Isaiah 13
13
Babylon Is Doomed!
1The Message on Babylon. Isaiah son of Amoz saw it:
2-3“Run up a flag on an open hill.
Yell loud. Get their attention.
Wave them into formation.
Direct them to the nerve center of power.
I’ve taken charge of my special forces,
called up my crack troops.
They’re bursting with pride and passion
to carry out my angry judgment.”
4-5Thunder rolls off the mountains
like a mob huge and noisy—
Thunder of kingdoms in an uproar,
nations assembling for war.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling
his army into battle formation.
They come from far-off countries,
they pour in across the horizon.
It’s God on the move with the weapons of his wrath,
ready to destroy the whole country.
6-8Wail! God’s Day of Judgment is near—
an avalanche crashing down from the Strong God!
Everyone paralyzed in the panic,
hysterical and unstrung,
Doubled up in pain
like a woman giving birth to a baby.
Horrified—everyone they see
is like a face out of a nightmare.
* * *
9-16“Watch now. God’s Judgment Day comes.
Cruel it is, a day of wrath and anger,
A day to waste the earth
and clean out all the sinners.
The stars in the sky, the great parade of constellations,
will be nothing but black holes.
The sun will come up as a black disk,
and the moon a blank nothing.
I’ll put a full stop to the evil on earth,
terminate the dark acts of the wicked.
I’ll gag all braggarts and boasters—not a peep anymore from them—
and trip strutting tyrants, leave them flat on their faces.
Proud humanity will disappear from the earth.
I’ll make mortals rarer than hens’ teeth.
And yes, I’ll even make the sky shake,
and the earth quake to its roots
Under the wrath of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
the Judgment Day of his raging anger.
Like a hunted white-tailed deer,
like lost sheep with no shepherd,
People will huddle with a few of their own kind,
run off to some makeshift shelter.
But tough luck to stragglers—they’ll be killed on the spot,
throats cut, bellies ripped open,
Babies smashed on the rocks
while mothers and fathers watch,
Houses looted,
wives raped.
17-22“And now watch this:
Against Babylon, I’m inciting the Medes,
A ruthless bunch indifferent to bribes,
the kind of brutality that no one can blunt.
They massacre the young,
wantonly kick and kill even babies.
And Babylon, most glorious of all kingdoms,
the pride and joy of Chaldeans,
Will end up smoking and stinking like Sodom,
and, yes, like Gomorrah, when God had finished with them.
No one will live there anymore,
generation after generation a ghost town.
Not even Bedouins will pitch tents there.
Shepherds will give it a wide berth.
But strange and wild animals will like it just fine,
filling the vacant houses with eerie night sounds.
Skunks will make it their home,
and unspeakable night hags will haunt it.
Hyenas will curdle your blood with their laughing,
and the howling of coyotes will give you the shivers.
“Babylon is doomed.
It won’t be long now.”
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Isaiah 13: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 13
13
A Pronouncement against Babylon
1A pronouncement#Is 14:28; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; 21:1,11,13; 22:1; 23:1; 30:6 concerning Babylon#Is 13:19; 14:4; 47:1–15; Jr 24:1; 50:1–51:64; Mt 1:11; Rv 14:8 that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
2Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.#Is 5:26; Jr 50:2
Call out to them.
Signal with your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.
3I have commanded my consecrated ones;
yes, I have called my warriors,
who celebrate my triumph,
to execute my wrath.#Ps 78:21,50; Ezk 5:15; 20:8
4Listen, a commotion on the mountains,
like that of a mighty people!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations being gathered together!
The Lord of Armies is mobilizing an army for war.
5They are coming from a distant land,
from the farthest horizon —
the Lord and the weapons of his wrath —
to destroy the whole country.#13:5 Or earth
6Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.#Is 2:12; 10:3; 13:9; 34:2,8; 61:2; Ezk 30:3; Am 5:18; Zph 1:7
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.#Is 10:25; 14:23; Jl 1:15
7Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man will lose heart.
8They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.#Is 26:17; Jr 4:31; Jn 16:21
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.
9Look, the day#Mt 25:13 of the Lord is coming —
cruel, with fury and burning anger —
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners.#Dt 32:43
10Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations#13:10 Or Orions
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.#Is 34:4; Mt 24:29; Mk 13:24–25; Lk 21:26; Rv 8:12
11I will punish the world for its evil,#Jr 23:2; 36:31; 44:29
and wicked people for their iniquities.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant#Is 2:11; 23:9; Dn 5:22–23
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.
12I will make a human more scarce than fine gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.#1Kg 9:28; Jb 28:16; Ps 45:9
13Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations#Ps 18:7; Is 2:19; 24:1,19–20; Hg 2:6
at the wrath of the Lord of Armies,
on the day of his burning anger.
14Like wandering gazelles
and like sheep without a shepherd,#1Kg 22:17; Mt 9:36; Mk 6:34; 1Pt 2:25
each one will turn to his own people,
each one will flee to his own land.
15Whoever is found will be stabbed,
and whoever is caught will die by the sword.
16Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;#Ps 137:8–9; Is 13:18; 14:21; Hs 10:14; Nah 3:10
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.
17Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them,#Jr 51:11; Dn 5:28
who cannot be bought off with#13:17 Lit who have no regard for silver
and who have no desire for gold.
18Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on offspring;
they will not look with pity on children.
19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.#Gn 19:24; Jr 14:18; 50:40; Am 4:11
20It will never be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation;#Is 14:23; 34:10–15; Jr 51:37–43
a nomad will not pitch his tent there,
and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.
21But desert creatures will lie down there,
and owls will fill the houses.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will leap about.#Is 34:11–15; Zph 2:14; Rv 18:2
22Hyenas will howl in the fortresses,
and jackals, in the luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is almost up;
her days are almost over.
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