Beginning
C. Oracles Against the Foreign Nations[a]
Chapter 13
Babylon.[b] 1 An oracle[c] concerning Babylon; a vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz.
2 Upon the bare mountains set up a signal;
cry out to them,[d]
Beckon for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.(A)
3 I have commanded my consecrated ones,[e]
I have summoned my warriors,
eager and bold to carry out my anger.(B)
4 Listen! the rumble on the mountains:
that of an immense throng!
Listen! the noise of kingdoms, nations assembled!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
an army for battle.(C)
5 They come from a far-off country,
and from the end of the heavens,
The Lord and the instruments of his wrath,
to destroy all the land.
6 Howl, for the day of the Lord[f] is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it comes.(D)
7 Therefore all hands fall helpless,(E)
every human heart melts,
8 and they are terrified,
Pangs and sorrows take hold of them,
like a woman in labor they writhe;
They look aghast at each other,
their faces aflame.(F)
9 Indeed, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and burning anger;
To lay waste the land
and destroy the sinners within it!(G)
10 The stars of the heavens and their constellations
will send forth no light;
The sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not give its light.(H)
11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their guilt.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
the insolence of tyrants I will humble.(I)
12 I will make mortals more rare than pure gold,
human beings, than the gold of Ophir.[g](J)
13 For this I will make the heavens tremble
and the earth shall be shaken from its place,
At the wrath of the Lord of hosts
on the day of his burning anger.(K)
14 Like a hunted gazelle,
or a flock that no one gathers,
They shall turn each to their own people
and flee each to their own land.(L)
15 Everyone who is taken shall be run through;
and everyone who is caught shall fall by the sword.
16 Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in their sight;
their houses shall be plundered
and their wives ravished.(M)
17 I am stirring up against them the Medes,
who think nothing of silver
and take no delight in gold.(N)
18 With their bows they shall shatter the young men,
And the fruit of the womb they shall not spare,
nor shall their eye take pity on children.
19 And Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the glory and pride of the Chaldeans,
Shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah,
overthrown by God.(O)
20 It shall never be inhabited,
nor dwelt in, from age to age;
Arabians shall not pitch their tents there,
nor shepherds rest their flocks there.(P)
21 But desert demons shall rest there
and owls shall fill the houses;
There ostriches shall dwell,
and satyrs[h] shall dance.(Q)
22 Wild dogs shall dwell in its castles,
and jackals in its luxurious palaces.
Its time is near at hand
and its days shall not be prolonged.(R)
Chapter 14
Restoration of Israel. 1 But the Lord will take pity on Jacob and again choose Israel, and will settle them on their own land; foreigners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.(S) 2 The nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them[i] as male and female slaves on the Lord’s land; they will take captive their captors and rule over their oppressors.(T)
Downfall of the King of Babylon. 3 On the day when the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow and turmoil, from the hard service with which you served,(U) 4 you will take up this taunt-song[j] against the king of Babylon:(V)
How the oppressor has come to an end!
how the turmoil has ended!
5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,
the staff of the tyrants(W)
6 That struck the peoples in wrath
with relentless blows;
That ruled the nations in anger,
with boundless persecution.(X)
7 The whole earth rests peacefully,
song breaks forth;
8 The very cypresses rejoice over you,
the cedars of Lebanon:
“Now that you are laid to rest,
no one comes to cut us down.”(Y)
9 Below, Sheol is all astir
preparing for your coming;
Awakening the shades to greet you,
all the leaders of the earth;
Making all the kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
10 All of them speak out
and say to you,
“You too have become weak like us,
you are just like us!
11 Down to Sheol your pomp is brought,
the sound of your harps.
Maggots are the couch beneath you,
worms your blanket.”(Z)
12 How you have fallen from the heavens,
O Morning Star,[k] son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the earth,
you who conquered nations!(AA)
13 In your heart you said:
“I will scale the heavens;
Above the stars of God[l]
I will set up my throne;
I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly,
on the heights of Zaphon.(AB)
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will be like the Most High!”(AC)
15 No! Down to Sheol you will be brought
to the depths of the pit!(AD)
16 When they see you they will stare,
pondering over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms?
17 Who made the world a wilderness,
razed its cities,
and gave captives no release?”
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;(AE)
19 But you are cast forth without burial,
like loathsome carrion,
Covered with the slain, with those struck by the sword,
a trampled corpse,
Going down to the very stones of the pit.(AF)
20 You will never be together with them in the grave,
For you have ruined your land,
you have slain your people!
Let him never be named,
that offshoot of evil!
21 Make ready to slaughter his sons
for the guilt of their fathers;(AG)
Lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the breadth of the world with cities.[m]
22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, progeny and offspring, says the Lord.(AH) 23 I will make it a haunt of hoot owls and a marshland; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, oracle of the Lord of hosts.
God’s Plan for Assyria[n]
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have resolved,
so shall it be;
As I have planned,
so shall it stand:
25 To break the Assyrian in my land
and trample him on my mountains;
Then his yoke shall be removed from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.(AI)
26 This is the plan proposed for the whole earth,
and this the hand outstretched over all the nations.[o]
27 The Lord of hosts has planned;
who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out;
who can turn it back?(AJ)
Philistia.[p] 28 In the year that King Ahaz died,[q] there came this oracle:
29 [r]Do not rejoice, Philistia, not one of you,
that the rod which struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s root shall come an adder,
its offspring shall be a flying saraph.
