Beginning
End of Babylon and the World
13 The burden[a] of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
2 Lift up a banner on a bare mountain,
raise a voice to them, wave a hand,
so that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My consecrated ones,
yes, I have called My mighty ones,
My proud exulting ones, for My fury.
4 A sound of tumult in the mountains
like that of many people!
A sound of uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathered!
Adonai-Tzva’ot is mustering
the army for battle.
5 They are coming from a far country—
from the end of the heavens—
Adonai and the weapons of His wrath,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of Adonai is near!
it will come as destruction from Shaddai.
7 Therefore all hands will fall limp,
and every man’s heart will melt.
8 They will be terrified;
pain and anguish will take hold of them;
they will writhe as a woman in labor;
they will look aghast at one another—
their faces aflame!
9 Behold, the day of Adonai comes,
cruel, full of wrath and fierce fury,
to make the earth a desolation,
and destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
will not give their light.
The rising sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light.[b]
11 I will punish the world for evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud,
and abase the insolence of tyrants.
12 I will make people scarcer than gold,
even than the pure gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make heaven tremble,
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
in the day of His fierce fury.
14 It will be like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with no one gathering.
Each will return to his own people,
each will flee to his own country.
15 Everyone found will be thrust through.
Everyone caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their babes will be dashed in pieces before their eyes.
Their houses will be plundered,
and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes,
who will not value silver
and will take no delight in gold.
18 Their bows will cut down the young men,
with no pity on the fruit of the womb,
nor will their eye spare children.
19 So Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of Chaldean pride,
will be just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited,
nor will it be dwelt in
from generation to generation,
nor will an Arab pitch a tent there,
nor will shepherds let flocks lie there.
21 But desert creatures will lie there.
Their houses will be full of owls.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and goat-demons will dance[c] there.
22 Hyenas will howl in their citadels
and jackals in their pleasant palaces.
Her time is near to come—
her days will not drag on long.
God’s People Restored
14 For Adonai will have compassion on Jacob
and will again choose Israel
and settle them in their own land.
The outsider will join himself with them
and will cling to the house of Jacob.
2 The peoples will take them
and escort them to their place.
The house of Israel will possess them
in the land of Adonai as servants and handmaids.
They will take their captors captive,
and rule over their oppressors.
Taunt Against Babylon’s King
3 Now in the day when Adonai will give you rest from your sorrow and your turmoil, and from the hard service you were forced to do, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say:
“How the taskmaster has ceased!
The raging oppressor, exacter of gold, has ceased!
5 Adonai has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
6 which struck the people in wrath
with continual strokes,
which ruled the nations in fury,
with relentless persecution.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and quiet.
They break forth with a ringing cry!
8 Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,
along with the cedars of Lebanon:
“Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.”
9 Sheol from below is excited about you,
to meet you at your coming!
He stirs up the dead spirits for you,
even the chief ones[d] of the earth.
He makes all the kings of the nations
rise up from their thrones.
10 They all answer and say to you:
“Even you have become as weak as us?
Have you become like us?
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol
with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.”
Shining One Fallen From Heaven
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O brighstar[e], son of the dawn![f]
How you are cut down to the earth,
you who made the nations prostrate!
13 You said in your heart:
“I will ascend to heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.[g]
I will sit upon the mount of meeting,
in the uttermost parts of the north.
14 I will ascend above the high places of the clouds—
I will make myself like Elyon.”
15 Yet you will be brought down to Sheol,
to the lowest parts of the Pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you,
reflecting on what has become of you:
“Is this the one who shook the earth,
who made kingdoms tremble,
17 who made the world a wilderness
and destroyed its cities,
who never opened the house of his prisoners?”
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them,
lie in glory, each in his own house.
19 But you are cast out of your tomb
as a discarded branch,
garment of the slain,
pierced with a sword,
dumped into a stony pit,
a corpse trodden underfoot.
20 You will not join with them in burial,
because you ruined your land,
you slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers will never be named.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers,
so they would not rise up and possess the land,
or fill the face of the earth with cities.
22 “For I will rise up against them”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—“and I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offshoot and offspring,” declares Adonai. 23 “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, with marshes of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction.” It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
24 Adonai Tzva’ot has sworn, saying:
“Surely, as I thought it, so it will be.
As I have purposed, so it will stand.
25 I will break Assyria in My land.
On My mountains I will trample him.
Then his yoke will be taken off them,
his burden removed from their shoulder.
26 This is the purpose planned for the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.”
27 For Adonai-Tzva’ot has purposed,
so who will annul it?
Since His hand is stretched out,
who will turn it back?
