13:1  THE MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Babylon which Isaiah son of Amoz saw [with prophetic insight]:

13:2  Raise up a signal banner upon the high {and} bare mountain, summon them [the Medes and Persians] with loud voice and beckoning hand that they may enter the gates of the [Babylonian] nobles.

13:3  I Myself [says the Lord] have commanded My designated ones and have summoned My mighty men to execute My anger, even My proudly exulting ones [the Medes and Persians]--those who are made to triumph for My honor.

13:4  Hark, the uproar of a multitude in the mountains, like that of a great people! The noise of the tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering the host for the battle.

13:5  They come from a distant country, from the uttermost part of the heavens [the far east]--even the Lord and the weapons of His indignation--to seize {and} destroy the whole land.

13:6  Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty {and} Sufficient One [Shaddai] will it come!

13:7  Therefore will all hands be feeble, and every man's heart will melt.

13:8  And they [of Babylon] shall be dismayed and terrified, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in childbirth. They will gaze stupefied {and} aghast at one another, their faces will be aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare].

13:9  Behold, the day of the Lord is coming!--fierce, with wrath and raging anger--to make the land {and} the [whole] earth a desolation and to destroy out of it its sinners.

13:10  For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened at its rising and the moon will not shed its light.

13:11  And I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their guilt {and} iniquity; I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible {and} the boasting of the violent {and} ruthless.

13:12  I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and mankind scarcer than the pure gold of Ophir.

13:13  Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth shall be shaken out of its place at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of His fierce anger.

13:14  And like the chased roe {or} gazelle, and like sheep that no man gathers, each [foreign resident] will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land.

13:15  Everyone who is found will be thrust through, and everyone who is connected with the slain {and} is caught will fall by the sword.

13:16  Their infants also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.

13:17  Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and thus cannot be bribed].

13:18  Their bows will cut down the young men [of Babylon]; and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eyes will not spare children.

13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.

13:20  [Babylon] shall never be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arab pitch his tent there, nor shall the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.

13:21  But wild beasts of the desert will lie down there, and the people's houses will be full of dolefully howling creatures; and ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats [like demons] will dance there.

13:22  And wolves {and} howling creatures will cry {and} answer in the deserted castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. And [Babylon's] time has nearly come, and her days will not be prolonged.