Isaiah 13:6-19

English Standard Version

⁶^(A)Wail, for ^(B)the day of the Lord is near;
    as destruction from the Almighty^[a] it will come!
⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble,
    and every human heart ^(C)will melt.
⁸They will be dismayed:
    ^(D)pangs and agony will seize them;
    ^(E)they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
    their faces will be aflame.

⁹Behold, ^(F)the day of the Lord comes,
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
    and ^(G)to destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰^(H)For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will not give their light;
^(I)the sun will be dark at its rising,
    and the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹I will punish ^(J)the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will ^(K)put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
    ^(L)and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
¹²I will make ^(M)people more rare than fine gold,
    and mankind than the ^(N)gold of Ophir.
¹³Therefore ^(O)I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.
¹⁴And like a hunted gazelle,
    or like sheep with none to gather them,
^(P)each will turn to his own people,
    and each will flee to his own land.
¹⁵Whoever is found will be thrust through,
    and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶^(Q)Their infants will be dashed in pieces
    before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
    and their wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, ^(R)I am stirring up the Medes against them,
    who have no regard for silver
    and do not delight in gold.
¹⁸^(S)Their bows will slaughter^[b] the young men;
    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not pity children.
¹⁹And Babylon, ^(T)the glory of kingdoms,
    the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be ^(U)like Sodom and Gomorrah
    when God overthrew them.