Isaiah 13:1-13 ▼

1 A pronouncement concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

2 Lift up a banner on a barren mountain. Call out to them. Signal with your hand, and they will go through the gates of the nobles.

3 I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my warriors, who celebrate my triumph, to execute my wrath.

4 Listen, a commotion on the mountains, like that of a mighty people! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations being gathered together! The LORD of Armies is mobilizing an army for war.

5 They are coming from a distant land, from the farthest horizon — the LORD and the weapons of his wrath — to destroy the whole country.

6 Wail! For the day of the LORD is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak, and every man will lose heart.

8 They will be horrified; pain and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look at each other, their faces flushed with fear.

9 Look, the day of the LORD is coming — cruel, with fury and burning anger — to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners.

10 Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.

11 I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their iniquities. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.

12 I will make a human more scarce than fine gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the LORD of Armies, on the day of his burning anger.