Babylon Will Be Punished

13 The special word about Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw: ² Lift up a flag on the hill without trees. Call out to the people. Wave the hand for them to go into the gates of the princes. ³ I have told My holy ones, and My powerful soldiers who take pride in their strength, to carry out My anger. ⁴ Listen to the noise on the mountains, like that of many people! Listen to the loud sound of the many people, of nations gathered together! The Lord of All is gathering an army for battle. ⁵ They are coming from a far country, from the end of the heavens. The Lord and all He is using to show His anger are coming to destroy the whole land. ⁶ Cry out in sorrow, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as a destroying power from the All-powerful. ⁷ So all hands will become weak, and every man’s heart will melt. ⁸ They will be filled with fear. Pain and suffering will take hold of them. They will suffer like a woman giving birth. They will look surprised at one another, their faces burning. ⁹ See, the day of the Lord is coming, without pity and with much anger. He is coming to destroy the land and its sinners from it. ¹⁰ The stars of heaven and every group of stars will not give out their light. The sun will be dark when it comes up, and the moon will not give its light. ¹¹ This is how I will punish the world for its sin, and the sinful for their wrong-doing. I will also put an end to those who are proud. And I will put to shame those who make it hard for others and show no pity. ¹² I will make men so few that they will be of more worth than pure gold, even the gold of Ophir. ¹³ I will make the heavens shake. And the earth will be shaken from its place with the anger of the Lord of All in the day of His burning anger. ¹⁴ Every man will turn to his own people and run to his own land like a hunted gazelle or like sheep with no shepherd. ¹⁵ Anyone who is found will have a spear put through him. And anyone who is caught will fall by the sword. ¹⁶ Their little ones will be broken in pieces in front of their eyes. Their things will be taken from their houses. And their wives will be carried away.

¹⁷ See, I am going to make the Medes go against them, who will not want silver or be happy with gold. ¹⁸ Their bows will cut down the young men. They will have no pity on babies. Their eyes will not pity children. ¹⁹ And Babylon, the beauty of nations, the shining-greatness and pride of the Babylonians, will be as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰ People will never live in it again, even all the people-to-come. No Arab will set up his tent there. No shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. ²¹ But wild animals of the desert will lie down there. Their houses will be full of owls. Ostriches will live there, and wild goats will play there. ²² Hyenas will make noise in their strong towers, and wild dogs in their beautiful houses. The end of her time is near. Her days will be few.

Loving-Pity on Jacob

14 The Lord will have loving-pity on Jacob and will again choose Israel. He will have them return to live in their own land. Then people from other countries will come and be with them, and will join themselves to the family of Jacob. ² Nations will take them and bring them to their place. The family of Israel will own them in the Lord’s land as men and women servants. They will take those who had taken them away and they will rule over those who had made it hard for them.

Babylon’s King in the World of the Dead

³ When the Lord gives you rest from your pain and trouble and the hard work which you were made to do, ⁴ you will speak against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the one who made it hard for us has been stopped! How his anger has been stopped! ⁵ The Lord has broken the walking stick of the sinful, the power of rulers, ⁶ which used to beat the people in anger without stopping. The nations were ruled in anger. It was very hard for the people and there was no pity shown to them.

⁷ “Now the whole earth is at rest and quiet. They sing out with joy. ⁸ Even the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon are glad over you, and say, ‘Since you were cut down no one comes to cut us down.’ ⁹ The world of the dead below wants to meet you when you come. It wakes up the spirits of the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth. It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. ¹⁰ All of them will speak and say to you, ‘Even you have become as weak as we. You have become like us. ¹¹ Your honor and power along with the music of your harps have been brought down to the place of the dead. Worms are spread out as your bed under you and worms cover you.’

¹² “How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have made the nations weak! ¹³ You said in your heart, ‘I will go up to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. And I will sit on the mount of meeting in the far north. ¹⁴ I will go much higher than the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.’ ¹⁵ But you will be brought down to the place of the dead, to the bottom of the grave. ¹⁶ Those who see you will look hard at you and think about you, and say, ‘Is this the man who made the earth shake with fear, who shook nations? ¹⁷ Is this the man who made the world like a desert and destroyed its cities, who did not let those whom he had put in prison go home?’

¹⁸ “All the kings of the nations lie in greatness, each in his own grave. ¹⁹ But you have been thrown out of your grave like a hated part of the family. You are clothed with the dead who were killed with a sword, who go down to the stones of the grave, like a dead body crushed under foot. ²⁰ You will not be joined with them when you are buried, because you have destroyed your country. You have killed your people. May the children of sinners never be spoken about again! ²¹ Make a place ready for his sons to be killed because of the sin of their fathers. They must not come into power and take the earth, and fill the world with cities.”

God Will Destroy Babylon

²² “I will come against them,” says the Lord of All. “And I will cut off from Babylon its name and people, its children and their children,” says the Lord. ²³ “I will turn it into a place for hedgehogs, full of pools of water. And I will go over it and destroy it,” says the Lord of All.

God Will Destroy the Assyrians

²⁴ The Lord of All has promised, “It will happen just as I have planned it. As I have planned, so will it be. ²⁵ I will break Assyria in My land. I will crush him under foot on My mountains. Then his load will be taken from My people. His load will be taken from their shoulder.” ²⁶ This is the plan made against the whole earth and this is the hand that is put out against all the nations. ²⁷ For the Lord of All has planned, and who can keep it from happening? Who can turn His hand back?

