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Isaiah 13:1-14:23 — Prophecy Against Babylon

Isa.13.1-14.23

¹The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw in a vision. ²On a bare mountain raise a banner, lift up your voice to them; wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. ³I myself have commanded my consecrated ones; I have also called my mighty warriors to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones. ⁴The sound of a multitude in the mountains, resembling a great people! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering an army for battle. ⁵They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens—Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation—to destroy the whole earth. ⁶Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! ⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every human heart will melt. ⁸And they will be terrified; pangs and agony will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame. ⁹Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and burning anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. ¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. ¹¹I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pride of the ruthless. ¹²I will make mankind rarer than fine gold, and humanity scarcer than the gold of Ophir. ¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its place, at the wrath of Yahweh of Armies in the day of his burning anger. ¹⁴And it will be that, like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with no one to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. ¹⁵Everyone who is found will be thrust through, and everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. ¹⁶Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives raped. ¹⁷Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who do not value silver and take no delight in gold. ¹⁸Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no compassion on the fruit of the womb, their eyes will not pity children. ¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. ²⁰It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation; no Arab will pitch his tent there, and no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. ²¹But desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about there. ²²Hyenas will howl in its strongholds, and jackals in its luxurious palaces. Its time is near to come, and its days will not be prolonged.

Chapter 14

¹For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob , and will again choose Israel, and will settle them on their own land. The foreigner residing among them will join them, and they will attach themselves to the house of Jacob . ²And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the land of Yahweh as male and female servants. They will take captive those who were their captors, and they will rule over their oppressors. ³And it will come to pass on the day when Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and your turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, ⁴that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say: “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!” ⁵Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, ⁶that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with relentless persecution. ⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into joyful shouting. ⁸Even the cypresses rejoice over you, along with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.' ⁹Sheol beneath is stirred up for you to meet you when you come; it awakens the spirits of the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations. ¹⁰All of them will respond and say to you, 'You too have become weak as we are! You have become like us!' ¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms are your covering. ¹²How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! ¹³You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' ¹⁵But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. ¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, ¹⁷who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?' ¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; ¹⁹but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse. ²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named! ²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons because of the iniquity of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities." ²²“I will rise up against them,” declares Yahweh of Armies, “and I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh. ²³“And I will make it a possession for the hedgehog , and pools of water, and I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction,” declares Yahweh of Armies.

Translation Notes

4/11/2026

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