| 1 | The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. |
| 2 | Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. |
| 3 | I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. |
| 4 | The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations assembled: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. |
| 5 | They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. |
| 6 | Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. |
| 7 | Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: |
| 8 | And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. |
| 9 | Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he will destroy its sinners out of it. |
| 10 | For the stars of heaven and its constellations shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. |
| 11 | And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. |
| 12 | I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. |
| 13 | Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. |
| 14 | And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one to his own land. |
| 15 | Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword. |
| 16 | Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be plundered, and their wives ravished. |
| 17 | Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. |
| 18 | Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. |
| 19 | And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellence, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. |
| 20 | It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. |
| 21 | But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. |
| 22 | And the wild beasts of the isles shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. |