1 The oracle about Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.
2 On a bare hilltop hoist a banner; shout out to them, beckon with the hand, so that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 I have given orders to those I have set apart; I have called up my warriors for my anger, those who exult in my triumph.
4 Listen! A roar on the mountains, like that of a vast people! Listen! An uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering! The LORD of hosts is mustering an army for war.
5 They are coming from a faraway land, from the edge of the sky, the LORD and the instruments of his fury, to ruin the whole land.
6 Howl, for the day of the LORD is close; it comes like devastation from the Almighty.
7 Because of this every hand will go limp, and every man's heart will melt.
8 They will be terrified; cramps and pains will grip them, they will writhe like a woman giving birth. They will gape at one another, their faces burning red.
9 Look, the day of the LORD is coming, merciless, with fury and blazing anger, to turn the land into a wasteland and wipe out the sinners in it.
10 The stars in the sky and their constellations will not give off their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not let its light shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will end the pride of the insolent and humble the arrogance of tyrants.
12 I will make human beings rarer than pure gold, mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
13 So I will make the heavens shudder, and the earth will be shaken from its place by the fury of the LORD of hosts on the day of his burning anger.
14 Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep with no one to round them up, each one will head back to his own people, each one flee to his own land.
15 Anyone who is found will be run through, and anyone who is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their little ones will be smashed while they look on, their houses looted and their wives raped.
17 I am about to stir up the Medes against them, who care nothing for silver and find no pleasure in gold.
18 Their bows will cut down the young men; they will show no mercy to the fruit of the womb and will not look with pity on children.
19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the proud splendor of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overturned them.
20 No one will ever live there again or settle there through all generations; no Arab will pitch a tent there, and no shepherds will bed down their flocks there.
21 Desert creatures will lie down there, its houses will be filled with jackals, ostriches will make their home there, and wild goats will dance there.
22 Hyenas will howl in its fortresses and jackals in its luxurious palaces. Its time is about to come, and its days will not be extended.