Isaiah 13

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Isaiah receives a prophetic message concerning the impending destruction of Babylon. The Lord mobilizes a vast army from faraway lands, consisting of His summoned warriors, to execute His wrath upon the country and punish the world for its evil. This approaching Day of the LORD brings terror, pain, and darkness, causing the stars, sun, and moon to withhold their light while the earth and heavens tremble. Panic seizes the population, leading individuals to flee toward their native lands like hunted gazelles, though those who are captured face death by the sword, alongside the slaughter of infants and the plundering of houses. To accomplish this, the Lord stirs up the Medes, who show no mercy toward young men, children, or infants. Ultimately, Babylon, described as the glory of the Chaldeans, is overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving the city permanently uninhabited by humans and populated instead by desert animals, ostriches, hyenas, and jackals.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received: ²Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. ³I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph. ⁴Listen, 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. ⁵They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens— the LORD and the weapons of His wrath— to destroy the whole country. ⁶Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. ⁸Terror, 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. ⁹Behold, 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. ¹⁰For 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. ¹¹I 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. ¹²I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir. ¹³Therefore 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. ¹⁴Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land. ¹⁵Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword. ¹⁶Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished. ¹⁷Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold. ¹⁸Their 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. ¹⁹And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there. ²¹But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about. ²²Hyenas 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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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.