The Burden against Babylon

1The burden of Babylon which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw.

2Over the foggy mountain lift up a sign! Raise the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers enter through the gates!

3In my wrath, I commanded my sanctified ones, and I called my strong ones, those who exult in my glory.

4On the mountains, there is the voice of a multitude, as if of a numerous people, a voice with the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. For the Lord of hosts has given orders to soldiers of war,

5to those who are arriving from a far off land, from the heights of the heavens. It is the Lord and the instruments of his fury, so that he may bring ruin to all the earth.

6Wail aloud! For the day of the Lord draws near! It will arrive like a devastation from the Lord.

7Because of it, every hand will fail, and every heart of man will waste away and be crushed.

8Writhing and pain will seize them. They will be in pain, like a woman in labor. Each one will appear stupefied to his neighbor. Their countenances will be like faces which have been burned up.

9Behold, the day of the Lord approaches: a cruel day, full of indignation and wrath and fury, which will place the earth in solitude and crush the sinners from it.

10For the stars of the heavens, in their splendor, will not display their light. The sun will be obscured at its rising, and the moon will not shine in her brightness.

11And I will act against the evils of the world, and against the impious for their iniquity. And I will cause the pride of the unfaithful to cease, and I will bring down the arrogance of the strong.

12A man will be more precious than gold, and mankind will become like pure refined gold.

13For this purpose, I will stir up heaven, and the earth will be moved from its place, because of the indignation of the Lord of hosts, because of the day of his furious wrath.

14And they will be like a doe fleeing away, or like sheep; and there will be no one who may gather them together. Each one will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land.

15All who are found will be killed, and all who are caught unaware will fall by the sword.

16Their infants will be thrown down violently before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be violated.

17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them. They will not seek silver, nor desire gold.

18Instead, with their arrows, they will put the little children to death, and they will take no pity on breastfeeding women, and their eye will not spare their children.

19And then Babylon, the glorious one among kingdoms, that famous pride of the Chaldeans, will be destroyed, even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

20It will not be inhabited, even unto the end, and it will not be reestablished, even from generation to generation. The Arab will not pitch his tents there, nor will the shepherds take rest there.

21Instead, the wild beasts will rest there, and their houses will be filled with serpents, and ostriches will live there, and the hairy ones will leap about there.

22And the tawny owls will answer one another there, in its buildings, and the Sirens in its shrines of pleasure.