Doom of Philistia
28 In the year king Ahaz died came this burden:
29 Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
that the rod that struck you is broken.
For from the serpent’s root comes a viper
and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30 The firstborn of the poor will feed,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
I will kill your root with famine,
and your survivors will be slain.
31 Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
Melt away, all you of Philistia!
For smoke is coming from the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.
32 What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
For Adonai has founded Zion,
and the afflicted of His people will find refuge in her.
15 The burden of Moab.
For in the night that Ar is devastated,
Moab is ruined;
for in the night that Kir is devastated,
Moab is ruined.
2 He has gone up to the shrine, to Dibon,
to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is bald, every beard shaven.
3 In their streets they wear sackcloth.
On their housetops and in their plazas,
everyone wails, weeping profusely.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out.
Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz.
Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry aloud,
his soul faints within him.
5 My heart cries out for Moab.
Her fugitives are as far as Zoar
as a three year old heifer,
for by the ascent of Luhith
they go up with weeping,
for on the way of Horonaim
they raise a cry of distress.
6 The waters of Nimrim are desolate.
The grass is withered away,
the new grass withers,
there is nothing green.
7 Therefore the riches they had gotten
and whatever they have stored,
they carry over the Wadi of Willows.
8 For the cry has gone around
the borders of Moab,
the wailing to Eglaim,
and the wailing to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
but I will bring on Dimon even more—
a lion for those escaping from Moab,
and for those remaining in the land.
16 Send lambs to the ruler of the land
from Sela in the desert
to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion.
2 For like fluttering birds,
scattered from a nest,
so will the daughters of Moab be
at the fords of Arnon.
3 ‘Give counsel, execute justice.
Cast your shadow like night at noonday.
Hide the refugees,
do not betray the fugitive.
4 Let My refugees stay with you.
Be for Moab a hiding place
from the face of the destroyer.
For the extortion is at an end,
devastation ceases,
oppressors are gone from the land.
5 A throne will be established in mercy,
and One will sit on it in truth
—in the tent of David—
One who seeks justice
and is ready for righteousness.[h]
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab—
very proud is he—
of his haughtiness, his arrogance, his insolence,
and his dishonest boasting.
7 Therefore Moab will wail for Moab—
everyone will wail!
For the sweet cakes of Kir-hareseth
you will moan, utterly stricken.
8 For the fields of Heshbon have withered,
as well as the vine of Sibmah.
Rulers of nations have trampled the choice clusters,
that reached as far as Jazer and into the desert,
its branches spread out
and crossed to the sea.
9 Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer,
for the vine of Sibmah.
I will drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh.
For on your summer and your harvest
the battle cry has fallen.
10 Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field.
In the vineyards, no singing for joy no happy shouting,
no treading wine in the presses.
I have made the shouting stop.
11 Therefore my heart moans for Moab
like a lyre,
and my inward part for Kir-heres.
12 So it will be, when Moab is
weary upon the high place
and comes to his sanctuary to pray,
it will do him no good.
13 This is the word that Adonai spoke concerning Moab in the past. 14 But now Adonai has spoken, saying: “Within three years (as with the years of a hired worker), the glory of Moab will be disgraced; for all his large population, the remnant will be very small and feeble.”
17 The burden of Damascus:
Behold, Damascus will cease as a city
and will become a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken.
They will be for flocks—they will lie down
and no one will frighten them.
3 The fortress will also cease from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus.
The remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of Bnei-Yisrael.
It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Jacob’s Glory Fades
4 Now in that day Jacob’s glory will fade,
and the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
5 It will be as when the harvester gathers the standing grain
and reaps the heads with his arm,
as when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.
6 Only gleanings will remain,
as when beating an olive tree—
two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on a fruitful tree’s branches.
It is a declaration of Adonai God of Israel.
7 In that day a man will look to his Maker and his eyes will turn to the Holy One of Israel. 8 He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor will he look to what his fingers have made—neither the Asherah poles nor the sun-images.
9 In that day the strong cities will be like forsaken forests and treetops that were abandoned, because of Bnei-Yisrael—they will be laid waste.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and you have not remembered the Rock of your strength.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
and set out exotic vines.
11 In the day that you plant, you fence it in,
and in the morning you made your seed to sprout—
but the harvest will be a heap
in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 Oy! The uproar of many peoples
who roar like the roaring of the seas.
The rumbling of nations,
who rush in like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations will rush in like the rumbling of many waters,
but He will rebuke them so they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the hills before the wind,
like whirling dust before the storm.
14 At evening time—sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more.
This is the reward of those who plunder us
and the lot of those who pillage us.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.