1 ARST I, Isaiah son of Amoz, received from Yahweh this message about the city of Babylon: BSB BSB: This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:
2 ARST Lift up a flag on the bare top of a hill, to signal that an army should come to attack Babylon. Shout to them and wave your hand to signal to them that they should march through the city gates into the palaces of the proud rulers of Babylon! BSB BSB: Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
3 ARST Yahweh says,“I have commanded those who are set apart to do this work for me— I have summoned the warriors whom I have chosen to punish the people of Babylon because I am very angry with them, and those soldiers will be very proud when they do that.” BSB BSB: I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.
4 ARST Listen to the noise on the mountains, which is the noise of a huge army marching! It is the noise made by people of many people groups shouting. Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, has summoned this army to gather together. BSB BSB: Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.
5 ARST They come from countries that are far away, from the most remote places on the earth. They are like weapons that Yahweh will use to punish the people with whom he is very angry, and to destroy the entire country of Babylonia. BSB BSB: They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country.
6 ARST You people of Babylon will scream because you will be terrified, because it will be the time that Yahweh has determined, the time for the all- powerful God to destroy your city. BSB BSB: Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 ARST Because that will happen, all of your people will be very afraid, with the result that they will be unable even to lift their arms. BSB BSB: Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.
8 ARST All of you will be terrified. You will have severe pains like a woman has when she is giving birth to a baby. You will look at each other helplessly, and it will show on your faces that you feel horror. BSB BSB: Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
9 ARST Listen to this, you people of Babylon: The day that Yahweh has chosen to act is near, the day on which he will furiously and fiercely punish you because he is very angry with you. He will cause your land of Babylonia to be desolate, and he will destroy all the sinners in it. BSB BSB: Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it.
10 ARST When that happens, none of the stars will shine. When the sun rises, it will be dark, and there will be no light from the moon at night. BSB BSB: For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
11 ARST Yahweh says,“I will punish everyone in the world for the evil things that they do; I will punish the wicked people for the sins that they have committed. I will stop arrogant people from being proud, and I will stop cruel people from being so arrogant. BSB BSB: I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
12 ARST And because I will cause most people to die, people will be harder to find than gold, harder to find than fine gold from Ophir in Arabia. BSB BSB: I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
13 ARST I will shake the sky, and the earth will also move out of its place. That will happen when I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, punish wicked people, when I show them that I am extremely angry with them. BSB BSB: Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger.
14 ARST All the foreigners in Babylon will run around like deer that are being hunted, like sheep that do not have a shepherd. They will try to find other people from their countries, and then they will escape from Babylon and return to their own countries. BSB BSB: Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.
15 ARST Anyone who is captured in Babylon will be killed by their enemies’ swords. BSB BSB: Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.
17 ARST Look! I am going to incite the people of Media to attack Babylon. The army of Media will attack Babylon, even if they are offered silver or gold if they promise to not attack it. BSB BSB: Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
18 ARST With their arrows, the soldiers of Media will shoot the young men of Babylon; they will not even act mercifully toward infants or children!” BSB BSB: Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children.
19 ARST Babylon has been a very beautiful city; all the people of Babylonia have been very proud of Babylon, their capital city; but God will destroy Babylon, like he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. BSB BSB: And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 ARST No one will ever live in Babylon again. It will be deserted forever. Nomads will refuse to set up their tents there; shepherds will not bring their flocks of sheep to rest there. BSB BSB: She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
21 ARST Animals that live in the desert will be there; jackals will live in the ruins of the houses. Owls will live in the ruins, and ostriches and wild goats will romp around there. BSB BSB: But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.
22 ARST Hyenas will howl in the ruined towers, and jackals will make their dens in the ruins of the palaces that were previously very beautiful. The time when Babylon will be destroyed is very near; Babylon will not exist much longer. BSB BSB: Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
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