Isaiah 13:10-22 ▼

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash with their light; The sun will be dark when it rises, And the moon will not shed its light.

11 In this way I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing]; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And will abase the arrogance of the tyrant.

12 I will make mortal man more rare than fine gold, And mankind [scarcer] than the pure gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; And the earth will be shaken from its place At the wrath of the LORD of hosts In the day of His burning anger.

14 And like the hunted gazelle, Or like sheep that no man gathers, Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people, And each one flee to his own land.

15 Anyone who is found will be pierced through, And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

16 Their children also will be smashed to pieces Before their eyes; Their houses will be looted And their wives ravished.

17 Listen carefully, I will put the Medes [in motion] against them, Who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and therefore cannot be bribed].

18 Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon]; They will take no pity on the fruit of the womb, Their eyes will not look with compassion on the children.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

20 Babylon will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will the shepherds let their sheep lie down there.

21 But desert creatures will lie down there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches also will live there, and wild goats will dance there.

22 Hyenas will howl in their castles, And jackals in their luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time has nearly come, And her days will not be prolonged.