The Lord Will Judge Babylon

13:1¹ This is a message about Babylon which God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz:²
13:2³ On a bare hill raise a signal flag,
shout to them,
wave your hand,
so they might enter the gates of the princes!
13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers,⁴
I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger,⁵
my boasting, arrogant ones.⁶
13:4⁷There is a loud noise on the mountains,
it sounds like a large army.⁸
There is great commotion among the kingdoms,⁹
nations are being assembled.
The LORD who leads armies is mustering
forces for battle.
13:5 They come from a distant land,
from the horizon.¹⁰
It’s the LORD with his instruments of judgment,¹¹
coming to destroy the whole earth.¹²
13:6 Wail, for the LORD’s day of judgment¹³ is near,
it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge.¹⁴
13:7 For this reason all hands go numb,¹⁵
every human heart loses its courage.¹⁶
13:8 They panic;
cramps and pain seize hold of them,
as when a woman is straining to give birth.
They look at one another in astonishment,
their faces are flushed red.¹⁷
13:9 Look, the LORD’s day of judgment¹⁸ is coming,
it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger,¹⁹
destroying²⁰ the earth,²¹
and annihilating its sinners.
13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations
no longer shine;²²
the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,
and the moon does not shine.²³
13:11²⁴ I will punish the world for its evil,²⁵
and wicked people for their sin.
I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,
I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.²⁶
13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
and people more scarce²⁷ than gold from Ophir.
13:13 So I will shake the sky,
and the earth will shake loose from its foundation,²⁸
because of the fury of the LORD who leads armies,
in the day he vents his raging anger.²⁹
13:14 Like a frightened gazelle,³⁰
or a sheep with no shepherd,
each will turn toward home,³¹
each will run to his homeland.
13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed,
everyone who is seized³² will die³³ by the sword.
13:16 Their children will be cut to bits before their very eyes,
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.
13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them;³⁴
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold.³⁵
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons;³⁶
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring,³⁷
their eye does not look with pity on children.
13:19 Babylon, the most admired³⁸ of kingdoms,
the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride,³⁹
will be destroyed by God,
just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.⁴⁰
13:20 No one will live there again,
no one will ever reside there again.⁴¹
No bedouin⁴² will camp⁴³ there,
no shepherds will rest their flocks⁴⁴ there.
13:21 Wild animals will rest there,
the ruined⁴⁵ houses will be full of hyenas.⁴⁶
Ostriches will live there,
wild goats will skip among the ruins.⁴⁷
13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,
jackals will yelp in the once splendid palaces.⁴⁸
Her time is almost up,⁴⁹
her days will not be prolonged.⁵⁰