Prophecy concerning Babylon

The doom of Babylon

13 Oracle on Babylon: a vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz.

2 On a bare height raise the signal,

and cry aloud to them.

Wave you the hand that they enter

the gates of those lordly men.

3 I have myself commissioned

my consecrated servants

to execute my anger.

Yea, I have summoned my warriors,

my proudly exultant ones.

4 Hark! On the hills a tumult

as of a mighty multitude.

Hark! It’s the roar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together.

The Lord of Hosts is mustering

his army for the battle.

5 They come from a distant land,

from the uttermost end of heaven –

the Lord, with his weapons of wrath,

to ruin all the earth.

6 Wail! For the day of the Lord is nigh,

like destruction from God Almighty it comes.

7 All hands will therefore hang helpless,

each mortal heart will melt,

8 and men will be confounded.

Taken with throes and pangs,

they will writhe like a woman in travail.

They will look on each other astonished,

with faces all aflame.

9 Behold! The Lord comes,

with wrath and hot anger cruel,

to make earth a desolation

and destroy the sinners upon it.

10 The heavens and their constellations

will not flash any light;

the sun will be dark when it rises,

no light of moon will shine.

11 I will punish the world for its evil,

the godless for their guilt;

I will still the conceit of the arrogant,

the tyrant’s pride lay low.

12 And men will be rarer than gold,

yea, mortals than gold of Ophir.

13 The heavens will therefore tremble,

and the earth quake out of her place,

at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts

in the day of the heat of his anger.

14 And then, like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep that have no one to fold them,

will each set his face to his people,

and each to his own land flee.

15 Whoso is found will be stabbed,

by the sword he will fall who is caught.

16 Their babes will be dashed in pieces

before their very eyes;

their houses will be plundered,

and ravished their wives will be.

17 Behold! I already am stirring

the people of media against them:

no thought have they of silver,

no pleasure take they in gold.

18 (They grasp their) bows (and spears,

fearful are they and cruel;

they will smite) the young men (all,

and the maids) will be dashed in pieces.

To the fruit of the womb they are ruthless,

and children they eye without pity.

19 Thus Babylon, fairest of kingdoms,

the glory and pride of Chaldea,

will perish with doom like the doom

to which God hurled Gomorrah and Sodom.

20 For ever she will be desolate,

tenantless age after age.

No nomad will pitch his tent there,

no shepherd will fold his flock there;

21 but there will wild cats lie,

and their homes will be crowded with jackals.

And there will ostriches dwell,

and there will satyrs dance,

22 hyenas will howl in her castles,

and wolves in her halls of delight.

Her time is wellnigh come,

her day lasts not much longer.

Song of triumph over the fall of Babylon’s king

14 For the Lord will take pity on Jacob, he will elect Israel once more and settle them on their own land: resident foreigners will join them and attach themselves to the household 2 of Jacob. (Foreign) people will take them and bring them to their place; and the household of Israel will employ them in the Lord’s land as men-servants and maid-servants, thus reducing their erstwhile captors to captivity, and lording it over those who had been their taskmasters.

3 Then, in the day that the Lord gives you rest from your toil and turmoil and from the hard service that was 4 laid upon you, you will take up this taunt-song over the King of Babylon, and say:

how still the oppressor is grown!

How still is the insolent raging!

5 The Lord has broken the staff

of the godless, the sceptre of tyrants,

6 who smote the peoples in fury

with unremitting stroke,

who trod down the nations in anger

with unrelenting tread.

7 All earth is at rest, is quiet,

they break into happy cries.

8 Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at they fate,

and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you have been laid low,

no woodsman is come to destroy us.’

9 Sheol beneath is a-quiver,

awaiting your arrival;

she rousted the shades to greet the –

all who were chieftains on earth.

All the kings of the nations

she bids arise from their thrones.

10 All of them lift up their voices,

and thus they say unto you:

‘So you, too, are feeble as we;

you are become like us.’

11 your pomp has been brought down to Sheol –

the strumming of your lutes:

beneath you the maggots are spread,

your coverlet is worms.

12 How are you fallen from heaven,

you radiant son of the morning!

How are you struck to the ground,

lying stiff, a corpse upon corpses.

13 And you, you did say in your heart,

‘Into heaven I will ascend;

I will set my throne on high

above the stars of God,

and sit on the sacred mountain

in the uttermost parts of the north.

14 I will climb above the cloud-peaks,

and rival the Most High.’

15 But down you are brought to Sheol,

to the very depths of the pit.

16 They who see you will gaze and gaze,

they will ask with eyes intent,

‘Is this the man who startled the earth

and sent tremors through her kingdoms?

17 Who made the world like a desert,

and overthrew her cities;

who left not his prisoners free,

to return each man to his home?’

18 Now in their honoured tombs

all the kings of the nations are lying;

19 but you are cast forth, tombless,

like a hateful untimely birth,

clothed upon with the slain,

whose bodies the sword has pierced,

who go down to the floor of the pit,

like a carcase trodden under foot.

20 You will not be joined unto them

in the place where they lie buried;

because you have ruined your land,

your people you have slaughtered.

May it never be named again –

the race of this evil-doer.

21 Get ready the knife for his sons,

to atone for the guilt of their father;

lest they rise and posses the earth,

and fill the face of the world.

22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Hosts, cut off from Babylon record and remnant, kith and kin, says the Lord. And I will make it a possession of the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, says the Lord of Hosts.