- 2Lift up a banner on the high mountain, shout to them, beckon them to enter the royal gates. 3I’ve commanded the ones I’ve prepared for battle, and assembled warriors to execute My judgment, those who rejoice in My triumph. 4Listen to the noise on the mountains, like a great multitude preparing and massing together, for the Lord Almighty is marshaling an army for war. 5They come from distant lands, from the end of heaven — the Lord and the weapons of His wrath — to destroy the whole country.
- 6Start wailing, for the day of the Lord is coming; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. 7Everyone will faint, everyone’s heart will sink, 8and they’ll be overcome by terror. Pain and fear will seize them, they’ll thrash about like a woman in childbirth, looking in horror at each other’s shocked faces. 9See, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, wrathful, and full of fierce anger, to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners occupying it. 10For the stars above and the constellations won’t be seen; the rising sun will be darkened, and the moon won’t permit her light to shine. 11I’ll punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I’ll put an end to the arrogance of the proud and knock down the cruelty of the ruthless. 12Survivors will be more refined than pure gold, and it will be harder to find people than the gold of Ophir. 13Therefore I’ll shake the heavens, and the earth will violently quake in response to the anger of the Lord of Hosts on that day. 14Then like chased deer or wild sheep, everyone will try to gather with friends and flee to a safe place. 15Whoever is captured will be torn apart, men will be slaughtered. 16Their infants will be dashed to pieces while they watch, their houses will be robbed, and their wives abused. 17I’ll bring the Medes against them, who don’t value silver and gold. 18Their weapons will massacre the young men, and they’ll have no pity for infants; they won’t spare the children.
- 19Then Babylon, jewel of kingdoms, the pride and joy of the Babylonians, will be destroyed by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20She’ll never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation, nomads won’t pitch a tent there, and shepherds won’t rest their flocks there. 21Instead, wild desert animals will occupy it, jackals will enter their abandoned houses, and owls will live there, and wild goats will leap about. 22Hyenas and jackals will roam within her abandoned walls. Her time is close at hand, and her days won’t continue. I’ll destroy her speedily. Indeed, I’ll be merciful to My people, but the wicked will perish.
- 24The Lord will have compassion for Jacob, and will again choose Israel, and bring them back to their own land. Foreigners will join and be included with the house of Jacob. 2Nations will bring them back to their homeland from the ends of the earth, and they’ll return to their lands of promise. The house of Israel will allow them to become the Lord’s servants and handmaids; and Israel will be captors instead of captives, masters without taskmasters. 3On that day the Lord will give you rest from your sorrow and trouble, from the hard times you had to endure,
- 4You’ll tell this proverb to the king of Babylon, saying: How has the taskmaster vanished, and how has the oppression ended? 5The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the king, 6used to abuse people in wrath with continual beatings, and in fury conquered nations with his aggression; he’s now persecuted, and no one is stopping it. 7The whole earth is at rest and peaceful; they begin singing. 8Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over your fall, saying: Now that you’ve been dropped to the ground no one will come to cut us down! 9The dead in hell are looking forward to your arrival. The departed anticipate greeting you. Former leaders and kings are rising from their thrones in anticipation of you joining them in hell. 10They’ll all say to you: You’re as weak now as we are; you’re now one of us. 11All your magnificence fell into the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots and worms are now covering you.
- 12How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! You’ve been cast down to the earth, you who once destroyed whole nations! 13You said in your heart: I’ll ascend into heaven; I’ll sit on a throne above the stars of God; I’ll be enthroned on the mount of the congregation, in the northern sky; 14I’ll ascend above the highest clouds; I’ll make myself like the Most High! 15But you’ve been brought down to hell, to the deepest pit. 16Those who notice you stare at you, pondering your fate. They ask: Is this the man who shook the earth, who controlled kingdoms, 17and turned the world into a wilderness, and overthrew its cities and didn’t let his prisoners return home?
- 18All the kings of the nations lie in state, each buried in their own tomb. 19But you’ve been left on the ground like a rejected branch; your unburied carcass now rotting on the ground, stabbed through by a sword. 20You weren’t mourned or buried because you destroyed your land and killed your people. Let the children of your wicked people never remember your name. 21Prepare a place to slaughter your children for the sins you committed, they are never to rise to inherit any land or ever again control a city. 22I’ll prevent it, says the Lord of Hosts, I’ll wipe out Babylon’s name and any of her survivors or descendants, declares the Lord. 23I’ll turn it into an abandoned swampland, and I’ll make its destruction complete, says the Lord of Hosts.
- 24The Lord of Hosts has promised, saying: Just as I’ve planned, it will happen; and My purposes will control events. 25I’ll defeat the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains trample him down. Then his chains will be removed from My people, and his burdens taken off their shoulders. 26This is My plan set for the whole earth, and this is My hand stretched out over all nations. 27For the Lord of Hosts has a plan, and who can thwart it? Who’s able to fight against His hand?
- 29You Philistines shouldn’t rejoice over the club that struck you being broken, because from that snake’s root will come a viper, a darting, poisonous serpent. 30And the poorest of the poor will be fed, and the needy will rest safely. And I’ll kill your root with famine, killing all your survivors. 31Wail at your gate; howl in your city; melt away all you Philistines, for a cloud of smoke is coming from the north against you at the appointed time. 32What’s the message to all the nations? That Zion has been established and there His people will find safety.
Chapter 10
23The decree about Babylon, that Isaiah the son of Amoz was shown..
28The year king Ahaz died I received this prophecy from the Lord:.