Beginning
A Prophecy Against Babylon
13 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
exalt the voice to them,
shake the hand,
that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My sanctified ones,
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger,
even those who rejoice in My exaltation.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
like as of a great people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms
of nations gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts musters
the army for battle.
5 They come from a far country,
from the end of heaven,
the Lord and the weapons of His indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands shall be faint,
and every man’s heart shall melt,
8 and they shall be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them;
they shall be in pain as a woman who travails;
they shall be amazed one at another;
their faces shall be as flames.
9 See, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate,
and He shall destroy its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
shall not give their light;
the sun shall be dark when it rises,
and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
and will lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.
12 I will make a man more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore, I will shake the heavens,
and the earth shall be shaken out of her place
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts
and in the day of His fierce anger.
14 It shall be as the chased roe,
and as a sheep that no man takes up;
every man shall turn to his own people
and flee every one into his own land.
15 Every one who is found shall be thrust through,
and every one who is joined to them shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses shall be devastated and their wives ravished.
17 See, I will stir up the Medes against them,
who shall not regard silver;
and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces,
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
their eye shall not spare children.
19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldean’s excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited,
nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation,
nor shall the Arabian pitch a tent there,
nor shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie down there,
and their houses shall be full of owls,
ostriches also shall dwell there,
and shaggy goats shall dance there.
22 The wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses
and jackals in their pleasant palaces.
And her time is near to come,
and her days shall not be prolonged.
The Restoration of Judah
14 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,
and will yet choose Israel,
and set them in their own land.
Then the strangers shall be joined with them,
and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 The people shall take them
and bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel shall possess them
in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids;
and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were,
and they shall rule over their oppressors.
The Fall of Babylon’s King
3 In the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
How has the oppressor ceased!
The golden city ceased!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
and the scepter of the rulers;
6 he who struck the people in wrath with unceasing strokes,
he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and no one hinders.
7 The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 Indeed, the fir trees rejoice at you,
and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you are laid down,
no tree cutter has come up against us.”
9 Hell from beneath is moved for you
to meet you at your coming;
it stirs up the dead for you,
even all the chief ones of the earth;
it has raised up from their thrones
all the kings of the nations.
10 They all shall speak
and say to you:
“Have you also become as weak as we have?
Have you become like us?”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Hell,
and the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread under you,
and the worms cover you.
12 How are you fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who weaken the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart,
“I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit also on the mount of the congregation,
in the recesses of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.”
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Hell,
to the sides of the pit.
16 Those who see you shall stare at you
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth
to tremble and shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world as a wilderness
and destroyed its cities,
who did not open the house of his prisoners?”
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
each one in his own tomb;
19 but you are cast out of your grave
like an abominable branch
and clothed with those who are slain,
thrust through with a sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit
as a corpse trodden underfoot.
20 You shall not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land
and slain your people.
The seed of evildoers
shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers;
they must not rise nor possess the land,
nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them,
says the Lord of Hosts,
and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant,
and son, and nephew,
says the Lord.
23 I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog
and pools of water,
and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,
says the Lord of Hosts.
An Oracle Concerning Assyria
24 The Lord of Hosts has sworn, saying:
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass,
and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 that I will break the Assyrian in My land,
and on My mountains tread him under foot.
Then shall his yoke depart from off them
and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.
27 For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it?
And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
An Oracle Concerning Philistia
28 In the year that King Ahaz died was this oracle:
29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
because the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper,
and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
30 The firstborn of the poor shall feed,
and the needy shall lie down in safety:
and I will kill your root with famine,
and he shall slay your remnant.
31 Wail, O gate. Cry, O city.
Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
for smoke shall come from the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What shall one then answer
the messengers of the nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
and the poor of His people shall trust in it.
A Prophecy Against Moab(A)
15 The oracle of Moab.
Surely in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste
and brought to silence,
surely in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
and brought to silence,
2 he has gone up to the temple and to Dibon,
the high places, to weep.
Moab shall wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
on all their heads shall be baldness,
and every beard cut off.
3 In their streets they shall clothe themselves with sackcloth;
on the tops of their houses and in their streets,
everyone shall wail,
weeping abundantly.
4 Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh;
their voice shall be heard even to Jahaz;
therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out;
his life shall be grievous to him.
5 My heart shall cry out for Moab;
his fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
like a three-year-old heifer.
For by the Ascent of Luhith
they shall go up with weeping;
for in the way of Horonaim
they shall raise up a cry of destruction,
6 for the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate;
surely the grass is withered away;
the grass fails,
there is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gained, and that which they have laid up,
they shall carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
8 For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab;
its wailing to Eglaim,
and its wailing to Beer Elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood;
for I will bring more woes on Dimon,
lions on the fugitives of Moab,
and on the remnant of the land.
16 Send the lamb
to the ruler of the land
from Sela by way of the wilderness,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 For it shall be that as a wandering bird
cast out of the nest,
so the daughters of Moab shall be
at the fords of Arnon.
3 “Take counsel,
execute justice,
make your shadow as the night
at the height of noon.
Hide the outcasts,
do not betray the fugitive.
4 Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab;
be a hiding place to them from the face of the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end;
the destroyer ceases;
the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5 In mercy the throne shall be established;
and one who judges and seeks justice
and is diligent in righteousness
shall sit on it in truth
in the tabernacle of David, judging.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab;
he is very proud,
even of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
but his lies shall not be so.
7 Therefore Moab shall wail for Moab;
everyone shall wail.
For the loss of raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
surely they are destroyed.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
have broken down its choice plants;
they have come as far as Jazer
and wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out;
they are passed over the sea.
9 Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer,
the vine of Sibmah;
I will water you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh.
For the shouting for your summer fruits
and for your harvest has fallen away.
10 Gladness and joy are taken away out of the plentiful field,
and in the vineyards there shall be no singing,
nor shall there be shouting;
the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses.
I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
11 Therefore my heart shall sound like a harp for Moab,
and my inward parts for Kir Hareseth.
12 When it is seen that Moab
is weary on the high place,
he shall come to his sanctuary to pray;
but he shall not prevail.
13 This is the word that the Lord has spoken earlier concerning Moab. 14 But now the Lord has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all his great population, and his remnant shall be very small and feeble.
An Oracle Concerning Damascus
17 The oracle of Damascus.
See, Damascus will cease from being a city;
it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down,
and no one shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus,
and the remnant of Aram;
they shall be as the glory of the sons of Israel,
says the Lord of Hosts.
4 In that day the glory of Jacob shall decrease,
and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
5 It shall be as when the harvestman gathers the corn
and reaps the ears with his arm,
and it shall be as he who gathers ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it,
as the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in its outmost fruitful branches,
says the Lord God of Israel.
7 On that day a man shall look to his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
8 He shall not look to the altars,
the work of his hands,
nor shall he respect what his fingers have made,
either the groves or the images.
9 In that day his strong cities shall be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the sons of Israel; and there shall be a desolation.
10 Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength,
therefore you plant pleasant plants
and set them with vine slips of a strange god;
11 in the day that you plant it, you carefully fence it in,
and in the morning you make your seed to flourish;
but the harvest shall be a heap of ruins
in the day of grief and desperate pain.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people
who make a noise like the noise of the seas,
and the rushing of many peoples
who make a rumble like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble like the rumbling of many waters;
but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
and like rolling dust before the whirlwind.
14 At evening time, sudden terror!
And before the morning, they are no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
and the lot of those who rob us.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.