Isaiah 13:1 - 13:22 - Legacy Standard Bible

Isaiah 13:1 - 13:22

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz beheld. 2

Lift up a standard on the bare hill,

Heighten your voice at them,

Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

I have commanded My set apart ones,

I have even called My mighty warriors,

My proudly exulting ones,

To execute My anger.

A sound of tumult on the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A sound of the rumbling of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!

Yahweh of hosts is mustering the host for battle.

They are coming from a far country,

From the end of the sky,

Yahweh and His instruments of indignation,

To wreak destruction on the whole land.

Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near!

It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Therefore all hands will fall limp,

And every man’s heart will melt.

They will be terrified,

Pains and labor pangs will take hold of them;

They will writhe like a woman in labor,

They will look at one another in astonishment,

Their faces aflame.

Behold, the day of Yahweh is coming,

Cruel, with fury and burning anger,

To make the land a desolation;

And He will exterminate its sinners from it.

For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not flash forth their light;

The sun will be dark when it rises

And the moon will not shed its light.

Thus I will punish the world for its evil

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will also put an end to the pride of the arrogant

And bring low the lofty pride of the ruthless.

I will make mortal man scarcer than fine gold

And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

And the earth will be shaken from its place

At the fury of Yahweh of hosts

In the day of His burning anger.

And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,

Or like sheep with none to gather them,

They will each turn to his own people,

And each one flee to his own land.

Anyone who is found will be pierced through,

And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

Their infants also will be dashed to pieces

Before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives ravished.

Behold, I am going to awaken the Medes against them,

Who will not think about silver or take pleasure in gold.

And their bows will dash the young men to pieces,

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,

Nor will their eye pity children.

And it will be that Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the honor of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

It will never be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation;

Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,

Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

But desert creatures will lie down there,

And their houses will be full of owls;

Ostriches also will dwell there, and shaggy goats will leap there.

And hyenas will howl in their fortified towers

And jackals in their luxurious palaces.

Her fateful time also will soon come

And her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah 14:1 - 14:23

Israel’s Restoration and Dominion

When Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and put them in their own land, then sojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of Yahweh for their male and female slaves; and they will take their captors captive and will have dominion over their taskmasters. 3 And it will be in the day when Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh slavery in which you have been enslaved, 4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How the taskmaster has ceased,

And how fury has ceased!

Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers

Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which had dominion over the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;

They break forth into shouts of joy.

Even the cypress trees are glad over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’

Sheol from beneath trembles excitedly over you to meet you when you come;

It wakens for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth;

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

They will all answer and say to you,

‘Even you have been made weak as we,

You have become like us.

Your pride and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

How you have fallen from heaven,

O star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

But you said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.’

Nevertheless you will be brought down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will carefully consider you, saying,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who caused kingdoms to quake,

Who made the world like a wilderness

And pulled down its cities,

Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’

All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

Each in his own place.

But you have been cast out of your grave

Like an abhorred branch,

Clothed with those killed who are pierced with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the pit

Like a trampled corpse.

You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you have ruined your country,

You have killed your people.

May the seed of evildoers not be called upon forever.

Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter

Because of the iniquity of their fathers.

They must not arise and take possession of the earth

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh. 23 “I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares Yahweh of hosts.