Isaiah 13-15

Complete Jewish Bible

² Hoist a banner on a high mountain,
shout to [the invaders];
beckon them to enter the Nobles’ Gate.
³ “I have ordered my holy ones,
summoned my heroes, eager and bold,
to execute my anger.”
⁴ Listen! A tumult on the mountains —
it sounds like a vast multitude!
Listen! The uproar of the kingdoms
of the nations gathering together!
Adonai-Tzva’ot is mustering
an army for war.
⁵ They come from a distant land,
from beyond the horizon.
It’s Adonai, with the weapons of his rage,
to lay waste to all the earth.
⁶ Howl! for the Day of Adonai is at hand,
destruction coming from Shaddai.
⁷ This is why every arm will hang limp
and everyone’s courage melt away.
⁸ They will be gripped by panic,
seized with pain and agony,
writhing like a woman in labor,
looking aghast at each other, faces aflame.
⁹ Here comes the Day of Adonai,
full of cruelty, rage and hot fury,
to desolate the earth
and destroy the sinners in it.
¹⁰ For the stars, the constellations in the sky,
will no longer give their light;
the sun will be dark when it rises;
and the moon will no longer shine.

¹¹ “I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will end the arrogance of the proud
and humble the insolence of tyrants.
¹² I will make humans rarer than gold,
scarcer than Ofir’s pure gold.
¹³ This is why I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken from its place
at the wrath of Adonai-Tzva’ot
on the day of his fierce anger.
¹⁴ Then, like a hunted gazelle,
like sheep with no one to gather them,
everyone will head back to his own people;
everyone will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Anyone found will be pierced through;
anyone caught will fall by the sword,
¹⁶ their babies dashed to pieces before their eyes,
their houses looted, their wives raped.
¹⁷ I will stir up against them the Medes,
who cannot be tempted by silver
or bought off with gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will tear young men to pieces,
they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb,
their eye will not spare children.”

¹⁹ Thus Bavel, that jewel of kingdoms,
the pride and glory of the Kasdim,
will be like S’dom and ‘Amora
when overthrown by God.
²⁰ It will never again be inhabited,
never lived in through all generations.
Arabs will not pitch tents there
nor shepherds bring their flocks.
²¹ But wildcats will lie there,
their houses will be full of owls,
ostriches will live there,
and wild goats will dance there.
²² Jackals will howl in their palaces
and wild dogs in their temples of delight.
Its time is close at hand,
its days will not last long.

“At last the oppressor is stilled,
his arrogance is ended!
⁵ Adonai has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
⁶ which furiously struck down peoples
with unceasing blows,
angrily beating down nations
with relentless persecution.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet.
They break into song.
⁸ The cypresses rejoice over you,
with the cedars of the L’vanon —
‘Now that you are laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.’

⁹ “Sh’ol below is stirred up
to meet you when you come.
It awakens for you the ghosts of the dead
who were leaders on earth;
it makes all the kings of the nations
arise from their thrones.
¹⁰ They all greet you with these words:
‘Now you are as weak as we are,
you have become like us!
¹¹ Your pride has been brought down to Sh’ol
with the music of your lyres,
under you a mattress of maggots,
over you a blanket of worms.’

¹² “How did you come to fall from the heavens,
morning star, son of the dawn?
How did you come to be cut to the ground,
conqueror of nations?
¹³ You thought to yourself, ‘I will scale the heavens,
I will raise my throne above God’s stars.
I will sit on the Mount of Assembly
far away in the north.
¹⁴ I will rise past the tops of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.’

¹⁵ “Instead you are brought down to Sh’ol,
to the uttermost depths of the pit.
¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you,
reflecting on what has become of you:
‘Is this the man who shook the earth,
who made kingdoms tremble,
¹⁷ who made the world a desert,
who destroyed its cities,
who would not set his prisoners free?’

¹⁸ “All other kings of the nations, all of them,
lie in glory, each in his tomb.
¹⁹ But you are discarded, unburied,
like a loathed branch,
clothed like the slain who were pierced by the sword,
then fall to the stones inside a pit,
like a corpse to be trampled underfoot.
²⁰ You will not be joined with those kings in the grave,
because you destroyed your own land,
you have brought death to your own people.
The descendants of evildoers will be utterly forgotten.
²¹ Get ready to slaughter his sons
for the iniquity of their fathers;
so they won’t arise, take over the earth
and cover the world with their cities.”

²² “I will arise against them,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“I will cut off from Bavel name and remnant,
offshoot and offspring,” says Adonai.
²³ “I will make it a haunt for hedgehogs,
it will become a swampy waste,
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

²⁴ Adonai-Tzva’ot has sworn,
“Just as I thought it, it will occur;
just as I planned it, so it will be.
²⁵ I will break Ashur in my land,
I will trample him down on my mountains.
Then his yoke will fall off them,
his burden be removed from their shoulders.”

²⁶ This is the program planned for all the earth,
this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.
²⁷ Adonai-Tzva’ot has made his decision.
Who is there that can stop him?
He has stretched out his hand.
Who can turn it back?

²⁸ In the year that King Achaz died, this prophecy came:

²⁹ Do not rejoice, P’leshet, any of you,
that the rod which struck you is broken;
for out of the snake’s root will come a viper,
and his offspring will be a flying fiery serpent.
³⁰ While the firstborn of the poor graze
and the needy lie down in safety,
I will kill off your root with famine
and slaughter the rest of you.
³¹ Howl, gate! Cry, city!
Melt away, P’leshet, all of you!
For a smoke is coming from the north,
with not a straggler in its ranks.
³² And what is one to answer
the messengers of the nation?
That Adonai founded Tziyon,
and there the poor of his people will find refuge.

15 This is a prophecy about Mo’av:

The night ‘Ar is sacked, Mo’av is ruined.
The night Kir is sacked, Mo’av is ruined.
² He went up to the temple,
to Dibon and to the high places, to weep.
On N’vo and Meidva Mo’av is howling,
every head shaved bald, every beard cut off.
³ In the streets they wear sackcloth;
on their roofs and in their squares,
everyone howls and weeps profusely.
⁴ Heshbon and El‘aleh cry out,
they are heard as far as Yachatz.
Mo’av’s best troops cry aloud,
as their courage faints away.
⁵ My heart cries out for Mo’av!
Its fugitives flee to Tzo‘ar,
a calf three years old.
They ascend the slope of Luchit,
weeping as they go;
on their way to Horonayim,
they utter heartrending cries.
⁶ The waters of Nimrim are desolate,
the grass is dried up, the new growth fails,
nothing green is left.
⁷ Therefore they carry away their wealth,
everything they have put aside,
across the Vadi of the Willows.
⁸ For the cry has circulated
throughout Mo’av’s territory —
its howling has reached Eglayim,
its howling has reached Be’er-Elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
yet I have worse in store for Dimon —
a lion for those who escape from Mo’av
and for those who remain in its land.