God Will Destroy the Philistines

²⁸ In the year that King Ahaz died this special word came: ²⁹ “Do not be glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the special stick that made it hard for you is broken. One snake dies and a worse one comes, a snake that can fly. ³⁰ The poor will eat. Those in need will lie down and be safe. I will destroy all of you with hunger and it will kill those who are left. ³¹ Cry out, O gate. Cry, O city. All you Philistines are weak in heart. For smoke comes from the north, and everyone keeps his place in his army. ³² What answer will be given to the men sent by the nation? That the Lord is the builder of Zion, and it will be a safe place for His people who are poor and troubled.”

God Will Destroy Moab

15 The special word against Moab: Ar of Moab is destroyed and laid waste in a night. And in a night Kir of Moab is destroyed and laid waste. ² They have gone up to the house of worship and to Dibon. They have gone to the high places to cry. Moab cries over Nebo and Medeba. The hair has been cut from everyone’s head and face. ³ In their streets they have dressed themselves with cloth made from hair. On the tops of their houses and in their open spaces everyone is crying with many tears. ⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out also. Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz. So the soldiers of Moab cry out. Moab’s soul shakes within him. ⁵ My heart cries out for Moab. His men have run away as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah. For they go up the hill of Luhith crying. On the road to Horonaim they cry in sorrow over their being destroyed. ⁶ For the waters of Nimrim have been laid waste. The grass is dried up. The new grass died out. There is no green thing. ⁷ So the many things they have gathered and stored up they carry away over the river of Arabim. ⁸ The cry of sorrow has gone around the land of Moab. Its noise is heard as far as Eglaim and Beer-elim. ⁹ The waters of Dimon are full of blood. Yet I will bring more troubles to Dimon. I will bring a lion upon those of Moab who have run away, and upon the people of the land who are still alive.

Moab Is without Hope

16 Send lambs as taxes to the ruler of the land, from Sela by the way of the desert to the mountain of the people of Zion. ² Then, like birds driven from their nest, the people of Moab will be where the Arnon River can be crossed. ³ “Give us words of wisdom. Do what is right for us. Make your shadow like night at noonday. Hide those who have been sent away. Do not go against those who are running for their lives. ⁴ Let those of Moab who have been sent away stay with you. Hide them from the one who destroys.” For the one who uses sinful power has come to an end, and trouble has stopped. Those who make it hard for the people have gone from the land. ⁵ A throne will be set up in loving-kindness. A faithful judge will sit on it from the family of David. He will be fair as he judges, and will be quick to do what is right and good.

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab, how very proud he is. We have heard of how proud he is of himself and of his anger. His proud words are false. ⁷ So Moab will cry out. Everyone of Moab will cry out. You will cry for the dried-grape cakes of Kir-hareseth, as if you were in the worst trouble. ⁸ The fields of Heshbon and the vines of Sibmah have dried up. The lords of the nations have crushed under foot its best vines, which went as far as Jazer and the desert. They spread themselves out and passed over the sea. ⁹ So I will cry with much sorrow for Jazer and for the vines of Sibmah. I will make you wet with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, because there is nothing to gather from your summer fruits. ¹⁰ Happiness and joy are taken away from the field that gives much fruit. No songs are sung in the grape-fields. No one crushes grapes to make wine, for I have stopped the cry of joy. ¹¹ So my heart cries with sorrow for Moab like a harp. Inside myself I cry for Kir-hareseth. ¹² When Moab goes to his high place, he will only become tired. When he goes to his holy place to pray, it will do him no good.

¹³ This is the word which the Lord spoke before about Moab. ¹⁴ But now the Lord says, “In three years, as a servant would count them, the shining-greatness of Moab and all his many people will be hated. And those left alive will be very few and weak.”

God Will Destroy Damascus

17 The special word about Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city. It will be destroyed and laid waste. ² The cities of Aroer are left empty. They will be for the flocks to lie down in, and no one will make them afraid. ³ The strong city will be gone from Ephraim. Damascus will no longer rule. And those of Syria who are left alive will be like the shining-greatness of the sons of Israel,” says the Lord of All.

⁴ In that day Jacob will lose his shining-greatness. And he will lose the fat of his flesh. ⁵ It will be like one who gathers the standing grain, taking the ears of grain with his arm or like one who gathers the ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim. ⁶ Yet some good will be left in it, as when an olive tree is shaken. There will still be two or three olives on the highest branch, and four or five on the branches of a tree that gives much fruit, says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day man will turn to his Maker. His eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands. He will not look to what his fingers have made, or to the false goddess Asherah and the altars of special perfume.

⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like places left empty among the trees, or like high branches which they left behind because of the sons of Israel. The land will be laid waste. ¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God Who saves you. You have not remembered the rock where you are safe. So you plant beautiful plants, and put them with the vine-cuttings of a strange god. ¹¹ In the day that you plant it you fence it in, and in the morning your seed is growing. But its fruit will waste away in a day of sickness and pain which cannot be healed.

Other Nations Are Like Grain Worth Nothing

¹² Listen to the cry of sorrow of many people. They sound like the noise of the seas and the noise of nations! They sound like the rushing of powerful waters. ¹³ The nations move on like the noise of many waters. But God will speak sharp words to them and they will run far away. They will be blown away like the part of grain that is of no worth by the wind in the mountains. They will be like dust blown around in a storm. ¹⁴ At evening time there is much fear! Before morning, they are gone. This will be what will come to those who take what belongs to us. It will be what happens to those who rob us.