Isaiah 13, Isaiah 14:1-23

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Isaiah 13

An Oracle Concerning Babylon

13The ^1,aoracle concerning ^bBabylon which ^cIsaiah the son of Amoz beheld.

^2aLift up a standard on the ^1,bbare hill,Heighten your voice at them,^cWave the hand that they may ^denter the doors of the nobles.³I have commanded My set apart ones,I have even called My ^amighty warriors,My ¹proudly exulting ones,To execute My anger.⁴A ^asound 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.⁵They are coming from a far country,From the ^aend of the sky,Yahweh and His instruments of ^bindignation,To ^cwreak destruction on the whole land.⁶Wail, for the ^aday of Yahweh is near!It will come as ^bdestruction from ¹the Almighty.⁷Therefore ^aall hands will fall limp,And every man’s ^bheart will melt.⁸They will be ^aterrified,Pains and labor pangs will take hold of them;They will ^bwrithe like a woman in labor,They will look at one another in astonishment,Their faces aflame.⁹Behold, ^athe 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.¹⁰For the ^astars of heaven and their constellationsWill not flash forth their light;The ^bsun will be dark when it risesAnd the moon will not shed its light.¹¹Thus I will ^apunish the world for its evilAnd the ^bwicked for their iniquity;I will also put an end to the ^cpride of the arrogantAnd bring low the ^dlofty pride of the ^1,eruthless.¹²I will make mortal man ^1,ascarcer than fine goldAnd mankind than the ^bgold of Ophir.¹³Therefore I will make the ^aheavens tremble,And ^bthe earth will be shaken from its placeAt the fury of Yahweh of hostsIn ^cthe day of His burning anger.¹⁴And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,Or like ^asheep with none to gather them,They will each turn to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.¹⁵Anyone who is found will be ^apierced through,And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.¹⁶Their ^ainfants also will be dashed to piecesBefore their eyes;Their houses will be plunderedAnd their wives ravished.¹⁷Behold, I am going to ^aawaken the Medes against them,Who will not think about silver or ^btake pleasure in gold.¹⁸And their bows will dash the ^ayoung men to pieces,They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,Nor will their ^beye pity ¹children.¹⁹And it will be that ^aBabylon, the ^bbeauty of kingdoms, the ¹honor of the Chaldeans’ pride,Will be as when God ^coverthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.²⁰It will ^anever be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation;Nor will the ^1,bArab pitch his tent there,Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.²¹But ^adesert creatures will lie down there,And their houses will be full of ¹owls;Ostriches also will dwell there, and ²shaggy goats will leap there.²²¹And hyenas will howl in their fortified towersAnd jackals in their luxurious ^apalaces.Her fateful time also ²will soon comeAnd her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah 14:1-23

Israel’s Restoration and Dominion

14When Yahweh will ^ahave compassion on Jacob and again ^bchoose Israel, and ¹put them in their own land, then ^csojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ²And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^ahouse of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of Yahweh ^bfor their male and female slaves; and ¹they will take their captors captive and will have dominion over their taskmasters.

³And it will be in the day when Yahweh gives you ^arest from your pain and turmoil and harsh slavery in which you have been enslaved, ⁴that you will ^atake up this ¹taunt against the king of Babylon, and say, “How ^bthe taskmaster has ceased,And how ²fury has ceased!

⁵“Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,The scepter of rulers^6aWhich used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,Which had dominion over the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.⁷“The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;They ^abreak forth into shouts of joy.⁸“Even the ^acypress trees are glad over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’⁹“^aSheol from beneath trembles excitedly over you to meet you when you come;It wakens for you the ¹spirits of the dead, all the ²leaders of the earth;It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.¹⁰“^aThey will all answer and say to you,‘Even you have been made weak as we,You have become like us.¹¹‘Your ^apride and the music of your harpsHave been brought down to Sheol;Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath youAnd worms are your covering.’¹²“How you have ^afallen from heaven,O ^1,bstar of the morning, son of the dawn!You have been cut down to the earth,You who have weakened the nations!¹³“But you said in your heart,‘I will ^aascend to heaven;I will ^braise my throne above the stars of God,And I will sit on the mount of assemblyIn the recesses of the north.¹⁴‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;^aI will make myself like the Most High.’¹⁵“Nevertheless you ^awill be brought down to Sheol,To the recesses of the pit.¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you,They will ¹carefully consider you, saying,‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,Who caused kingdoms to quake,¹⁷Who made the world like a ^awildernessAnd pulled down its cities,Who ^bdid not ¹allow his prisoners to go home?’¹⁸“All the kings of the nations lie in glory,Each in his own ¹place.¹⁹“But you have been ^acast out of your graveLike an abhorred branch,¹Clothed with those killed who are pierced with a sword,Who go down to the stones of the ^bpitLike a ^ctrampled corpse.²⁰“You will not be united with them in burial,Because you have ruined your country,You have killed your people.May the ^aseed of evildoers not be called upon forever.²¹“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughterBecause of the ^ainiquity of their fathers.They must not arise and take possession of the earthAnd 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 ^aname and remnant, ^boffspring and posterity,” declares Yahweh. ²³“I will also make it a possession for the ^ahedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of ^1,bdestruction,” declares Yahweh of hosts.