² Raise a banner on the bare mountaintop.
    Call loudly to them.
        Signal them with your hand to enter the nobles’ gates.
³ I’ve commanded my holy ones.
    I’ve called my mighty men to carry out my anger.
    They find joy in my triumphs.
⁴ Listen to the noise on the mountains.
    It is like the sound of a large army.
    It is the sound of kingdoms and nations gathering together.
    Yahweh Tsebaoth is assembling his army for battle.
⁵ His army is coming from a distant land,
    from the ends of heaven.
    Yahweh is coming with the weapons of his fury
    to destroy the whole world.

⁶ Cry loudly, for the day of Yahweh is near.
    It will come like destruction from Shadday.
⁷ That is why every hand will hang limp,
    and everyone’s courage will fail.
⁸         They’ll be terrified.
            Pain and anguish will seize them.
        They’ll writhe like a woman giving birth to a child.
        They’ll look at one another in astonishment.
            Their faces will be burning red.

⁹ The day of Yahweh is going to come.
    It will be a cruel day with fury and fierce anger.
        He will make the earth desolate.
            He will destroy its sinners.
¹⁰ The stars in the sky and their constellations
    won’t show their light anymore.
    The sun will be dark when it rises.
    The moon won’t shine.

¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil
    and the wicked for their wrongdoing.
    I will put an end to arrogant people
    and humble the pride of tyrants.
¹² I will make people harder to find than pure gold
    and human beings more rare than gold from Ophir.
¹³ I will make heaven tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken from its place
        when Yahweh Tsebaoth is angry.
            At that time he will be very angry.

¹⁴ They’ll be like hunted gazelle
    and like sheep with no one to gather them.
    Everyone will return to his own people
    and flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Whoever is found will be stabbed to death.
    Whoever is captured will be executed.
¹⁶ Their little children will be smashed to death right before their eyes.
    Their houses will be looted and their wives raped.

¹⁷ I’m going to stir up the Medes against them.
    They don’t care for silver and aren’t happy with gold.
¹⁸ But their bows will smash the youth.
    They’ll have no compassion for babies,
        nor will they look with pity on children.

¹⁹ Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
    the proud beauty of the Chaldeans,
        will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when Elohim destroyed them.
²⁰ It will never be inhabited again,
    and no one will live in it for generations.
        Arabs won’t pitch their tents there.
        Shepherds won’t let their flocks rest there.
²¹ Desert animals will lie down there.
    Their homes will be full of owls.
        Ostriches will live there,
            and wild goats will skip about.
²² Hyenas will howl in Babylon’s strongholds,
    and jackals will howl in its luxurious palaces.

Its time has almost come.
    Its days will not be extended.