The burden concerning  ¹Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

Upon a bare mountain raise up a standard;
Lift up your voice to them.
Wave your hand that they may enter
The gates of the nobles.

I Myself have commanded My sanctified ones;
I have also called My mighty ones to My wrath,
Those who exult in My majesty.

The sound of a tumult in the mountains,
Like that of many peoples!
The sound of an uproar of the kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
Jehovah of hosts is mustering
An army for battle.

They are coming from a distant land,
From the ends of heaven —
Jehovah and the instruments of His indignation —
To ruin all the land.

Howl, for the  ¹day of Jehovah has drawn near!
As destruction from the Almighty, it will come.

Because of this all the hands will drop,
And every human heart will melt;

And people will be dismayed.
Pangs and anguish will seize them;
Like a woman giving birth, they will writhe.
Each man will look toward his neighbor dumbfounded;
Their faces are inflamed.

Now the day of Jehovah is coming —
Cruel and with overflowing wrath and burning anger —
To make the land a desolation;
And He will destroy its sinners off of it.

For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not shine forth their light;
The sun will be dark at its rising,
And the moon will not let its light shine.

And I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will stop the arrogance of the proud,
And the haughtiness of the terrible I will abase.

I will make mortal man rarer than pure gold,
And mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.

Hence, I will make the heavens shake,
And the earth will quake out of its place,
At the overflowing wrath of Jehovah of hosts,
In the day of His burning anger.

And like the hunted gazelle
And sheep without someone to gather them,
Each man will turn to his own people,
And each will flee to his own land.

Everyone found will be pierced through,
And everyone caught will fall by the sword.

And their little ones will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered,
And their wives will be attacked.

Now  ¹I rouse up the Medes against them,
Who will not esteem silver highly,
Nor take delight in gold.

Their bows will shatter the young men;
And they will not have compassion on the fruit of the womb:
Their eyes will have no pity on children.

And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms,
The glory of the Chaldeans' majesty,
Will be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah:

It will not be inhabited forever;
It will not be dwelt in from generation to generation.
And the Arab will not set up his tent there,
Nor will the shepherds make their flocks lie down there.

But desert animals will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of  ¹wild dogs;
There ostriches will dwell,
And  ²wild goats will prance there;

Hyenas will respond in their  ¹citadels,
And jackals in their exquisite palaces.
Her time is about to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.

When Jehovah has  ¹compassion on Jacob and again chooses Israel and settles them in their land, the sojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

And nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will take possession of them in the land of Jehovah as male and female servants; and they will lead captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.

In the day when Jehovah gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the hard service that was done by you as slaves,

You will lift up this discourse concerning the king of Babylon and you will say:
How the oppressor has ceased!
How the  ¹raging has ceased!

Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked,
The rod of rulers;

That struck the peoples in wrath,
With strikes that would not stop;
That ruled the nations in anger,
With pursuit that would not let up.

All the earth rests and is undisturbed;
They break forth with a ringing shout.

Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon:
Since you are brought down, no tree cutter
Will come up against us.

Sheol beneath is excited because of you,
That it will meet you when you come.
It rouses the dead because of you,
All the  ¹great ones of the earth.
It makes all the kings of the nations
Rise from their thrones.

All of them will respond
And say to you,
Even you have been weakened, just as we have;
You have become like us.

Your majesty has been brought down to Sheol,
Even the sound of your harps.
Beneath you maggots are spread;
Worms are your covering.

How you have fallen from heaven,
O  ¹Daystar, son of the dawn!
How you have been hewn down to earth,
You who made nations fall prostrate!

But you, you said in your heart:
 ¹I will ascend to heaven;
Above the stars of God
I will exalt my throne.
And I will sit upon the mount of assembly
In the  ²uttermost parts of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.

But you will be brought down to  ¹Sheol,
To the uttermost parts of the pit.

Those who see you will gaze at you;
They will ponder concerning you, asking,
Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
The one who shook kingdoms;

Who made the world like a wilderness
And tore down its cities;
Who did not release his captives to their homes?

All the kings of the nations,
All of them, lie in glory,
Each in his own house.

But you have been thrown out away from your tomb,
Like some shoot that is viewed with disgust;
Or like the garments of the slain, of those pierced with the sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit;
Like a corpse that has been trampled under.

You shall not be united with them in burial,
For you have destroyed your land,
You have slain your people;
The seed of evildoers
Will never be renowned.

Prepare a slaughterhouse for his children
Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
So that they do not rise up and possess the land,
And fill the surface of the world with cities.

And I will rise up against them,
Declares Jehovah of hosts.
And I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant,
And posterity and progeny, declares Jehovah.

And I will make it a possession for porcupines
And muddied pools of water,
And I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,
Declares Jehovah of hosts.

Jehovah of hosts has sworn, saying,
Surely just as I conceived it, so has it happened;
And just as I have purposed it, so shall this stand,

That I will break Assyria in My land,
And upon My mountains I will trample him.
Then his yoke will be taken off of them,
And his burden will be removed from off their shoulders.

This is the purpose that I have purposed over all the earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

For Jehovah of hosts has purposed it, and who will frustrate it?
And thus His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

In the year that King Ahaz died this burden came:

Do not rejoice, all of you, Philistia,
That the rod that strikes you is broken,
For from the serpent's root a viper will come forth,
And his fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.

And the poorest of the poor will feed,
And the needy will lie down securely.
And I will kill your root by famine,
And he will slay your remnant.

Howl, O gate! Cry out, O city!
The whole of you, Philistia, is melted away.
For from the north smoke has come,
And there are no stragglers in his ranks.

And what shall one answer this nation's messengers?
That Jehovah has founded Zion,
And in her the poor of His people take refuge.

The burden concerning Moab:
Indeed in a night it is devastated —
Ar of Moab is cut off.
Indeed in a night it is devastated —
Kir of Moab is cut off.

They have gone up to their temple and to Dibon,
That is, to their high places, to weep.
Over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab howls;
Upon all their heads is baldness;
Every beard is shaved off.

In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth;
On their roofs
And in their open squares everyone will howl,
Melting in tears.

And Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz.
Because of this the armed men of Moab raise a cry;
Their soul quivers within them.

My heart cries out for Moab;
Its fugitives reach as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah:
By the ascent of Luhith
With weeping they will go up;
On the way that leads to Horonaim
They will raise up a cry of destruction;

The waters of Nimrim
Will be a devastation;
The foliage will be dried up, the grass wasted away;
There will be nothing green.

As a result, the abundance they have produced
And placed in reserve
Will be carried off
To the poplar brook.

For the cry has gone about
The border of Moab;
Their howling goes as far as Eglaim,
Even to Beer-elim their howling reaches.

For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
For I will bring upon Dimon additional things:
Lions upon those in Moab who escape
And upon the remnant of the land.