Isaiah 13

Modern

Literal

The Burden against Babylon

¹This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:

¹The burden of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz has seen.

²Raise a banner on a barren hilltop;

call aloud to them.

Wave your hand,

that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

²Upon the bare mountain lift up a banner! Raise high your voice to them. Wave a hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded My sanctified ones;

I have even summoned My warriors

to execute My wrath

and exult in My triumph.

³I have commanded My holy ones; also, I have called My mighty ones for My nose—those jubilant ones of My pride.

⁴Listen, a tumult on the mountains,

like that of a great multitude!

Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,

like nations gathered together!

The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing

an army for war.

⁴The voice of a crowd on the mountains, like that of many people—the voice of a roar of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! YHWH of Hosts is mustering a host for battle!

⁵They are coming from faraway lands,

from the ends of the heavens—

the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—

to destroy the whole country.

⁵They are coming from a land far off, from the end of the heavens—YHWH and the instruments of His indignation—to destroy all the land.

⁶Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near;

it will come as destruction from the Almighty.^a

⁶Wail, for the day of YHWH is near; it will come as destruction from Shaddai.

⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp,

and every man’s heart will melt.

⁷At this all hands will go limp, and every heart of man will melt;

⁸Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them;

they will writhe like a woman in labor.

They will look at one another,

their faces flushed with fear.

⁸and they will be afraid; pains and pangs will seize them; like a woman in labor they will writhe. Each man to his neighbor will look with astonishment, with faces aflame—their faces.

⁹Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—

cruel, with fury and burning anger—

to make the earth a desolation

and to destroy the sinners within it.

⁹Behold, the day of YHWH is coming, cruel with wrath and heat of anger, to set the land unto desolation, and He will destroy its sinful ones from it.

¹⁰For the stars of heaven and their constellations

will not give their light.

The rising sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light.

¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and their constellations their light will not shine forth; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause to shine its light.

¹¹I will punish the world for its evil

and the wicked for their iniquity.

I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant

and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

¹¹And I will visit punishment upon the world for evil, and upon the wicked for their iniquity, and I will make cease the arrogance of the proud ones, and the haughtiness of the ruthless ones I will lay low.

¹²I will make man scarcer than pure gold,

and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.

¹²I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken from its place

at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts

on the day of His burning anger.

¹³Upon thus I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from her place, by the fury of YHWH of Hosts, and in the day of the heat of his nose.

¹⁴Like a hunted gazelle,

like a sheep without a shepherd,

each will return to his own people,

each will flee to his native land.

¹⁴And it has been like the gazelle driven away, or like a sheep without one gathering it, each man to his people will turn, and each man to his land will flee.

¹⁵Whoever is caught will be stabbed,

and whoever is captured will die by the sword.

¹⁵Everyone who is found will be pierced, and everyone who is captured will fall by the sword;

¹⁶Their infants will be dashed to pieces

before their eyes,

their houses will be looted,

and their wives will be ravished.

¹⁶and their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives will be ravished.

¹⁷Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes,

who have no regard for silver

and no desire for gold.

¹⁷Behold, I am stirring up against them the Medes, who regard have no for silver, and gold—they do not delight in it.

¹⁸Their bows will dash young men to pieces;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

they will not look with pity on the children.

¹⁸And the bows will dash to pieces the young men, and on the fruit of the womb they will have no mercy—on sons their eye has no pity.

¹⁹And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms,

the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans,

will be overthrown by God

like Sodom and Gomorrah.

¹⁹Babylon, the glory of kingdoms and the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like the overthrowing by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰She will never be inhabited

or settled from generation to generation;

no nomad will pitch his tent there,

no shepherd will rest his flock there.

²⁰She wil not be dwelt in to eternity, she wil not be dwelt in for generation and generation, and no Arab or shepherds will pitch a tent; there they will not make flocks rest there.

²¹But desert creatures will lie down there,

and howling creatures will fill her houses.

Ostriches^a will dwell there,

and wild goats will leap about.

²¹And desert creatures will stretch out there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures, and daughters of the ostrich will dwell there, and wild goats will skip about there,

²²Hyenas will howl in her fortresses

and jackals^a in her luxurious palaces.

Babylon’s time is at hand,

and her days will not be prolonged.

²²and hyenas will howl in its towers, and jackals in its palaces of delight. And her time is coming near, and her days will not be drawn out.