| New King James Version | NET Bible |
| 1The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. | 1This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz: |
| 2“Lift up a banner on the high mountain, Raise your voice to them; Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. | 2On a bare hill raise a signal flag, shout to them, wave your hand, so they might enter the gates of the princes! |
| 3I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger— Those who rejoice in My exaltation.” | 3I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, my boasting, arrogant ones. |
| 4The noise of a multitude in the mountains, Like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters The army for battle. | 4There is a loud noise on the mountains--it sounds like a large army! There is great commotion among the kingdoms--nations are being assembled! The LORD who commands armies is mustering forces for battle. |
| 5They come from a far country, From the end of heaven— The LORD and His weapons of indignation, To destroy the whole land. | 5They come from a distant land, from the horizon. It is the LORD with his instruments of judgment, coming to destroy the whole earth. |
| 6Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. | 6Wail, for the LORD's day of judgment is near; it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge. |
| 7Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt, | 7For this reason all hands hang limp, every human heart loses its courage. |
| 8And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. | 8They panic--cramps and pain seize hold of them like those of a woman who is straining to give birth. They look at one another in astonishment; their faces are flushed red. |
| 9Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. | 9Look, the LORD's day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners. |
| 10For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. | 10Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine. |
| 11“I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. | 11I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. |
| 12I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. | 12I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold, and people more scarce than gold from Ophir. |
| 13Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger. | 13So I will shake the heavens, and the earth will shake loose from its foundation, because of the fury of the LORD who commands armies, in the day he vents his raging anger. |
| 14It shall be as the hunted gazelle, And as a sheep that no man takes up; Every man will turn to his own people, And everyone will flee to his own land. | 14Like a frightened gazelle or a sheep with no shepherd, each will turn toward home, each will run to his homeland. |
| 15Everyone who is found will be thrust through, And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. | 15Everyone who is caught will be stabbed; everyone who is seized will die by the sword. |
| 16Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; Their houses will be plundered And their wives ravished. | 16Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives raped. |
| 17“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it. | 17Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them; they are not concerned about silver, nor are they interested in gold. |
| 18Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children. | 18Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; they have no compassion on a person's offspring, they will not look with pity on children. |
| 19And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. | 19Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms, the Chaldeans' source of honor and pride, will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. |
| 20It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation; Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. | 20No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. No bedouin will camp there, no shepherds will rest their flocks there. |
| 21But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches will dwell there, And wild goats will caper there. | 21Wild animals will rest there, the ruined houses will be full of hyenas. Ostriches will live there, wild goats will skip among the ruins. |
| 22The hyenas will howl in their citadels, And jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her days will not be prolonged.” | 22Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses, jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. Her time is almost up, her days will not be prolonged. |
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