1. This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz:
2. On a bare hill raise a signal flag,shout to them,wave your hand,so they might enter the gates of the princes!
3. I have given orders to my chosen soldiers;I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, my boasting, arrogant ones.
4. There is a loud noise on the mountains – it sounds like a large army!There is great commotion among the kingdoms – nations are being assembled!The Lord who commands armies is musteringforces for battle.
5. They come from a distant land,from the horizon.It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment,coming to destroy the whole earth.
6. Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment is near;it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge.
7. For this reason all hands hang limp,every human heart loses its courage.
8. They panic – cramps and pain seize hold of themlike those of a woman who is straining to give birth.They look at one another in astonishment;their faces are flushed red.
9. Look, the Lord’s day of judgment is coming;it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger,destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.
10. Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellationsno longer give out their light;the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,and the moon does not shine.
11. I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin.I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.
12. I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,and people more scarce than gold from Ophir.
13. So I will shake the heavens,and the earth will shake loose from its foundation,because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,in the day he vents his raging anger.