Proclamation against Babylon
13The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.
2On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
to execute my anger.
4Listen, a tumult on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
TheLordof hosts is mustering
an army for battle.
5They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
theLordand the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.
6Wail, for the day of theLordis near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty!
7Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt,
8and they will be terrified.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9See, the day of theLordis coming,
cruel, with wrath and fierce 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 give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
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 pride of the arrogant
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.
12I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
and humans than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of theLordof hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
14Like a gazelle on the run
or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn back to their own people,
and all will flee to their own lands.
15Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives raped.
17See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy 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
or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there;
shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.
21But 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.
22Hyenas 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 theLordwill have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will settle 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 nationsas male and female slaves in theLord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.
Downfall of the King of Babylon
3When theLordhas 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 insolencehas ceased!
5TheLordhas broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
7The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8The cypresses exult over you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you were laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.”
9Sheol 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.
10All of them will speak
and say to you:
“You, too, have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!”
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering.
12How you are fallen from heaven,
O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13You said to yourself,
“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;
14I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths 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 would 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 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.
20You 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!
21Prepare a place of 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.
22I will rise up against them, says theLordof hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says theLord.23And I will make it a possession of the screech owland pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says theLordof hosts.
An Oracle concerning Assyria
24TheLordof hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
so shall it be,
and as I have planned,
so shall it come to pass:
25I 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.
26This is the plan that is planned
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27For theLordof 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:
29Do 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.
30In my pastures the poorwill graze
and the needy lie down in safety,
but I will make your root die of famine,
and your remnant Iwill kill.
31Wail, 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.
32What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
“TheLordhas founded Zion,
and the needy among his people
will find refuge in her.”
An Oracle concerning Moab
15An oracle concerning Moab.
Because Ar is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
2Daughter Dibonhas gone up
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
Every head is shaved;
every beard is shorn;
3in the streets they bind on sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the loins of Moab quiver;
his soul trembles.
5My heart cries out for Moab;
his fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
6the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered; the new growth fails;
vegetation is no more.
7Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Wadi of the Willows.
8For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim;
the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
9For the waters of Dibonare full of blood,
yet I will bring upon Diboneven more—
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.
16Send lambs
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of daughter Zion.
2Like fluttering birds,
like scattered nestlings,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.
3“Give counsel;
grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
hide the outcasts;
do not betray the fugitive;
4let the outcasts of Moab
settle among you;
be a refuge to them
from the destroyer.”
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and marauders have vanished from the land,
5then a throne shall be established in steadfast love
in the tent of David,
and on it shall sit in faithfulness
a ruler who seeks justice
and is swift to do what is right.
6We have heard of the pride of Moab
—how proud he is!—
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
his boasts are false.
7Therefore let Moab wail;
let everyone wail for Moab.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
8For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vines of Sibmah,
whose clusters once made drunk
the lords of the nations,
reached to Jazer
and strayed to the desert;
their shoots once spread abroad
and crossed over the sea.
9Therefore I weep as Jazer weeps
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh,
for the shout over your fruit harvest
and your grain harvest has ceased.
10Joy and gladness are taken away
from the fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no exultation is heard;
no shouts are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
the vintage shout is hushed.
11Therefore my heart moans like a harp for Moab
and my very soul for Kir-heres.
12When Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.
13This was the word that theLordspoke concerning Moab in the past.14But now theLordsays, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all its great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble.”
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