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
An Oracle against Babylon
1The oracle of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
2Raise a signal on a bare hill,
lift up your voice to them;
wave the hand and may they enter the gateways of the noblemen.
3I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones,
I have also summoned my mighty warriors concerning my anger,
the ones who exalt over#Literally “exultant of” my majesty.
4A 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.
5They are coming from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.#Literally “all of the land/earth”
6Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near;
it will come like destruction from Shaddai!#Often translated “the Almighty”
7Therefore all hands will grow slack,
and every human heart will melt,
8and 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,#Literally “A man will stare at his neighbor”
their faces flushing.#Literally “faces of flames”
9Look! 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.
10For 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.
11And 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.
12I will make humanity more rare than gold
and humankind more than the gold of Ophir.
13Therefore 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.
14And this shall happen:
like a hunted gazelle or sheep with none to gather them,#Literally “and without one who gathers”
they will each turn to his own people,
and they will each flee to his own land.
15Everyone who is found will be pierced through,
and everyone who is carried away will fall by the sword.
16And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.#The reading tradition (Qere) softens this to “slept with”
17Look! I am stirring the Medes up against them,
who do not value silver
and do not delight in gold.
18And 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.
19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew#Literally “the overthrow by God of” Sodom and Gomorrah.
20It will not be inhabited forever,
and it will not be dwelled in forever;#Literally “until generation and generation”
and no Arab will pitch a tent there,
and shepherds will not allow their flocks to lie down there.
21But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures,
and the daughters of ostriches#Hebrew “ostrich” will live there,
and goats will dance there.
22And hyenas will answer in its palaces,
and jackals in the pleasure palaces;
and its time is coming soon,#Literally “close to come”
and its days will not be prolonged.
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