Isaiah 13

Tree of Life Version

² Lift up a banner on a bare mountain,
raise a voice to them, wave a hand,
so that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded My consecrated ones,
yes, I have called My mighty ones,
    My proud exulting ones, for My fury.
⁴ A sound of tumult in the mountains
    like that of many people!
A sound of uproar of kingdoms,
    of nations gathered!
Adonai-Tzva’ot is mustering
    the army for battle.
⁵ They are coming from a far country—
from the end of the heavens—
Adonai and the weapons of His wrath,
to destroy the whole land.

⁶ Wail, for the day of Adonai is near!
it will come as destruction from Shaddai.
⁷ Therefore all hands will fall limp,
and every man’s heart will melt.
⁸ They will be terrified;
pain and anguish will take hold of them;
they will writhe as a woman in labor;
they will look aghast at one another—
their faces aflame!
⁹ Behold, the day of Adonai comes,
cruel, full of wrath and fierce fury,
to make the earth a desolation,
and destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations
    will not give their light.
The rising sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light.^[b]
11 I will punish the world for evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud,
and abase the insolence of tyrants.

¹² I will make people scarcer than gold,
even than the pure gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make heaven tremble,
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
in the day of His fierce fury.

¹⁴ It will be like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with no one gathering.
Each will return to his own people,
each will flee to his own country.

¹⁵ Everyone found will be thrust through.
Everyone caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their babes will be dashed in pieces before their eyes.
Their houses will be plundered,
    and their wives ravished.
¹⁷ Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes,
who will not value silver
and will take no delight in gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will cut down the young men,
with no pity on the fruit of the womb,
nor will their eye spare children.
¹⁹ So Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of Chaldean pride,
will be just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰ It will never be inhabited,
nor will it be dwelt in
from generation to generation,
nor will an Arab pitch a tent there,
nor will shepherds let flocks lie there.
²¹ But desert creatures will lie there.
Their houses will be full of owls.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and goat-demons will dance^[c] there.
²² Hyenas will howl in their citadels
and jackals in their pleasant palaces.
Her time is near to come—
her days will not drag on long.