Beginning

13 The burden of Babel, which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw.

² “Lift up a standard upon the high mountain. Lift up the voice to them. Wave the hand, so that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

³ “I have Commanded those whom I have sanctified. And I have called the mighty to My wrath, those who rejoice in My Glory.”

⁴ The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, like a great people, a tumultuous voice of the kingdoms of the Nations gathered together. The LORD of Hosts numbers the army of the battle.

⁵ They come from a far country, from the end of the heaven, the LORD with the weapons of His wrath, to destroy the whole land.

⁶ Howl! For the day of the LORD is at hand! It shall come as a destroyer from the Almighty!

⁷ Therefore shall all hands be weakened. And all men’s hearts shall melt.

⁸ And they shall be afraid. Anguish and sorrow shall take them. And they shall have pain, as a woman in childbirth. Everyone shall be amazed at his neighbor, and their faces flames of fire.

⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land waste. And He shall destroy the sinners out of it.

¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and its planets shall not give their light. The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

¹¹ “And I will visit the wickedness upon the world, and their iniquity upon the wicked. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will cast down the pride of tyrants.

¹² “I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man above the wedge of gold of Ophir.

¹³ “Therefore I will shake the heaven, and the Earth shall move out of her place in the wrath of the LORD of Hosts, and on the day of His fierce anger.

¹⁴ “And it shall be as a chased doe, and as a sheep which no man gathers. Every man shall turn to his own people and flee to his own land.

¹⁵ “Everyone who is found shall be stricken through. And whoever is caught up, shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶ “Their children also shall be broken in pieces before their eyes. Their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished.

¹⁷ “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, nor be desirous of gold.

¹⁸ “With bows, also, they shall destroy the young men and shall have no compassion upon the fruit of the womb. And their eyes shall not spare the children.

¹⁹ “And Babel, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty and pride of the Chaldeans, shall be as the destruction of God in Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰ “It shall not be inhabited forever, nor shall it be indwelt from generation to generation. Nor shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall their shepherds make their folds there.

²¹ “But Zijm shall lodge there. And their houses shall be full of Ohim. Ostriches shall dwell there. And the hairy goats shall dance there.

²² “And Iim shall cry in their palaces, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. And that time is ready to come. And those days shall not be prolonged.”

14 For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and cause them to rest in their own land. And the stranger shall join himself to them. And they shall cling to the House of Jacob.

² And the people shall receive them and bring them to their own place. And the House of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD, for servants and handmaids. And they shall take them prisoners, whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

³ And on that day when the LORD shall give you rest from your sorrow and from your fear and from the sore bondage in which you served,

⁴ then you shall take up this Proverb against the king of Babel, and say, “How has the oppressor ceased and the gold-thirsty rested?

⁵ “The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,

⁶ “who struck the people in anger with a continual plague, ruled the nations in wrath, persecuted and were not hindered.

⁷ “The whole world is at rest and is quiet. They sing for joy.

⁸ Also, the fir trees rejoiced in You, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you were put down, no hewer came up against us.”

⁹ “Hell beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming, raising up the dead for you, all the princes of the Earth, and has raised from their thrones all the kings of the Nations.

¹⁰ “All they shall cry and say to you, ‘Have you become as weak as us? Have you become like us?

¹¹ ‘Your pomp is brought down to the grave and the sound of the strings. The worm is spread under you. And the worms cover you.’

¹² “How have you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, cut down to the ground which casts lots upon the Nations?

¹³ “Yet you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into Heaven and exalt my throne above beside the stars of God. I will also sit upon the Mount of the Congregation, on the sides of the North.

¹⁴ ‘I will ascend above the height of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.’

¹⁵ “But you shall be brought down to the grave, to the side of the pit.

¹⁶ “Those who see you shall look upon you and consider you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the Earth tremble, that shook the kingdoms?

¹⁷ ‘He made the world as a wilderness, destroyed its cities and did not open the house of his prisoners.’

¹⁸ “All the kings of the Nations, they all sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.

¹⁹ “But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, the clothing of those who are killed, thrust through with a sword, which go down to the stones of the pit as a carcass trodden under foot.

²⁰ “You shall not be joined with them in the grave because you have destroyed your own land, killed your people. The seed of the wicked shall not be renowned forever.

²¹ “Prepare a slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers. Let them not rise up or possess the land, or fill the face of the world with enemies.

²² “For I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and will cut off the name and the remnant and the son and the nephew from Babel,” says the LORD.

²³ “And I will make it a possession to the hedgehog, and pools of waste. And I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of Hosts.

²⁴ The LORD of Hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, just as I have purposed, so shall it come to pass. And as I have consulted, it shall stand:

²⁵ “That I will break Assyria to pieces in My land. And upon My mountains I will tread him under Foot. So that his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden shall be taken from off their shoulder.

