who can possibly stop it?

The Lord Will Judge the Philistines

14:28 In the year King Ahaz died, this message was revealed:

14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,

just because the club that beat you has been broken!

For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,

and its fruit will be a darting adder.

14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures;

the needy will rest securely.

But I will kill your root by famine;

it will put to death all your survivors.

14:31 Wail, O city gate!

Cry out, O city!

Melt with fear, all you Philistines!

For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,

and there are no stragglers in its ranks.

14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation?

Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;

the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

The Lord Will Judge Moab

15:1 Here is a message about Moab:

Indeed, in a night it is devastated,

Ar of Moab is destroyed!

Indeed, in a night it is devastated,

Kir of Moab is destroyed!

15:2 They went up to the temple,

the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament.

Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, Moab wails.

Every head is shaved bare,

every beard is trimmed off.

15:3 In their streets they wear sackcloth;

on their roofs and in their town squares

all of them wail,

they fall down weeping.

15:4 The people of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,

their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz.

For this reason Moab’s soldiers shout in distress;

their courage wavers.

15:5 My heart cries out because of Moab’s plight,

and for the fugitives stretched out as far as Zoar and Eglath Shelishiyah.

For they weep as they make their way up the ascent of Luhith;

they loudly lament their demise on the road to Horonaim.

15:6 For the waters of Nimrim are gone;

the grass is dried up,

the vegetation has disappeared,

and there are no plants.

15:7 For this reason what they have made and stored up,

they carry over the Stream of the Poplars.

15:8 Indeed, the cries of distress echo throughout Moabite territory;

their wailing can be heard in Eglaim and Beer Elim.

15:9 Indeed, the waters of Dimon are full of blood!

Indeed, I will heap even more trouble on Dimon.

A lion will attack the Moabite fugitives

and the people left in the land.