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ISAIAH CHAPTER 13 AND 16
A PROPHECY AGAINST BABYLON
13: 1: An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
2: Raise a banner on a bare hilltop;shout to them, beckon to them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
3: I have commanded my holy ones; I have summoned my warriors to carry out
my wrath---those who rejoice in m triumph.
4: Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen,
an uproar among the kingdoms, like the nations massing together! The Lord
Almighty is mustering an army for war.
5: They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens - 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 like destruction from
the Almighty.
7: Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man's heart will melt.
8: Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them, they will writhe
like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.
9: See, the day of the Lord is coming - a cruel day, wtih wrath and fierce
anger - to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.
10: The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give it's light.
11: I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will
put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the
ruthless.
12: I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir.
13: Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from
it splace at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning
anger.
14: Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, each will return
to his own people, each will flee to his native land.
15: Whoever is captured will be thrust through, all who are caught will fall
by the sword.
16: Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses
will be looted and their wives ravished.
17: See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver
and have no delight in gold.
18. Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on
infants nor will they look with compassion on children.
19: Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians' pride,
will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gommorah.
20: She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations, no Arab
will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there.
21: But desert creatures will be there, jackals will fill her houses; there
the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about.
22: Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces.
Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
CHAPTER 16
1: Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the
desert, to the mount of the Daughter of Zion.
2: Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at
the fords of the Arnon.
3: Give us counsel, render a decision. Make your shadow like night - at high
noon. Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees.
4: let the Moabite fugitives stay with you, be their shelter from the destroyer.
The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor
will vanish from the land.
5: In love a throne will be established, in faithfulness a man will sit on
it - one from the house of David - one who in judging seeks justice and speeds
the cause of righteousness.
6: We have heard of Moab's pride- her overweening pride and conceit, her
pride and her insolence - but her boasts are empty.
7: Therefore the Moabites wail, they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve
for the men of Kir Haneseth.
8: The fields of Heshbon wither, the vines of Sibmah also. The rulers of the
nations have trampled down the choiced vines, which once reached Jazer and
spread toward the desert. Their shoots spread out and went as far as the
sea.
9: So I weep, as Jazer weeps, for the vines of Sibmah. O Heshbon, O Elealeh,
I drench you with tears! The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit and over
your harvests have been stilled.
10: Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards, no one sings or shouts
in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses, for I have put an
end to the shouting.
11: My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.
12: When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when
she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail.
13: This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab.
14: But now the Lord says: "Within three years, as a servant bound by contract
would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised,
and her survivors will be very few and feeble."
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