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
Babylon Will Be Punished
1 #
Is 47.1-15; Jr 50.1—51.64. This is the message#13.1 message: See the note at 1.1. that I was given about Babylon:
2From high on a barren hill
give a signal, shout the orders,
and point the way
to enter the gates
of Babylon's proud rulers.
3The Lord has commanded
his very best warriors
and his proud heroes
to show how angry he is.
4Listen to the noisy crowds
on the mountains!
Kingdoms and nations
are joining forces.
The Lord All-Powerful
is bringing together
an army for battle.
5From a distant land
the Lord is coming
fierce and furious—
he brings his weapons
to destroy the whole earth.
6 #
Jl 1.15. Cry and weep!
The day is coming
when the mighty Lord
will bring destruction.
* 7All people will be terrified.
Hands will grow limp;
courage will melt away.
8Everyone will tremble with pain
like a woman giving birth;
they will stare at each other
with horror on their faces.
There Will Be No Mercy
9I, the Lord,
will show no mercy or pity
when that time comes.
In my anger I will destroy
the earth and every sinner
who lives on it.
10 #
Ez 32.7; Mt 24.29; Mk 13.24,25; Lk 21.25; Rev 6.12,13; 8.12. Light will disappear
from the stars in the sky;
the dawning sun will turn dark,
and the moon
will lose its brightness.
11I will punish this evil world
and its people
because of their sins.
I will crush the horrible pride
of those who are cruel.
12Survivors will be harder to find
than the purest gold.
13I, the Lord All-Powerful,
am terribly angry—
I will make the sky tremble
and the earth shake loose.
14Everyone will run
to their homelands,
just as hunted deer run,
and sheep scatter
when they have no shepherd.
15Those men who are captured
will be killed by a sword.
16They will see their children
beaten against rocks,
their homes robbed,
and their wives abused.
17The Medes#13.17 Medes: People of a nation northeast of Babylonia, which became part of the Persian Empire. can't be bought off
with silver or gold,
and I'm sending them
to attack Babylonia.
18Their arrows will slaughter
the young men;
no pity will be shown
to babies and children.
The Lord Will Destroy Babylon
19 #
Gn 19.24. The city of Babylon
is glorious and powerful,
the pride of the nation.
But it will be like the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah
after I, the Lord,
destroyed them.
20No one will live in Babylon.
Even nomads won't camp nearby,
and shepherds won't let
their sheep rest there.
21 #
Is 34.14; Zep 2.14; Rev 18.2. Only desert creatures,
hoot owls, and ostriches
will live in its ruins,
and goats#13.21 goats: Or “demons.” will leap about.
22Hyenas and wolves will howl
from Babylon's fortresses
and beautiful palaces.
Its time is almost up!
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.