Isaiah 13  Holman Christian Standard Bible

² Lift up a banner on a barren mountain.^(C)
Call out to them.
Wave your hand, and they will go
through the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded My chosen ones;
I have also called My warriors,
who exult in My triumph,
to execute My wrath.^(D)
4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains,
like that of a mighty people!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations being gathered together!
The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.
⁵ They are coming from a far land,
from the distant horizon—
the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—
to destroy the whole country.^[a]

⁶ Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.^(E)
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.^(F)
7 Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man’s heart will melt.
⁸ They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.^(G)
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.
⁹ Look, the day^(H) of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with rage and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy the sinners on it.^(I)
10 Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations^[b]
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.^(J)
11 I will bring disaster on the world,
and their own iniquity,^(K) on the wicked.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant^(L)
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.
¹² I will make man scarcer than gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.^(M)
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations^(N)
at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
on the day of His burning anger.
¹⁴ Like wandering gazelles
and like sheep without a shepherd,^(O)
each one will turn to his own people,
each one will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Whoever is found will be stabbed,
and whoever is caught will die by the sword.
¹⁶ Their children will be smashed to death before their eyes;^(P)
their houses will be looted,
and their wives raped.
¹⁷ Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them,^(Q)
who cannot be bought off with^[c] silver
and who have no desire for gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will cut young men to pieces.
They will have no compassion on little ones;
they will not look with pity on children.

¹⁹ And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,
the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.^(R)
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in from generation to generation;^(S)
a nomad will not pitch his tent there,
and shepherds will not let their flocks rest there.
²¹ But desert creatures will lie down there,
and owls will fill the houses.
Ostriches will dwell there,
and wild goats will leap about.^(T)
22 Hyenas will howl in the fortresses,
and jackals, in the luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s time is almost up;
her days are almost over.