Prophecies about Babylon
1 The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw [in a prophetic vision]:
2 Lift up a signal banner on the bare mountain,
Summon them [the Medes and Persians] with a loud voice,
Wave the [beckoning] hand so that they may enter the doorways of the [Babylonian] nobles.
3 I [the Lord] have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My great warriors,
My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and the Persians who triumph for My honor]–
ToexecuteMy anger.
4 A sound of tumult on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of the uproar of the kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The Lordof hosts is mustering an army for battle.
5 They are coming from a distant country,
From the end of heaven [the farthest horizon]–
The Lordand the weapons of His indignation–
To destroy the whole land.
Judgment on the Day of the Lord
6 Wail, for the day of the Lordis at hand!
It will come asdestruction from theAlmighty (All Sufficient One–Invincible God)!
7 Thereforeall hands will fall limp,
And every man’s heart will melt.
8 They [of Babylon] will be shockedandterrified,
Pains and anguish will grip them;
They will be in pain like a woman in childbirth.
They will stare aghastandhorrified at one another,
Their faces aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare].
9 Listen carefully, the day of the Lordis coming,
Cruel, with wrath and raging anger,
To make the land a horror [of devastation];
And He shall exterminate its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash with their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises,
And the moon will not shed its light.
11 In this way I will punish the world for its evil
And the wicked for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing];
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
And will abase the arrogance of the tyrant.
12 I will make mortal man more rare than fine gold,
And mankind [scarcer] than the pure gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the wrath of the Lordof hosts
In the day of His burning anger.
14 And like the hunted gazelle,
Or like sheep that no man gathers,
Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.
15 Anyone who is found will be pierced through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16 Their children also will be smashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be looted
And their wives ravished.
Babylon Will Fall to the Medes
17 Listen carefully, I will put the Medes [in motion] against them,
Who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and therefore cannot be bribed].
18 Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon];
They will take no pity on the fruit of the womb,
Their eyes will not look with compassion on the children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of theChaldeans’ pride,
Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
20 Babylon will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will the shepherds lettheir sheeplie down there.
21 But desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches also will live there, andwild goats will dance there.
22 Hyenas will howl in their castles,
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time has nearly come,
And her days will not be prolonged.