An Oracle against Babylon

¹ The oracle of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

² Raise a signal on a bare hill, lift up your voice to them; wave the hand and may they enter the gateways of the noblemen.

³ I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones, I have also summoned my mighty warriors concerning my anger, the ⌞ones who exalt over⌟¹ my majesty.

1. Literally “exultant of”

⁴ A sound, a noise is on the mountains, the likeness of many people! A sound of the roar of the kingdoms, of nations gathering! Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle.

⁵ They are coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy ⌞the whole earth⌟.¹

1. Literally “all of the land/earth”

⁶ Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near; it will come like destruction from Shaddai!¹

1. Often translated “the Almighty”

⁷ Therefore all hands will grow slack, and every human heart will melt,

⁸ and they will be dismayed. Pangs and labor pains will seize them; they will tremble like a woman giving birth. ⌞They will stare at one another⌟,¹ ⌞their faces flushing⌟.²

1. Literally “A man will stare at his neighbor”
2. Literally “faces of flames”

⁹ Look! The day of Yahweh is coming, cruel and wrath and the burning of anger, to make the earth a desolation, and he will destroy its sinners from it.

¹⁰ For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will keep back when it comes out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.

¹¹ And I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and I will bring the haughtiness of tyrants low.

¹² I will make humanity more rare than gold and humankind more than the gold of Ophir.

¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will quake from its place because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day his anger burns.

¹⁴ And this shall happen: like a hunted gazelle or sheep ⌞with none to gather them⌟,¹ they will each turn to his own people, and they will each flee to his own land.

1. Literally “and without one who gathers”

¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be pierced through, and everyone who is carried away will fall by the sword.

¹⁶ And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.¹

1. The reading tradition (Qere) softens this to “slept with”

¹⁷ Look! I am stirring the Medes up against them, who do not value silver and do not delight in gold.

¹⁸ And their bows will shatter young men. And they will not show mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not look compassionately on children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like ⌞when God overthrew⌟¹ Sodom and Gomorrah.

1. Literally “the overthrow by God of”

²⁰ It will not be inhabited forever, and it will not be dwelled in ⌞forever⌟;¹ and no Arab will pitch a tent there, and shepherds will not allow their flocks to lie down there.

1. Literally “until generation and generation”

²¹ But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures, and the daughters of ostriches¹ will live there, and goats will dance there.

1. Hebrew “ostrich”

²² And hyenas will answer in its palaces, and jackals in the pleasure palaces; and its time ⌞is coming soon⌟,¹ and its days will not be prolonged.

1. Literally “close to come”