The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Isaiah 13
1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah
the son of Amoz saw.
2 Set up a banner on the bare mountain!
Lift up your voice to them! Wave your
hand, that they may go into the gates of the
nobles.
3 I have commanded my consecrated
ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for
my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
4 The noise of a multitude is in the mountains,
as of a great people; the noise of
an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations
gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is
mustering the army for the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the
uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh,
and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for Yahweh’s day is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the
Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and
everyone’s heart will melt.
8 They will be dismayed. Pangs and
sorrows will seize them. They will be in
pain like a woman in labor. They will look
in amazement one at another. Their faces
will be faces of flame.
9 Behold, the day of Yahweh comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to
make the land a desolation, and to destroy
its sinners out of it.
10 For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not
give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the
moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 I will punish the world for their evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity. I will
cause the arrogance of the proud to cease,
and will humble the arrogance ofthe terrible.
12 I will make people more rare than fine
gold, even a person than the pure gold of
Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens
tremble, and the earth will be shaken out
of its place in Yahweh of Armies’ wrath,
and in the day of his fierce anger.
14 It will happen that like a hunted
gazelle and like sheep that no one gathers,
they will each turn to their own people,
and will each flee to their own land.
15 Everyone who is found will be thrust
through. Everyone who is captured will
fall by the sword.
16 Their infants also will be dashed in
pieces before their eyes. Their houses will
be ransacked, and their wives raped.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against
them, who will not value silver, and as for
gold, they will not delight in it.
18 Their bows will dash the young men in
pieces; and they shall have no pity on the
fruit ofthe womb. Their eyes willnot spare
children.
19 Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the
beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like
when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited, neither will
it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent
there, neither will shepherds make their
flocks lie down there.
21 But wild animals of the desert will
lie there, and their houses will be full of
jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and
wild goats will frolic there.
22 Hyenas will cry in their fortresses, and
jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time
is near to come, and her days will not be
prolonged.