Isaiah 13-16

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.

How the oppressor has quieted down,
and how the raging^[d] has become quiet!
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers.
⁶ It struck the peoples in anger
with unceasing blows.
It subdued the nations in rage
with relentless persecution.
⁷ All the earth is calm and at rest;
people shout with a ringing cry.
⁸ Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon
rejoice over you:^(AC)
“Since you have been laid low,
no woodcutter has come against us.”

⁹ Sheol below is eager to greet your coming.
He stirs up the spirits of the departed for you—
all the rulers^[e] of the earth.
He makes all the kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
¹⁰ They all respond to you, saying:
“You too have become as weak as we are;
you have become like us!
¹¹ Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol,
along with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.”

¹² Shining morning star,^[f](AD)
how you have fallen from the heavens!^(AE)
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground.
¹³ You said to yourself:
“I will ascend to the heavens;^(AF)
I will set up my throne
above the stars of God.^(AG)
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,
in the remotest parts of the North.^[g](AH)
14 I will ascend above the highest clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
¹⁵ But you will be brought down to Sheol
into the deepest regions of the Pit.^(AI)

¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you;
they will look closely at you:
“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
¹⁷ who turned the world into a wilderness,^(AJ)
who destroyed its cities
and would not release the prisoners to return home?”
¹⁸ All the kings of the nations
lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.
¹⁹ But you are thrown out without a grave,
like a worthless branch,
covered by those slain with the sword
and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.
²⁰ You will not join them in burial,
because you destroyed your land
and slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers
will never be remembered.^(AK)
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,
because of the iniquity^(AL) of their fathers.
They will never rise up to possess a land
or fill the surface of the earth with cities.

As I have purposed, so it will be;
as I have planned it, so it will happen.^(AM)
25 I will break Assyria^(AN) in My land;
I will tread him down on My mountain.
Then his yoke will be taken from them,
and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.
²⁶ This is the plan^(AO) prepared
for the whole earth,
and this is the hand stretched out
against all the nations.
²⁷ The Lord of Hosts Himself has planned it;
therefore, who can stand in its way?
It is His hand that is outstretched,
so who can turn it back?

²⁹ Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia,
because the rod of the one who struck you^(AR) is broken.
For a viper will come from the root^[i] of a snake,
and from its egg comes a flying serpent.^(AS)
30 Then the firstborn^(AT) of the poor will be well fed,
and the impoverished will lie down in safety,
but I will kill your root with hunger,
and your remnant will be slain.^[j]
31 Wail, you gates!^(AU) Cry out, city!
Tremble with fear,^(AV) all Philistia!
For a cloud of dust is coming from the north,^(AW)
and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.
³² What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?
The Lord has founded Zion,^(AX)
and His afflicted people find refuge in her.

Ar in Moab is devastated,^(AZ)
destroyed in a night.
Kir in Moab is devastated,
destroyed in a night.
² Dibon went up to its temple
to weep at its high places.
Moab wails on Nebo and at^[k] Medeba.
Every head is shaved;
every beard is cut off.
³ In its streets they wear sackcloth;
on its rooftops and in its public squares everyone wails,
falling down and weeping.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz.^(BA)
Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out,
and they tremble.^[l]
5 My heart cries out over Moab,
whose fugitives flee as far as Zoar,^(BB)
to Eglath-shelishiyah;
they go up the slope of Luhith weeping;
they raise a cry of destruction
on the road to Horonaim.
⁶ The waters of Nimrim^(BC) are desolate;
the grass is withered, the foliage is gone,
and the vegetation has vanished.
⁷ So they carry their wealth and belongings
over the Wadi of the Willows.^(BD)
8 For their cry echoes
throughout the territory of Moab.
Their wailing reaches Eglaim;
their wailing reaches Beer-elim.
⁹ The waters of Dibon^[m] are full of blood,^(BE)
but I will bring on Dibon^[n] even more than this—
a lion for those who escape from Moab,
and for the survivors in the land.^(BF)

16 Send lambs to the ruler of the land,^(BG)
from Sela in the desert^(BH)
to the mountain of Daughter Zion.
² Like a bird fleeing,
forced from the nest,
the daughters of Moab
will be at the fords of the Arnon.

³ Give us counsel and make a decision.
Shelter us at noonday
with shade that is as dark as night.
Hide the refugees;^(BI)
do not betray the one who flees.
⁴ Let my refugees stay with you;
be a refuge for Moab^[o] from the aggressor.

When the oppressor has gone,
destruction has ended,
and marauders have vanished from the land.
⁵ Then in the tent of David
a throne will be established by faithful love.^(BJ)
A judge who seeks what is right
and is quick to execute justice
will sit on the throne forever.

⁶ We have heard of Moab’s pride^(BK)—
how very proud he is—
his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance,
and his empty boasting.
⁷ Therefore let Moab wail;
let every one of them wail for Moab.
Mourn, you who are completely devastated,
for the raisin cakes^(BL) of Kir-hareseth.^(BM)
8 For Heshbon’s terraced vineyards
and the grapevines of Sibmah have withered.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled its choice vines
that reached as far as Jazer^(BN)
and spread to the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and reached the Dead Sea.^(BO)
9 So I join with Jazer
to weep for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears.
Triumphant shouts have fallen silent^[p]
over your summer fruit and your harvest.
¹⁰ Joy and rejoicing^(BP) have been removed from the orchard;
no one is singing or shouting for joy in the vineyards.^(BQ)
No one tramples grapes^[q] in the winepresses.
I have put an end to the shouting.
¹¹ Therefore I moan like the sound of a lyre for Moab,^(BR)
as does my innermost being for Kir-heres.
¹² When Moab appears on the high place,
when he tires^[r] himself out^(BS)
and comes to his sanctuary to pray,
it will do him no good.^(BT)