²⁶ “This is the counsel that is consulted upon the whole world, and this is the hand stretched out over all the Nations,

²⁷ “because the LORD of Hosts has determined. And who shall annul? His Hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?”

²⁸ In the year that King Ahaz died, was this burden.

²⁹ “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, because the rod of him who beat you is broken. For out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper, and its fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰ “For the firstborn of the poor shall be fed, and the needy shall lie down in safety. And I will kill your root with famine. And it shall kill your remnant.

³¹ “Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! All of Philistia is dissolved! For a smoke shall come from the north. And no one shall be alone at his appointed time.”

³² What, then, shall one answer the messengers of the Gentiles: that the LORD has established Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it.

15 The burden of Moab. Surely, Ar of Moab was destroyed, brought to silence in a night. Surely, Kir of Moab was destroyed, brought to silence in a night.

² He shall go up to the Temple, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. For Nebo and for Medeba shall Moab howl. Upon all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard shall be shaven.

³ In their streets, they shall be girded with sackcloth. On the tops of their houses, and in their streets, everyone shall howl and come down with weeping.

⁴ And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh. Their voice shall be heard to Jahaz. Therefore, the warriors of Moab shall shout. The soul of everyone shall lament in himself.

⁵ “My heart shall cry for Moab. Its fugitives shall flee to Zoar, as a heifer of three years old. For they shall go up with weeping by the mounting up of Luhith. And by the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.

⁶ “For the waters of Nimrim shall be dried up. Therefore, the grass is withered, the herbs consumed. There was no green herb.

⁷ “Therefore, what has been left, and their substance, they shall bear to the brook of the willows.

⁸ “For the cry went all around about the borders of Moab, its howling to Eglaim, and its shrieking to Beer Elim,

⁹ “Because the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood. For I will bring more upon Dimon, even lions, upon him who escapes from Moab, and to the remnant of the land.”

16 Send a lamb to the ruler of the world from the rock of the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter Zion.

² For it shall be as a bird that flies, and a nest forsaken. The daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.

³ “Gather a counsel, execute judgment, make your shadow as the night in the midday. Hide those who are chased out. Do not betray him who has fled.

⁴ “Let My banished dwell with you. Moab, be their shelter from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner shall end. The destroyer shall be consumed, the oppressor shall cease from the land.

⁵ “And in mercy shall the throne be prepared. And He shall sit upon it in steadfastness, in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hastening justice.”

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab (he is very proud), its pride and its arrogance and its indignation. But not so its lies.

⁷ Therefore, Moab shall howl to Moab. Everyone shall howl. For the foundations of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn. Yet they shall be stricken.

⁸ For the vineyards of Heshbon are cut down, the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the heathen have broken its principal vines. Branches stretched themselves out and went over the sea.

⁹ Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer, and of the vine of Sibmah, O Heshbon! And Elealeh, I will make you drunk with my tears, because upon your summer fruits, and upon your harvest, a shouting has fallen.

¹⁰ And gladness is taken away, and joy, out of the plentiful field. And in the vineyards shall be no singing or shouting for joy. The treader shall not tread wine in the wine presses. I have caused the rejoicing to cease.

¹¹ Therefore, my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my core for Kir Heres.

¹² And when it shall appear that Moab shall be weary of its high places, then shall it come to its temple to pray, but it shall not prevail.

¹³ This is the Word that the LORD has spoken against Moab since that time.

¹⁴ And now the LORD has spoken, saying, “In three years (as the years of a hireling) the glory of Moab shall be despised in all the great multitude. And the remnant shall be very small and feeble.”

17 The burden of Damascus. “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, for it shall be a ruinous heap.

² “The cities of Aroer shall be forsaken. They shall be for the flocks. For they shall lie there, and no one shall make them afraid.

³ “The fortification also shall cease from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus. And the remnant of Aram shall be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁴ “And on that day the glory of Jacob shall be made clean.

⁵ “And it shall be as when the harvester gathers the corn, and reaps the ears with his arm. And he shall be as him who gathers the ears in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶ “Still, a gathering of grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the upmost boughs, four or five in the high branches of its fruit,” says the LORD God of Israel.

⁷ At that day, a man shall look to his Maker. And his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ And he shall not look to the altars, the works of his own hands. Nor shall he look to those things which his own fingers have made, as groves and images.

⁹ On that day shall the cities of their strength be as forsaken boughs and branches, which were forsaken because of the children of Israel. And there shall be desolation.

¹⁰ Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the God of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and shall graft strange vine branches.

¹¹ In the day, you shall make your plant grow. And in the morning, you shall make your seed flourish. But the harvest shall be gone on the day of sickness, with desperate sorrow.

¹² Ah, the multitude of many people! They shall make a sound like the noise of the sea. For the noise of the people shall make a sound like the noise of mighty waters.

¹³ The people shall make a sound like the noise of many waters. But God shall rebuke them. And they shall flee far away and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and as a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

¹⁴ And lo, in the evening, there is trouble. But before morning, it is gone. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.