Isaiah 13-14
Holman Christian Standard Bible
An Oracle against Babylon
13 An oracle(A) against Babylon(B) that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
2 Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.(C)
Call out to them.
Wave your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My chosen ones;
I have also called My warriors,
who exult in My triumph,
to execute My wrath.(D)
4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains,
like that of a mighty people!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations being gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.
5 They are coming from a far land,
from the distant horizon—
the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—
to destroy the whole country.[a]
6 Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.(E)
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.(F)
7 Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man’s heart will melt.
8 They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.(G)
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.
9 Look, the day(H) of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with rage and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy the sinners on it.(I)
10 Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations[b]
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.(J)
11 I will bring disaster on the world,
and their own iniquity,(K) on the wicked.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant(L)
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.
12 I will make man scarcer than gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.(M)
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations(N)
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
on the day of His burning anger.
14 Like wandering gazelles
and like sheep without a shepherd,(O)
each one will turn to his own people,
each one will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be stabbed,
and whoever is caught will die by the sword.
16 Their children will be smashed to death before their eyes;(P)
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.
17 Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them,(Q)
who cannot be bought off with[c] silver
and who have no desire for gold.
18 Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on little ones;
they will not look with pity on children.
19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.(R)
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation;(S)
a nomad will not pitch his tent there,
and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.
21 But desert creatures will lie down there,
and owls will fill the houses.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will leap about.(T)
22 Hyenas will howl in the fortresses,
and jackals, in the luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is almost up;
her days are almost over.
Israel’s Return
14 For the Lord will have compassion(U) on Jacob and will choose Israel again.(V) He will settle them on their own land.(W) The foreigner will join them and be united with the house of Jacob.(X) 2 The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land.(Y) They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.
Downfall of the King of Babylon
3 When the Lord gives you rest from your pain,(Z) torment, and the hard labor(AA) you were forced to do, 4 you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon(AB) and say:
How the oppressor has quieted down,
and how the raging[d] has become quiet!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers.
6 It struck the peoples in anger
with unceasing blows.
It subdued the nations in rage
with relentless persecution.
7 All the earth is calm and at rest;
people shout with a ringing cry.
8 Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon
rejoice over you:(AC)
“Since you have been laid low,
no woodcutter has come against us.”
9 Sheol below is eager to greet your coming.
He stirs up the spirits of the departed for you—
all the rulers[e] of the earth.
He makes all the kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
10 They all respond to you, saying:
“You too have become as weak as we are;
you have become like us!
11 Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol,
along with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.”
12 Shining morning star,[f](AD)
how you have fallen from the heavens!(AE)
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground.
13 You said to yourself:
“I will ascend to the heavens;(AF)
I will set up my throne
above the stars of God.(AG)
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,
in the remotest parts of the North.[g](AH)
14 I will ascend above the highest clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you will be brought down to Sheol
into the deepest regions of the Pit.(AI)
16 Those who see you will stare at you;
they will look closely at you:
“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
17 who turned the world into a wilderness,(AJ)
who destroyed its cities
and would not release the prisoners to return home?”
18 All the kings of the nations
lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.
19 But you are thrown out without a grave,
like a worthless branch,
covered by those slain with the sword
and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.
20 You will not join them in burial,
because you destroyed your land
and slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers
will never be remembered.(AK)
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,
because of the iniquity(AL) of their fathers.
They will never rise up to possess a land
or fill the surface of the earth with cities.
22 “I will rise up against them”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity”—this is the Lord’s declaration. 23 “I will make her a swampland and a region for screech owls,[h] and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction.”
This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
Assyria Will Be Destroyed
24 The Lord of Hosts has sworn:
As I have purposed, so it will be;
as I have planned it, so it will happen.(AM)
25 I will break Assyria(AN) in My land;
I will tread him down on My mountain.
Then his yoke will be taken from them,
and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.
26 This is the plan(AO) prepared
for the whole earth,
and this is the hand stretched out
against all the nations.
27 The Lord of Hosts Himself has planned it;
therefore, who can stand in its way?
It is His hand that is outstretched,
so who can turn it back?
An Oracle against Philistia
28 In the year that King Ahaz died,(AP) this oracle came:(AQ)
29 Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia,
because the rod of the one who struck you(AR) is broken.
For a viper will come from the root[i] of a snake,
and from its egg comes a flying serpent.(AS)
30 Then the firstborn(AT) of the poor will be well fed,
and the impoverished will lie down in safety,
but I will kill your root with hunger,
and your remnant will be slain.[j]
31 Wail, you gates!(AU) Cry out, city!
Tremble with fear,(AV) all Philistia!
For a cloud of dust is coming from the north,(AW)
and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.
32 What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?
The Lord has founded Zion,(AX)
and His afflicted people find refuge in her.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 13:5 Or earth
- Isaiah 13:10 Or Orions
- Isaiah 13:17 Lit who have no regard for
- Isaiah 14:4 DSS; Hb uncertain
- Isaiah 14:9 Lit rams
- Isaiah 14:12 Or Day Star, son of the dawn
- Isaiah 14:13 Or of Zaphon
- Isaiah 14:23 Or hedgehogs
- Isaiah 14:29 Or stock
- Isaiah 14:30 DSS, Syr, Tg; MT reads and he will kill
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