¹ This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz: ² 

Babylon, the most admired ¹  of kingdoms, the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ²  will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ³ 

you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words: ¹  “Look how the oppressor has met his end! Hostility ²  has ceased!

‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce it with a shout of joy! Make this known! Proclaim it throughout the earth! ¹  Say, ‘The Lord protects ²  his servant Jacob.

At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill and had recovered.

“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, ¹  including the offspring she produces,” ²  says the Lord.

Look what’s coming! A charioteer, a team of horses.” ¹  When questioned, he replies, ²  “Babylon has fallen, fallen! All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.”

‘Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors ¹  have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

This is what the Lord says, your protector, ¹  the Holy One of Israel: ²  “For your sake I send to Babylon and make them all fugitives, ³  turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. ⁴ 

“Fall down! Sit in the dirt, O virgin ¹  daughter Babylon! Sit on the ground, not on a throne, O daughter of the Babylonians! Indeed, ²  you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.

All of you, gather together and listen! Who among them ¹  announced these things? The Lord’s ally ²  will carry out his desire against Babylon; he will exert his power against the Babylonians. ³ 

No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. ¹  No bedouin ²  will camp ³  there, no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁴  there.

O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, ¹  what I have heard from the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to you.

Bel ¹  kneels down, Nebo ²  bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beasts. ³  Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. ⁴ 

Leave! Leave! Get out of there! Don’t touch anything unclean! Get out of it! Stay pure, you who carry the Lord’s holy items! ¹ 

I have received a distressing message: ¹  “The deceiver deceives, the destroyer destroys. Attack, you Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning!” ² 

I was angry at my people; I defiled my special possession and handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; ¹  you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ² 

Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them; ¹  they are not concerned about silver, nor are they interested in gold. ²