⁶ Wail out loud, because the Day of the Lord is near.
    It will come like destruction from the Almighty!
⁷ Because of this, every hand^[h] will go limp,
    and every man’s courage^[i] will melt.
⁸ They will be terrified;
    pain and anguish will seize them;
they’ll writhe like a woman in labor.
    They’ll look aghast at one another;
        and^[j] their faces will be ablaze with fear.^[k]
9 Watch out! The Day of the Lord is coming—
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger—
to turn the entire inhabited^[l] earth^[m] into a desolation
    and to annihilate sinners^[n] from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
    won’t shine^[o] their light;
the sun will be dark when it rises,
    and the moon won’t shine its light.
¹¹ I’ll punish the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
I’ll put an end to the pomposity of the arrogant,
    and overthrow the insolence of tyrants.
¹² I’ll make people scarcer^[p] than pure gold,
    and mankind rarer^[q] than gold from Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I’ll make the heavens tremble.
    The earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
    at the time^[r] of his burning anger.^[s]
14 They^[t] will be like a hunted gazelle,
    or like sheep with no one to gather them,^[u]
each will turn to his own people,
    and each will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Whoever is captured will be thrust through,
    and whoever is caught will fall dead, killed^[v] by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces
    before their eyes,
and^[w] their houses will be looted,
    and their wives slept with.^[x]

¹⁷ Watch out! I’m stirring up the Medes against them,
    who care nothing for silver
        and take no delight in gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will dash the young men to pieces;
    they’ll show no pity on those not yet born,^[y]
        and^[z] their eyes will not spare children.
¹⁹ Babylon, that jewel of kingdoms,
    the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah,
    when God overthrew them—
²⁰ It will never be inhabited
    or lived in through all generations;
no Bedouin^[aa] will pitch his tent there;
    no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
²¹ But desert beasts will lie down there,
    and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there owls^[ab] will dwell,
    and goat-demons^[ac] will dance there.
²² Hyenas will howl in its strongholds,^[ad]
    and jackals will make their dens in its citadels.^[ae]
Its^[af] time is close at hand,
    and its days will not be extended any further.^[ag]