30 In my pastures the poor shall graze,
and the needy lie down in safety;
But I will kill your root with famine
that shall slay even your remnant.
31 Howl, O gate; cry out, O city!
Philistia, all of you melts away!
For there comes a smoke from the north,[s]
without a straggler in its ranks.
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nations?[t]
“The Lord has established Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
Chapter 15
Moab[u]
1 Oracle on Moab:
Laid waste in a night,
Ar of Moab is destroyed;
Laid waste in a night,
Kir of Moab is destroyed.
2 Daughter Dibon has gone up
to the high places to weep;
Over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab is wailing.
Every head is shaved,
every beard sheared off.[v](AK)
3 In the streets they wear sackcloth,
and on the rooftops;
In the squares
everyone wails, streaming with tears.(AL)
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
they are heard as far as Jahaz.
At this the loins of Moab tremble,
his soul quivers within him;(AM)
5 My heart cries out for Moab,
his fugitives reach Zoar,
Eglath-shelishiyah:
The ascent of Luhith
they ascend weeping;
On the way to Horonaim
they utter rending cries;(AN)
6 The waters of Nimrim
have become a waste,
The grass is withered,
new growth is gone,
nothing is green.
7 So now whatever they have acquired or stored away
they carry across the Wadi of the Poplars.
8 The cry has gone round
the territory of Moab;
As far as Eglaim his wailing,
even at Beer-elim his wailing.
9 [w]The waters of Dimon are filled with blood,
but I will bring still more upon Dimon:
Lions for those who are fleeing from Moab
and for those who remain in the land!
Chapter 16
1 Send them forth,[x] hugging the earth like reptiles,
from Sela across the desert,
to the mount of daughter Zion.
2 Like flushed birds,
like scattered nestlings,
Are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.[y](AO)
3 [z]Offer counsel, take their part;
at high noon make your shade like the night;
Hide the outcasts,
do not betray the fugitives.
4 Let the outcasts of Moab live with you,
be their shelter from the destroyer.
When there is an end to the oppressor,
when destruction has ceased,
and the marauders have vanished from the land,
5 A throne shall be set up in mercy,
and on it shall sit in fidelity,
in David’s tent,
A judge upholding right,
prompt to do justice.(AP)
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab,
how very proud he is,
Of his haughtiness, pride, and arrogance
that his empty words do not match.(AQ)
7 [aa]Therefore let Moab wail,
let everyone wail for Moab;
For the raisin cakes[ab] of Kir-hareseth
let them sigh, stricken with grief.
8 The terraced slopes of Heshbon languish,
the vines of Sibmah,
Whose clusters once overpowered
the lords of nations,
Reaching as far as Jazer
winding through the wilderness,[ac]
Whose branches spread forth,
crossing over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with Jazer
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
Heshbon and Elealeh;
For on your summer fruits and harvests
the battle cry[ad] has fallen.(AR)
10 From the orchards are taken away
joy and gladness,
In the vineyards there is no singing,
no shout of joy;
In the wine presses no one treads grapes,
the vintage shout is stilled.(AS)
11 Therefore for Moab
my heart moans like a lyre,
my inmost being for Kir-hareseth.(AT)
12 [ae]When Moab wears himself out on the high places,
and enters his sanctuary to pray,
it shall avail him nothing.(AU)
13 [af]That is the word the Lord spoke against Moab in times past. 14 But now the Lord speaks: In three years, like the years of a hired laborer, the glory of Moab shall be empty despite all its great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and weak.(AV)
Chapter 17
Damascus
1 Oracle on Damascus:[ag]
See, Damascus shall cease to be a city
and become a pile of ruins;(AW)
2 Her cities shall be forever abandoned,
for flocks to lie in undisturbed.
3 The fortress shall vanish from Ephraim[ah]
and dominion from Damascus;
The remnant of Aram shall become like the glory
of the Israelites—
oracle of the Lord of hosts.
4 On that day
The glory of Jacob shall fade,
and his full body shall grow thin.(AX)
5 Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks,
when he gathers the standing grain;
Or as when one gleans the ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.[ai]
6 [aj]Only gleanings shall be left in it,
as when an olive tree has been beaten—
Two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on its most fruitful branches—
oracle of the Lord, the God of Israel.(AY)
7 On that day people shall turn to their maker,
their eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel.(AZ)
8 They shall not turn to the altars, the work of their hands,
nor shall they look to what their fingers have made:
the asherahs[ak] or the incense stands.
9 On that day his strong cities shall be
like those abandoned by the Hivites and Amorites
When faced with the Israelites;
and there shall be desolation.(BA)
10 Truly, you have forgotten the God who saves you,
the Rock, your refuge, you have not remembered.(BB)
Therefore, though you plant plants for the Pleasant One,[al]
and set out cuttings for a foreign one,(BC)
11 Though you make them grow the day you plant them
and make them blossom the morning you set them out,
The harvest shall disappear on a day of sickness
and incurable pain.
12 Ah! the roaring of many peoples—[am]
a roar like the roar of the seas!
The thundering of nations—
thunder like the thundering of mighty waters!(BD)
13 [an]But God shall rebuke them,
and they shall flee far away,
Driven like chaff on the mountains before a wind,
like tumbleweed before a storm.(BE)
14 At evening, there is terror,
but before morning, they are gone!
Such is the portion of those who despoil us,
the lot of those who plunder us.(BF)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.